Karen Booth
Rock ‘n’ Roll High School 41: Wallpaper Courtesy of NKOTB
Author Jennifer Anderson is on deck for RNRHS, to which she says, “Thank you for having me on today. I love these questions! Music. Dancing. Love! Love! Love!” I heartily endorse Jennifer’s use of exclamation points here and below, especially when discussing the finer points of Vanilla Ice and NKOTB. The thing I adore most about her post is the mention of plastering her bedroom walls with photos from teen mags. I was waaaay into those magazines when I was in high school. I saved up babysitting money to buy them. I rubbed the ink from the corners of the pages. I oh-so-carefully went from perforation to perforation to remove the posters. Of course, Duran Duran, played a pivotal role in the creation of my one-of-a-kind wallpaper, but I did allow U2 and The Cure and a bevy of one-hit-wonders to grace the outermost corners of my bedroom.
Jennifer Anderson
Pacific High School, Class of ’95, Go Indians!, Currently: By day, I pretend to know what I’m doing as a medical biller. By afternoon, I dabble in the PR/Marketing industry as a manager for Turquoise Morning Press. By night, I wrap up in a cape and let my fingers do the walking…across my keyboard.
Band and/or song that reminds you the most of high school: To me the 90’s was the rise of rap/hip hop and I luuuuved to shake my groove thang. Six Flags is like 10 minutes from our high school and there was a dance club there for everyone and they played the best music. We’d come off the dance floor soaking wet. But man, we loved it. I would have to say a tie between Vanilla Ice’s “Ice Ice Baby” or Naughty by Nature’s “O.P.P.” Why O.P.P? Yeah, you know me! Actually, we did a dance for cheerleading to it and wore tie dyed shirts with O.P.P puffy painted on our butts!
Favorite piece of music memorabilia (poster, t-shirt, etc.) in high school: Bopp Magazine was way huge and I couldn’t get enough. My walls were plastered with pictures of NKOTB during my freshman year. Then they died out a bit and so did my need to put up posters. But not my taste in music. I loved it all. Metal, rap, rock, R&B. My favorite CD case was of Aerosmith. You know the one. With cow utters on the front. A close second would be Stone Temple Pilots. I still have both CDs.
Band that you hated that everyone else at school seemed to love: I loved all types of music but if I had to pick one group that I didn’t like it would have to be Guns & Roses. Don’t get me wrong, I can belt out “November Rain” likes there’s no tomorrow but Axel’s personality is what did me in. Plus, he got into a fight with a fan in St. Louis and well…no one really liked him after that.
Best show or concert you saw in high school: Stone Temple Pilots, hands down. I was going into my senior year of high school; dating an older bad boy and rode to the concert in the back of a pick-up truck. The haze from people lighting up during the concert was so thick, you could choke.
Optional bonus question: Best high school make-out song: Nine Inch Nails “Closer” ( I have to give credit my husband. He helped me think of it. Oh yeah, we’re high school sweethearts!)
Jennifer is the author of “Knight in Armor”, a sweet romance in the Men In Uniform Anthology released by Turquoise Morning Press. Her debut YA novel Ice Princess is due in April 2012. You can learn more about Jennifer at jenandersonauthor.com
Hi Jennifer & Karen,
I have to agree with you about Guns & Roses, although I saw them live at the American Music Awards and they were pretty awesome.
Such a FUN! interview. OMG those highschool days and cheerleading and concerts…I’m smiling just thinking of it and yeah O.P.P Was HUGE for me those years too and I still bust out the Vanilla Ice when my 8 year old needs a little reminder on how dope his moms is 🙂
*sigh* There are days when I feel old – and this is one of them. I had to ask my kids who NKOTB were.
Shall climb back into my pre disco daze and listen to CCR and BTO.
Ugh! Vanilla Ice was the bane of my existence. I’m old, and therefore a fan of both Queen and David Bowie. Under Pressure is one of the best songs ever, and that ‘Ice, Ice, baby’…Grrrr.
Anyhoo – I’ll be over here in the corner with Madison, CCR, and BTO. Perhaps we’ll throw in a little ELO for good measure.
I’m with you Margaret on the Vanilla Ice/David Bowie discussion.
Madison and Margaret, you are too funny. I am a lover of Bowie and Queen as well, but my years in HS were full of hip hop. Anything I can shake my money maker to I’m in!
Puffy Paint on the butt. That sums up Pacific High in the mid 90s pretty darn well! Congratulations!
Haha! I’m laughing because just the other day 3 of us at work that sit very close (open cubicles small enough to be a desk in a school!) were discussing NKOTB, Timmy T and Tommy Page. Re-living our teenage hormones LOL!!!
LOL! What a fun interview. I feel old just thinking of someone graduating high school in the 90’s, but I was still young enough at that time to enjoy “Ice Ice Baby”.