My take on Vulture’s 100 Pop-Culture Things That Make You a Millennial

If you’ve read this blog, you know I love lists!!! Vulture came out with a great list – the 100 pop culture things that make you a millennial. I think there are some great things in there, and their explanations are point on.  What resonated with me the most of this list? I ranked the 10 things of the 100 in their list that I completely agree (and which definitely shaped my pop culture references as a millennial) as well as an explanation of why they impacted me personally

1.  The Little Mermaid and Disney’s Early Nineties Movies To say i was obsessed with Disney’s early nineties movies is an understatement, because I probably still am a bit obsessed, it never died down. I must have watched them hundreds of times, know all the songs, and am still an avid Disney visitor. I think working at Disney when the Little Mermaid was coming out on Broadway was one of those fan girl moments that are hard to replicate!!!
2.  Clueless Clueless was a huge part of my High School experience. I watched this movie many times. We knew the lines, and sadly we also tried to emulate a lot of the outfits. Although only this one was on the list, a lot of the 90s teen comedies should be on this list for me (10 things I hate about you, She’s All that etc. ) . Also how can it not be part of great pop culture references when it mainstreamed the term whatever!
3.  “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
    I lvoed that this song was on the list, because I am absolutely obsessed with it. I love Xmas and Mariah Carey’s album has always been in absolute constant repeat! I loved the version in Love Actually as well, and it is my absolute favorite Xmas carol (as I had already expressed in my Christmas music post!!) I had to link to the video, just because its just too cool 🙂
4.  The Babysitter’s Club books I owned and read every one of the 100+ books. I think they’ew the reason why I’m such an avid reader! The books just got reissued and im so frustrated that i couldn’t get my little cousins exited about this!
5.  Rent I write a lot about Rent in this blog (there a whole post about it coming  ). Needless to say, as a theater lover, the only musical reference in the list would of course be on my personal list. I was obsessed with Rent when it came out. I knew every song and it impacted my love of musicals. I also feel it raised a lot of the social issues of the time in a cool and relevant manner. My sister and I even made a pilgrimage to New York to see it one more time before it closed on Broadway.
6.  Karaoke Another obvious choice, as I love Karaoke!! (this got me thinking, i should do a post on the best karaoke songs of all time — send me your favorites!)
7.  Dawson’s Creek, The O.C.,  Gossip Girl I loved these shows – They established my crappy and soapy  TV tastes :). BTW I never had a team – i could never decided whether I preferred Pacey or Dawson.
8.  Now That’s What I Call Music! These compilations are nostalgia central for me. My own personal memory: my parents would travel to Europe every November and would bring me the Now compilation of latest hits, some of which had not reached Colombia at all yet! I still have these CDs stashed somewhere in my parents house.
9.  Toy story – Another Disney entry on the list. This movie is everything! (all three versions of it!). The only way to improve it is if it had more music, otherwise in my book it has no flaws!
10.  High School Musical Third Disney entry, and of course it comes up in my top 10.  I like what Vulture says that these “movies also straddle the line of being for kids and not being just for kids”. That is totally the case for me. I was definitely not a kid when these came out (as opposed to the nineties Disney animated movies) but I loved them!! It was my absolute guilty pleasure. Working in the stage version of HSM was fabulous for me because I could justify knowing all the songs “for work reasons” where as secretly I knew them by heart because I had the soundtrack!

Other entries that really applied (yet didn’t make my top 10) are:

• The Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack (I must have heard that CD a million times)
• American Idol (it generated my undying love for all reality tv competitions)
• Titanic (I remember watching it opening weekend in the first row and being in complete awe – I probably have watched it more that 5 times!) ,
• Harry Potter (love the books, love the movies and secretly wish I was Hermoine)
• Spice Girls (how can you not love the girl empowerment group that sings Wannabe)
• “I Want It That Way”(my teenage years, and maybe up to this day, were marked by my undying love for all things boy bands!)

