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news-mashable-yahoopartner-blog · 5 years

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How SparkNotes' social media accounts mastered the art of meme-ing literature

Most millennials know SparkNotes as the ultimate no-nonsense study buddy, but today’s students not only receive help with schoolwork from the website, they get high-quality entertainment, too.

SparkNotes remains a crucial tool for text comprehension — full of study guides and supplemental resources on english literature, philosophy, poetry, and more. But over the past two years it’s also become a source of some of the internet’s most quick-witted, thought-provoking, and ambitious memes.

SparkNotes' Twitter and Instagram accounts have carved a unique niche for themselves online by posting literary memes that find perfect parallels between classic works like Macbeth, The Great Gatsby, Lord of the Flies, and Frankenstein, and present-day pop culture favorites like The Office, Parks and Rec, and more.

It may come as a surprise to those who once frequented the site for the sole purpose of better understanding Shakespeare plays before a final exam or catching up on assigned chapters of The Catcher in the Rye before the bell rang, but SparkNotes is cool now, and absolutely killing the social media game.

SEE ALSO: The magic of Book Fairies

As someone who spends the majority of her workday on the internet and splits her leisure time almost exclusively between reading books and re-watching episodes of The Office, I fell in love with the account's near-perfect meme execution after mere minutes of scrolling through posts.

In a world with so many bad brand tweets and tone-deaf memes, I felt compelled to seek out the well-read meme masters behind SparkNotes' social media to learn how it is they manage to make each and every post so good.

How SparkNotes' social media became LIT ✨📚

Chelsea Aaron, a 31-year-old senior editor for SparkNotes, is a huge part of the success. She started managing the site's Instagram in September 2017, and her meme approach has helped the account grow from 5,000 to 134,000 followers.

"When I first started managing the account, I tried a bunch of different things," Aaron explained in an email. "I ran illustrations and original content from our blog, and I also borrowed memes from our Twitter ... The memes seemed to get the most likes, so I started making and posting those on a regular basis, and now I try to do four to five per week."

Image: screengrab / Instagram

Aaron discovered the account's recipe for success by not only making memes about some of SparkNotes' most popular, highly searched guides — which include Shakespeare's plays, The Great Gatsby, and Pride and Prejudice — but by mashing them together with a few modern television shows that she's personally passionate about, such as The Office, Parks and Rec, Arrested Development, and John Mulaney's comedy specials. She's also known for hilariously retelling entire works (SparkNotes style, so, abridged versions) using the account's Highlight feature.

Image: screengrab / instagram

The brilliantly sharp, comical posts seem effortless, but Aaron explained the process takes some serious concentration. Essentially, she stares at a large collection of collected screenshots "in a state of panic" until an idea strikes. "It's wildly inefficient and incredibly stressful, but I haven't figured out another way to do it," she admitted.

Luckily, Aaron always has the SparkNotes Twitter account to turn to for inspiration, which is managed by Courtney Gorter, a 26-year-old consulting writer for SparkNotes who Aaron calls "a comedic genius."

Gorter has been managing the Twitter account for about a year and a half now, and joined the SparkNotes team because she utilized its resources growing up and wanted to help "make classic literature feel accessible" to others.

"I wanted this stuff to seem slightly more fun (or, at the very least, less intimidating) to the average stressed-out student who's just trying to read fifty pages by tomorrow and also has a quiz on Friday," she said. The memes definitely help her achieve that goal.

Scrolling through the SparkNotes Instagram account, you notice it generally uses a recurring but reliably satisfying meme format. Most of the posts consist of a white block filled with introductory text and a screenshot from a television show, like so.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by SparkNotes Official (@sparknotes_) on Apr 16, 2019 at 10:25am PDT

Gorter, on the other hand, ensures the Twitter account showcases a far more widespread representation of the internet. She posts everything from out-of-context screenshots, GIFs, and videos, to altered headlines from The Onion and trending meme formats of the moment, like "in this house" memes, "nobody vs me" memes, and more. The account is full of variety and gloriously unpredictable.

