Things That Make You Go Hmmm: The '90s Music Party Game
by
Martin Joseph Quinn
Copyright 2015 Martin Joseph Quinn,
All rights reserved.
Published in eBook format by eBookIt.com
ISBN-13: 978-1-4566-2602-0
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means including information storage and retrieval systems, without permission in writing from the author. The only exception is by a reviewer, who may quote short excerpts in a review.
INTRODUCTION
I’m not sure how history is going to look back on the musical decade that spawned “Macarena”, “2 Legit 2 Quit”, and “Said I Loved You… But I Lied”, but hopefully 500 years from now, it’ll be remembered for the following:
•The grunge movement is mocked now for the flannel fashion and mopey vibe, but bands like Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Mudhoney and Alice In Chains kicked tired hair bands to the curb, wrote some of the best lyrics and riffs rock has ever seen, and paved the way for bands outside the mainstream to gain popularity.
•So many kinds of music of myriad quality fell under the media-created moniker “alternative music” during the ‘90s – like pensive Elliot Smith, intelligent popsmiths Pulp, post-grunge fluffy Bush and symphonic Spiritualized. But the bottom line was that more than ever, albums and songs not geared for traditional radio formats were able to find an audience due to Spin Magazine, shows like MTV’s 120 Minutes, the popularity of college radio, and record labels big and small.
•Rave culture and dance music exploded in so many different directions. Big beat, jungle, techno, trip hop, ambient, acid jazz, hardcore, garage, Italo house, Hi-NRG, trance – each subgenre spawned a huge following and laid the foundation for the worldwide explosion of beats and DJs over the next couple of decades.
•Hip hop survived mass consumption and produced some of the best music ever made. Tribe Called Quest, Jay-Z, Nas, Outkast and scores of others changed the way people think about beats, music, and life. And Tupac and Biggie are missed more every day.
•All this evolution and creativity influenced pop music purveyors. Timbaland and Missy would’ve sounded different if they never went to a techno club, and Madonna’s career may have been “Frozen” without the input of people like techno god William Orbit.
•Bubblegum pop ruled the world and was too much fun. When you’re 75, you’ll still be singing “Baby One More Time” and “MMMBop” through false teeth.
As I wrote this book, I rediscovered so many forgotten songs and artists and learned about new ones. My hope is that you do the same while playing the game. Have fun!
Martin Joseph Quinn
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Martin Joseph Quinn is the author of Don’t Dream It’s Over: The ‘80s Music Party Game and Queer New York City, a gay travel guide. He’s been published in various fanzines, magazines and periodicals of questionable repute. Currently he works for a major book publisher and also DJs once a month at a club on Christopher St. in NYC.
During the ‘90s he worked for the Virgin Megastores in many capacities. His favorite ‘90s artists are Juliana Hatfield, PJ Harvey, Liz Phair, Notorious B.I.G., and Tribe Called Quest. And when “Spice Up Your Life” comes on the radio, he loses control.
RULES
OBJECT: to score the most points by answering the most questions.
For one to a hundred players. Just as fun in the backseat on a long road trip as it is at an ‘80s-themed party on a Friday night.
HOW TO PLAY
1. If more than two people are playing, divide the participants into two teams – say, Team Brandy and Team Monica.
2. Before you begin, designate one person on each team as “the reader” and one person as “the writer.” Don’t worry – both reader and writer get to play like everyone else.
3. Choose who goes first. Borrow a die from another game and roll it, or flip a coin, or thumb wrestle, or have a contest to see who can sing the first verse of “I Will Always Love You” the best.
4. Let’s say Team Brandy goes first. The Team Monica “reader” reads the first question, waits for Team Brandy to answer, the the Team Monica “writer” records their answer. Do this for all 10 questions on the first page. Allow each team to deliberate before coming up with their final answer, but you don’t have all day so feel free to egg them on after a while.
5. After Team Brandy answers all 10 questions, the Team Monica reader turns the page, reads the answers, and the Team Monica writer checks which ones they got right and tallies up the points. There are point values assigned for each question – the first two questions are worth 1 point, the second two are worth 2 points, and so on up to 5 points. The higher the point value the harder the question. There are occasional bonus questions throughout the book – they are always worth two points.
6. Now switch teams and repeat the process.
7. Keep going until each team completes the quiz set (100 total questions, 50 per team). The team with the highest score wins and gets to do a ‘90s victory dance (Macarena, Hammer dance, etc.)
VARIATIONS ON THE GAME
The “Freshmen” version. If the people playing know some, but not a lot of trivia, stick to the 1, 2 and 3 point questions on each page.
The “No Scrubs” version. If the players really know their stuff, stick to the 3, 4 and 5 point questions on each page.
The “It’s All About Me” version. No teams – each person individually answers 20 questions from two pages. The person with the most points after each player runs through 20 questions wins.
The “All By Myself” version. Is there one know-it-all in the group that seems to know everything about ‘80s music? Pit that person against the whole group. Give him or her a handicap if you’re feeling generous.
The “Back and Forth” version. Or the game show version. Designate one person as the reader and writer to act as the host. Divide everyone else into two teams. The host asks team 1 the first question. If they get it right, they get the points. If they get it wrong, then team 2 gets to answer and if they get it right, they get double the points. Go back and forth from one team to the next with each question. After five pages (50 questions), the team with the most points wins.
The “Born To Sing” version. When the answer to the question is a song title, the team answering gets an extra point if they sing at least two lines of the song.
The