What is their full list? Here it is (And check the links above to get the full explanations and slideshows)

• 100. “All I Want For Christmas Is You”
• 99. The Room
• 98. The Fresh Prince theme song
• 97. Punk’d
• 96. Ryan Gosling and “Hey Girl”
• 95. Paris Hilton
• 94. The Illustrations from Scary Stories To Tell in the Dark
• 93. “The Cha-Cha Slide”
• 92. “A million dollars isn’t cool…”
• 91. Matt Damon, ass-kicking everyman
• 90. Clue
• 89. Reader’s Choice
• 88. “It’s Friday, you ain’t got no job, and you aint got shit to do.”
• 87. Call of Duty
• 86. Blink-182
• 85. The Babysitter’s Club books
• 84. Now That’s What I Call Music!
• 83. The Perks of Being a Wallflower
• 82. Wacky Johnny Depp
• 81. Chelsea Handler and Tucker Max
• 80. Ace of Base
• 79. The Star Wars prequels
• 78. High School Musical
• 77. Toy Story
• 76. Janet Jackson’s breast
• 75. “The first rule of Fight Club is…”
• 74. Catfish
• 73. “Gasolina”
• 72. The Royal Tenenbaums
• 71. Guitar Hero/Rock Band
• 70. Mash-ups
• 69. “The Real Slim Shady”
• 68. The Hills
• 67. The baby sounds on Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody?”
• 66. Illuminati theories
• 65. Tracy Flick
• 64. Adult Swim
• 63. The Romeo and Juliet Soundtrack
• 62. Lost in Translation
• 61. “In Da Club”
• 60. Dawson’s Creek
• 59. Will Smith
• 58. The O.C.
• 57. “Umbrella”
• 56. The Kardashians
• 55. Rent
• 54. YOLO
• 53. James Franco
• 52. Jimmy Fallon
• 51. Spice Girls
• 50. “I’m Rick James, Bitch!”
• 49. The Hunger Games
• 48. Dave Matthews Band
• 47. Arrested Development
• 46. The Matrix
• 45. Doug
• 44. The Blair Witch Project
• 43. TRL
• 42. Dubstep
• 41. Karaoke
• 40. Amy Winehouse
• 39. Mr. Feeny
• 38. “I Want It That Way”
• 37. Mean Girls
• 36. American Idol
• 35. The Neptunes
• 34. Garden State
• 33. The Office
• 32. “I’m so excited, I’m so scared.”
• 31. The Little Mermaid
• 30. Taylor Swift
• 29. The Family Guy Chicken Fight
• 28. “Cry Me a River”
• 27. Twilight
• 26. Netflix
• 25. Auto-Tune
• 24. “Milk was a bad choice.”
• 23. Britney Spears and the Snake
• 22. Judd Apatow
• 21. Titanic
• 20. Matt and Trey
• 19. The Rise and Fall of Lindsay Lohan
• 18. “Poker Face”
• 17. Funeral
• 16. TGIF
• 15. The “Single Ladies” dance
• 14. Gossip Girl
• 13. “Since You Been Gone”
• 12. Celebrity couple portmanteau names
• 11. “Hey Ya”
• 10. Christopher Nolan
• 9. “Dick in a Box”
• 8. Harry Potter
• 7. The Onion
• 6. “I’mma Let You Finish”
• 5. “I’m Not Here To Make Friends”
• 4. Tina Fey and Amy Poehler
• 3. “Ignition (Remix)”
• 2. Clueless
• 1. Beyonce and Jay-Z

Readers also posted the 50 things they thought were missing. What do I think was missing? I agree with with the users that say 10 things I Hate about you, and would broaden it to say Julia Stiles movies! Also, more Boy bands as Just the song reference does not do this justice!  Other omissions: the Mickey Mouse Club Members (I remember watching the mickey mouse club, and they became ubiquitous in pop culture: Felicity, Britney, Christina, JT), My So called Life