Hades: Orpheus I’ll let you bring your wife back from the Underworld, but if you turn and look behind you she’ll be lost to you forever. Orpheus: pic.twitter.com/FWD9P2nO0m

— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) April 16, 2019

Normal heart rate: /\⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ /\ _ / \ __/\__ / \ _ \/⠀ ⠀ ⠀ ⠀ \/ The old man you just killed, whose heart lies hidden beneath the floorboards yet continues to beat: ⠀/\⠀ /\⠀ /\ _/ \ /\_/ \ /\_/ \ /\_ ⠀ \/⠀⠀ \/⠀⠀ \/

— SparkNotes (@SparkNotes) April 12, 2019

Gorter, who describes herself as "constantly on the internet" feels a lot of her ideas are the result of "cultural osmosis ... our collective tendency to consume references and jokes without realizing it just by being on the internet a lot."

"Sometimes I’ll be reading a book, and I’ll remember a joke I saw earlier that fits. Sometimes a new meme format will crop up over the weekend, and I’ll think, 'That could work for Macbeth,'" she said.

Though the two accounts are clearly distinct from one another, they both give off the same hip English teacher energy and running them has become a truly collaborative effort. "I constantly send her [Gorter] emails asking stuff like, 'Can I still say 'big mood' or is that over?' and 'What's the deal with this whole 'wired vs tired' thing?'" Aaron said.

Together, the two women spend their days discussing iconic works of literature, making pop culture references, and keeping up with the latest memes. (A dream job.) Their separate styles fuse together to make each other's posts the best they can be.

The meme approach works wonders

One might not initially think that Boo Radley and John Mulaney have much in common, or that Michael Scott could effortlessly embody Romeo, Julius Caesar, and Holden Caulfield if you simply alter your perspective. I certainly did not.

But Aaron and Gorter's work will convince you. Once you start merging the worlds of classic literature and modern television series, you won't want to stop.

The SparkNotes instagram is my favorite thing pic.twitter.com/FCc6sXjJly

— Jessie Martin (@jessie_martin97) March 29, 2019

Fun fact, the official Sparknotes Instagram account is probably the best one: pic.twitter.com/sIR6tsw7ZP

— Tommy (@tommy_jacobs92) February 28, 2019

When describing why the posts work so well, Aaron explained that Hamlet, Mr. Darcy, and Gatsby — three of her favorite characters to meme — have super relatable personalities, which makes the process so simple.

"They're dramatic, and awkward, and obsessive, which makes them identical to about 97% of the people on The Office," she said. "I've learned that you can use Michael Scott as a stand-in for pretty much any classic lit character, and it isn't even hard. (That's what she said)."

What wow the @SparkNotes Twitter is extremely good???? It all appears to be this good!!! https://t.co/PyEqTdQ3Ly

— Rachel Kelly 🥛 (@wholemilk) May 2, 2019

Why is @SparkNotes's Twitter so good it has no right to be this good https://t.co/eFBQpLMpe3

— Kelsey [Version 2019.05] (@flusteredkels) May 2, 2019

Gorter thinks the accounts are so appealing because they create a deep sense of community — an online space that isn't so isolating, rather a place where where bibliophiles, television enthusiasts, and meme lovers can all come together and geek the hell out. There's really something for everyone.

"When Steve Rogers said, 'I understood that reference,' I felt that deeply. I think people enjoy being in on a joke, especially when the source material (classic literature, for instance) isn’t particularly hilarious," Gorter said. "There’s a delicious juxtaposition there. I know that I personally get a secret little thrill when I understand something as contextually layered as a really niche meme, and a slight sense of frustration when I don’t."

Engaging followers and changing with the times

SparkNotes as a whole has come a long way since it was launched as TheSpark.com by a group of Harvard students in 1999.

What started out as a budding web-based dating service quickly transformed into a trusted library of online study materials, and over the years, as the publishing industry, technology, and the internet evolved, so did SparkNotes.

Like the social media accounts, SparkNotes' SparkLife blog — full of quizzes, artwork, rankings, advice, and trendy posts like "How To Break Up With Someone, According To Shakespeare" and "Snapchats From Every Literary Movement" — perfectly encapsulates the site's commitment to catering to its audience.

Whoever runs the Sparknotes twitter and Instagram pages deserves a raise

— louise🌻 (@_Fallxn_) February 21, 2019

SparkNotes does a remarkable job of shifting with the times to stay relevant and interesting in the eyes of its readers — and the quest to balance fun and education really seems to be paying off. Recently, the Instagram account tested out a post that called upon students and teachers to request custom-made memes by reaching out via email with the title of a book or subject they want meme'd, along with a message for the intended recipient.

"The response was amazing!" Aaron said. "We got almost 250 emails, and it's so great to see the genuine affection and admiration that teachers have for their students, and vice versa."

Thanks to the social media accounts, SparkNotes is not only helping students learn, but helping entire classrooms bond with their teachers. (And hopefully teaching educators who follow a thing or two about good memes.)

Print isn't dead, it's just getting some help from the internet

Aaron and Gorter are having a blast running the accounts, but ultimately, they hope their lighthearted posts will inspire people to pick up a book and read.

"I hope what our followers take away from this is that classic literature doesn’t have to be totally dry," Gorter said. "If our memes encourage our followers to engage with classic literature and be excited about reading, that's so rewarding," Aaron added.

The present-day approach to selling classic literature is undeniably unconventional, and the crossovers are absurdly ambitious, but they work so damn well. What's great about the memes is they're created in a way that doesn't diminish the literature plots, because in reality, one would have to have such a comprehensive understanding of the text to make such good jokes.

The memes are actually pretty high-brow when you think about it, sure to delight intellectuals with great taste in pop culture. I have no idea how the legendary writers would feel about their greatest works getting the meme treatment, but people online are definitely loving it.

It's refreshing to see a brand account succeed at such a genuinely funny level, but perhaps even nicer to see it thriving off of wholesome content that doesn't drag other accounts or get its laughs at the expense of tearing others down, as we've seen accounts do in the past.

SparkNotes social media accounts are genuinely just nice corners of the internet dedicated to making people laugh and hopefully igniting a love of literature.

WATCH: Steve Carell to reunite with 'The Office' creator for Netflix's 'Space Force'

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moonshugar · 7 years

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steemit beta | fbianon Sign Up Login Submit a Story new hot trending promoted Fbi anon returns to 4chan 14 days ago ausbitbank70 in fbianon The original FBIANON that gave a lot of good information months ago has returned. The information given in his last appearance, turned out to be legit and showed geniune inside knowledge of the Clinton investigation and a coup within the intelligence community. Hopefully this will be the same. I'll try to capture all of the relevant info here in this format : Question (from other 4chan users) Answer (from FBIANON) Original Post by Anonymous (ID: qxwGMxKu) 02/16/17(Thu)11:20:04 No.112808283 News from the inside: The shadow government is real. There are some good people on the inside. Vault 7 refers to the FBI data vault containing information about the 7th floor group. This data vault is currently only accessible via direct personal access. It is literally a server room in a bomb/electromagnetic proof vault with zero outside access connections. Global elites, The Bilderberg group, Zionist Elders, corporate entities, and banking entities comprise the bulk of the middle echelon. It is estimated that there are approximately 7 supervisor entities that pull the strings of the middle henchmen. We believe one is dead and two others have not been heard from since the election of Donald Trump. They have gained control of the intelligence organizations, the media, and some politicians. If they wage war on Trump then they wage war on the people. You must start fighting. This is a cyber war and an information war. There are no rules. There is no parley. There are no prisoners. There are no innocents. Win at all costs. How'd wikileaks get airgapped materials? There are some good people on the inside. Do you have a single fact to back this up? Not a one I'd never be involved in something like that~ Keep your eyes on the data dump sites. I presume things will tart to appear once it's scrubbed and verified. (as best as possible) Save it. Put it on a thumb drive. Things are going to get crazy soon. Is the server in Antarctica OP? It's in the Rockies. Colorado area. Trump is literally a kike-loving Zionist but are the Zionists trump-loving? Of course they aren't. Please don't be that dense. Backstabbing is what they do best. Simply look into Zionist dealings with Hitler or JFK. Hitler's gave them Israel. JFK's gave them nuclear weapons. What's next on the platter I wonder? Hint: It involves Russia. Vault 7 refers to the FBI data vault containing information about the 7th floor group Then why did Julian Assange show a picture of the actual Vault 7, which is a seed vault? Because sometimes things are to be inferred instead of taken literally. like what's going to happen? Civil war? give us something concrete that happens on a specific day If the plans of the shadow government come to fruition: World War with Russia. It's being pushed very hard right now and they are trying to make Trump the Martyr. If Clinton had won it would have been a smooth transition. The initial plan was: Escalation of civil disorder Gradual disarmament of civilians Displacement of existing civilian populations Bogeyman Russian War. Divorce of the US and it's government Deployment of Continuity of Government under benevolent guile Revocation of rights and freedoms for the "good of the nation" Conquest. that seems a little far fetched You're probably thinking too short term. This is maybe a one or two steps per generation thing, but it's been going on since Bill's first term. Bill's reward: favorable economics during his servitude to the beast. Trump really messed things up for them, big league. 1) what did he mean by this? (Mr. McCullough testifying before Judiciary Committee) watch webm 2) what about depopulation, was that really part of the plan? Nice catch. You're very clever. ORCON mostly, plus see 1) The world war is the depopulation program. Look at how many people died in WWII. Now with the technology we have today, the death toll would be immensely more. How do they do hvac inside a sealed vault? The servers would overheat. The room under it handles cooling. The server vault is in a mil base in the Colorado Rocky Mountains. It's underground. Then again I don't recall saying it was air tight, but it does use positive pressure filtration I guess so it's semi air tight. A lot of your are really over thinking this server room thing. It's an archive room with a server in it. One server and a few terminals. All of the data is dead (unpowered) until a request is made to move it. This makes the information impossible to access. The only active system is one hard drive that is an indexer. You use the index to find the blade. it's then retrieved and you access it. Got any thoughts on the Federal Reserve and Trump? Fed reserve has been laying low and saying nothing. They are part of the banking entities I mentioned in the OP. Trump stumbled into this hornet's nest with good intentions and ambition to help people. He honestly loves the US with an intense passion. I presume he's feeling pretty lonely as an outsider. Which is why he's been quieter than usual lately. Is it, by any chance, the underground Cheyenne Mountain complex? aka NORAD? Bingo The question is: who is using the other 70% of floor space, and who is the other 95% of staff? It's not quite like that. It's CoG run amok though. They operate within the open government because of all the compartmentalization. The good guys do the shadow government dirty work without even realizing it. They've gotten very sloppy because of trump and it's starting to come undone. This is why everything seems to be escalating so rapidly. They're trying to rush to the finish line. By finish line, you mean the next step of their plan--war with Russia? Yes, that is the pivotal event. If that can happen so can the rest of the plan for conquest. The depopulation plan is much more sophisticated than this and the only reason it hasn't been carried out is because the tech isn't complete for it yet. You jump to conclusions. World War does not mean nuclear war. Also nuclear arsenals today are less destructive but far more immediately lethal than depicted by the media. They are basically high altitude gamma ray bursts and nothing like the bombs dropped on japan. Those are considered primitive now. You are, at best, very compartmentalized. True. I only see the tip of the iceberg. Red Box Class III G. mil guys will know what that means. Could you give us the geocache on the location of the military base in Colorado and I'll check it out? Secondly, how do you propose we fight back? 38.73309130062022,-104.84680652574752 Fight the media with the truth. They are using techniques to break morale. In other words turn the red pill dial to 11. It's going to be hard. They literally have infinite money, not to mention government sanctioned drug running, arms dealing, and human trafficking. They're taking advantage of the same disenfranchisement that led to Trump's victory to promote violent protests. Thank god lefty protests are weak as fuck, but I'm genuinely worried about the first days of right wing riots. You know Damn well its going to be brutal. All Mil and most of DoJ(mostly FBI) is on Trumps side CIA NSA are severely compromised due to the Bushes. CIA Especially because of Bush Sr. NSA should simply be considered Domestic CIA Clinton, tried to take hold of FBI through Obama but it was thwarted. Comey is out for her blood believe it or not. You mean it's a meme war /pol/'s anti-propaganda is strong. Your intel is good. You know stuff before most of us do. People have been taking interest in you. Some good some bad. It's a unique delivery method of information and it works. People are listening. "Red Box Class III G. mil guys will know what that means." I don't recognize this at all, at best it sounds like some kind of AIT-related weeb reference that only a specific MOS would understand, which really limits the number of people. And considering my background, that means you weren't Army and if you were, this is a reference from Ft. Meade and not Ft. Huachuca sections of AIT. It's a SAP class. I only expected you to understand red box. But you're a quick thinker. I like that. Was Fbi anon legit? If so did that cause a stir? FBI anon is legit. Yes that's present tense. Are there /pol/acks on the inside? A lot. How does the Coup in turkey play into this Turkish Coup was Iranian in origin. Meant to fail. You did notice how cleanly it all happened? Right? The deeper point is that Trump was blustering about all this, you could say they are on the same side if you stop pretending Trump is on your side, but they are most definitely not on the side of the public Trump persona Check the news. 12D Chess. One step back two forward. OP-do you know if/when Wikileaks will release Vault7 info? Or are they trying to push some coalition inside the U.S. to do it? No idea. It's being scrubbed internally. I have no information about their operations nor they ours and that's how we stay on good terms. 7 Supervisor Entities? Are these people, groups, or.... They are people. One is dead. They died about 1 year ago. Powerful but almost never heard of. 2 are silent as far as we can tell. Here's a nugget of intel: Numbers stations are still used by these people. want to elaborate on Soros and Ukraine? I'm not privy on that one but There was a large "exchange" relating to some natural resources in Crimea. Putin said "Nope" because of the involved parties. Put a big damper on the pipeline plans. Made many "investors" upset. Now they want to have a war. Is Dave Flinstone in Hawaii in a NOC? Can you shed any light on this? It's somewhat urgent... Cheesybay/Hawaii pizzagate compilation I'll tell you about Comet when it's over ;-) We heard yesterday that Trump has JSOC locked down. True? Nope The data on hard drives degrade over time , especially when powered down -> due to random electromagnetic noise you will get bits that flip over time and will corrupt data and make it useless -> you cannot simply 'store data dead until a request is made to move it' unless you store it on TAPE -> just ask google. Microfiche, and that isn't stored here. I'm pretty sure it gets put in some warehouse similar to the on at the end of the Indiana Jones movie. I'm serious. I think you are misunderstanding the purpose of this room. It's for active orders and intel. Not long term storage. So what's the upshot of all this. You're telling us to redpill people and not giving us anything to go off of. The stuff we know everyone already knows but is too afraid to say. Give us something real. Motivation to keep doing what you're doing. It's working and it's helping. Sure there is a lot of banter, but that makes work productive. Because of your diverse origins and semi anonymity, you've become this chaotic nexus of intel and truth. Keep finding dirt on these people spreading it through your alternative media sources and we will follow leads. If there is enough credible evidence we'll nab them. More like JFK did everything he could to prevent them from getting nukes and then was killed for it. If you're a spook you must not be the sharpest tack in the office. Hitler died fighting them when they changed the agreement for a better offer https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haavara_Agreement JFK was killed for attempting to stop them from developing nuclear weapons. http://mondoweiss.net/2015/07/president-inspections-facility/ This is all basic information Pic related? Any chance of an intentional recession to make Trump look bad or strain American politics? It's definitely something the Fed and friends can do. Yes there is a chance. But Hillary was a sure thing and pre-election investment momentum is barreling forward. They can't all pull out at the same time or it looks like a red flag. Watch investment trending. Find the bots that monitor trade volumes. What was the No. 1 threat that Obama and Trump keep referring to that Trump keeps repeating he was surprised about? Russia? Pakistan? Israel? I've heard the pakis keep their nukes on moving convoys.. Chinese nuke subs in the Pacific How fake is climate change? Real but not from people. Ice and tectonic subduction zones releasing CO2 I'll keep an eye out for future replies and update as new information surfaces. I'm hoping that this recent batch of layoffs on floor 7 is another sign of major changes happening right now. What do you think ? Let me know in the comments ! Lets connect ! steemit / twitter / gab.ai / keybase I also made : steemviz / steemvids / steemcap / steemleak / promo fbianon pizzagate pedogate fbi 14 days ago by ausbitbank70$55.68 230 votes Reply 35 13587

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leighkhoopes · 7 years

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The first big meme of 2017 has arrived and it's List the Top 10 Albums That Influenced You As A Teenager. This was an almost impossible selection for me, so I gave myself some additional ground rules: these albums all came out when I was an actual teenager (13-19, to be precise) and I promptly wore them out something serious. These are also albums that I continue to listen to and enjoy to this day. I also took the *complete* album into consideration—almost all of these are total listen-throughs for me, even though there may be some other songs and singles that had more of an impact on my impressionable teenage brain.

So, here's the list, how old I was when they came out, and some thoughts, in no particular order:

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Sleater-Kinney - One Beat (2002) I was: 17, in between high school and college This was the first SK album I ever bought, and I'm not ashamed to admit that. It was on one of those listening stations at the local music store (RIP ear-x-tacy) and the opener with its urgent drums, spindly guitars and fantastic vocals and harmonies drew me in immediately. Apparently One Beat was their "political" album and that makes sense, but the infectiously jangly "Oh!" remains one of my all-time favorite songs to this day, and though I've listened to the rest of their catalogue, One Beat remains my favorite to this day.

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Christina Aguilera - Stripped (2002) I was: 18, college freshman Fun fact: I was one of those angsty teens who mocked pop music while hiding my secret shame at loving every bubblegum beat and boy band dance jam. When you're a teenager, you have to keep up appearances—I knew I wasn't one of the popular types, so I tried to be a "rock" kid and turned up my nose at what turned out to be some really great songs. My dear Ms. Aguilera changed all of that for me. I had already loved her first singles (You cannot deny "Genie in a Bottle," so don't even try) and her complete ownage of "Lady Marmalade" for the Moulin Rouge soundtrack, so when Stripped came out in all its sexual and bold yet vulnerable and honest glory, I found the soundtrack to the twilight of my teenage years. Everyone knows about "Dirrty," "Beautiful," "Can't Hold Us Down," and "Fighter," but have you heard the soft sensuality of "Lovin' Me for Me"? What about the deep piano soul of "Underappreciated"? This album is packed with both gems and jams, and remains relevant to this very day.

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Eve - Scorpion (2001) I was: 16, high school junior I came late to the rap game, since I wasn’t allowed to buy CDs with parental advisory stickers until my senior year of high school, so I've made a lot of progress, but I didn't get the kind of hip-hop education most of my friends have besides what made it onto the radio at the time. This was post-Tupac/Biggie but pre-50 Cent, and the airwaves were mostly dominated by the aforementioned pop and its bad cousin pop-punk. So when Eve's basically flawless "Let Me Blow Ya Mind" featuring Gwen Stefani's damn near perfect hook and what I would learn is a quintessentially Dr. Dre beat dropped, all slinky and sexy and sassy, I was beyond obsessed. The rest of the album is on point, too: "Who's That Girl?" became an anthem for me because I could easily sing back "LEIGH's that girl!" (la la la-la, la la la-la); "Gangsta Bitch" was a sick collab with Trina and Da Brat; and "Got What You Need" is a great call-and-response banger courtesy of Swizz Beats and some other lesser Ruff Ryders rapper who is probably mad that Eve destroyed him on this track and probably in real life as well.

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The Kills - Keep on Your Mean Side (2003) I was: 19, college sophomore Somehow I got this CD for Christmas? I don’t remember how or where I heard about it, but this album for me is the perfect combination of sexy and scuzzy with raw guitars and sparse, swampy beats and endless, unbearable chemistry between VV (Allison Mosshart) and Hotel (Jamie Hince) that continues to this day. Fifteen years, four albums, and multiple side projects (and one very high-profile marriage and divorce) later, and I am one of those fans who firmly stans for them to live happily ever after in musical harmony and continuing rock n’ roll cuteness. They’re just SO PERFECT TOGETHER, OKAY? Anyway, this album is great, and you should listen to it if you haven’t already.

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Yeah Yeah Yeahs (2001) I was: 16, soon-to-be high school senior If I had to pick ONE album that was the most influential to me of all of these, it would be Yeah Yeah Yeahs’ seminal self-titled EP. It dropped right before my senior year of high school, when I was finally starting to figure myself out a little bit and realizing that I liked loud music by loud ladies that I could dance to and scream along to, regardless of genre or format. The Strokes, The Hives, The White Stripes, and all their ilk were kicking off a new rock revolution, but there were so few ladies out there making as much noise as I needed them to. Karen O was not a great singer, but the way she whispered and groaned and wailed over the wall of sound that Nick and Brian created with just a guitar and a drumset was revelatory to me, especially after I got to see them live a few years later, smushed up against the stage at the Southgate House and rapt as the speakers pounded in my chest and Karen sprayed beer and spit on all of us, and she leaned down at the beginning of “Our Time” at the end of their set, when I was exhausted and enthralled, put the mic in front my face and together we crooned “To break on through-ooh!” YYYs continued to put out some great music and evolve their sound not-so-greatly in the following years (sorry, y’all, but Mosquito was not good), but nothing seared itself so firmly on my psyche as Karen and me covered in sweat, singing what should have been an anthem for the pre-1990 Millennials: “It’s the year to be hated / so glad that we made it.” If that doesn’t sum up everything everyone’s ever said about those of us born between 1980 and 1999, I don’t know what does.

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Daft Punk - Discovery (2001) I was: 16, high school junior If there’s another album I had to name as one of my top all-timers, completely different but still equally influential, it’s Daft Punk’s Discovery. Daft Punk allowed me to embrace my love of dance and electronic music, and built a perfect unifying force among me and my friends, providing that anthem we’d been waiting for with “One More Time,” a song that still fills me with joy every time those first few beats fade in and I can’t help but smile when it drops and that surprisingly, beautifully warm vocoder voice comes in over the spaces between. The rest of the album is literally iconic as well, and really cemented Daft Punk as the arbiters of dance parties for everyone, all-inclusive, delirious and endlessly entertaining and ultimately joyful.

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Le Tigre (1999) I was: 15, high school sophomore I’ll admit it: I missed the Riot Grrl movement by several years, so Kathleen Hanna and Le Tigre were a new experience for me. I loved the edge and the anger in her voice, the fuzzy throwback sound and sampling that made it seem like something I could do if I just tried harder and wasn’t so shy and scared to raise a ruckus and my voice. One thing I’ve noticed about so many of these albums and groups is that I really liked stripped-down music with big sounds created by small groups of people: duos and trios make up the bulk of my favorite albums during this era. I got to see them live as well, when JD Sampson joined the lineup and became my introduction to confusingly, distractingly sexy nonbinary people, and it was at the height of the Bush era, in the middle of my college years, and while I didn’t feel the exhilaration of singing with Karen O, I felt the freedom of dancing my ass off and screaming until my lungs my ached, unafraid of who I might bump into with my unruly booty, unafraid of who I might offend with my burgeoning baby feminism. I was sad when they stopped recording and disappointed at their recent lackluster Hillary Clinton track near the end of the election cycle, but I’ve loved the resurgence of The Julie Ruin and the ongoing reinvention and determination Hanna continues to project in the face of so much bullshittery that permeates our world and culture today.

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The Mars Volta - De-Loused in the Comatorium (2003) I was: 19, college sophomore At the Drive-In was another band I missed out on the first time around, but The Mars Volta popped up in my circles of smartass potheads once I started to find my tiny tribe of people in the rural Kentucky college town in which I lived for four years. I’ve always loved a man unafraid to belt out an anthem, and Cedric Bixler-Zavala golden throat soared over Omar Rodruigez-Lopez’s prog-rock symphonies and movements, and it sounded just as good when I was stone cold sober as when I was self-medicating in the name of social acceptance and anxiety avoidance. I will forever associate them with giant spliffs and endless laughter, letting the discordant sounds wash over me and and Cedric’s voice burn through me, as well as making myself a zombie prom queen Halloween costume under a waxing moon after a bad breakup, working some kind of dark magic to transform myself into someone no one would recognize, even if only for a night. There was always a sadness that permeated these songs, something that got lost in their later, more esoteric albums I could never get into, and there was something on this album that made me feel okay with being sad, allowing myself to feel my feelings that I tried to keep hidden for far too long.

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Ludacris - Back for the First Time (2000) I was: 16, high school junior Again, the most rap I had ever really listened to before high school was MC Hammer and Will Smith’s squeaky clean radio-rap, so Luda’s debut was a major eye-opener for overly-sheltered white suburban me. "What's Your Fantasy" and "Phat Rabbit" were titillating, sure, but also fantastic rhymes and beats, and "Stick 'Em Up Bitch" and "1st & 10" were darkly hilarious under their gangsta veneers. "Southern Hospitality" brought bravado to what could have just been another Neptunes beat, and throughout it all, Luda's flow was so sick and smooth, so full of wit and wordplay and unashamed sexuality, and I loved to blare it driving through my parents’ neighborhood, even after the speakers in my car blew out and sounded like nothing but surly vibrations as I dawdled on my way home for my 11pm curfew. If I had to come in at what I considered an unfair, oppressive time, I was going to wake up everyone else in the process. Yes, I was a not-so-secret dick when I was a teenager–weren’t we all? Side note: I'm kind of sad Shawnna never made it all that big, and this video is the absolute perfect time capsule of the year 2000.

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Peaches - The Teaches of Peaches (2000) I was: 16, high school senior I’ll also admit this: I fucking loved “electroclash.” That amalgamation of punk and dance music was everything to me, the perfect blend of rock guitars and big beats that enmeshed everything teenage me loved about being loud and dancing like everyone was watching and not giving a fuck either way. Peaches was gross and vulgar and rapped about sex with no emotion but pleasure, and she got even dirtier as the years went on, but The Teaches of Peaches was seminal and shocking and just the kind of thing a slightly crazed and endlessly awkward, horny teenage girl needed to hear to start embracing my own weird sexuality and rampaging hormones and confused feelings, instead of keeping them locked away and shameful like I was supposed to. Everyone knows and loves "Fuck the Pain Away," thanks to its cameo appearances in Lost in Translation and the Jackass movies, but "Lovertits" was always my personal favorite from this album. The moment that breakdown takes over is pure brilliance and one of my favorite moments in any song ever. Peaches dancing in front of the mirror in this video is teenage me, always and forever, singing to myself when no one was looking and finally finding away to sing to myself in public, out loud, and not caring who heard me. I'm still working on it, but I think these albums did a lot to push me in the direction I've gone and to get me where I am now as a feminist and a lover of music and dance parties for life.

Honorable Mentions:

Beck - Midnite Vultures (1999)

No Doubt - Return of Saturn (2000)

Madonna - Ray of Light (1998)

The Strokes - Is This It (2001)

N.E.R.D. - In Search Of... (2001)

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