So back to the Trivia thing. Erin and I have been taking turns going to trivia, and it’s habit for us to write down the questions (or at least useful notes so we can remember them) so that whomever is watching Zoe that night can keep up. It was Erin’s turn last night and when she got back, we went through the ritual of going through them together.

Round 4, question 1. What hip hop artist’s song released in 1992 cemented his reputation as the Father of G-Funk? Easy! Dr. Dre, who, featuring Snoop Dogg, released the incredibly popular hit “Nuthin’ but a G Thang”, thereby bringing G-Funk to the mainstream. I’m a white suburbanite who doesn’t in the least care for hip hop, but I remember that particular song vividly and enjoy it. In addition to its importance to the G-Funk style, it’s also remarkable for promoting violence, drug abuse, and, oddly, use of contraceptives. In fact, it was such an incredible influence on society at the time that my greatest memory of it is watching the video on MTV in my 8th grade English class.

And yet the trivia team, 5 members, all friends, missed it. Completely. When Erin told me this I was flabbergasted. Surely my associates were familiar with that? It was one of the Earth-moving iconic hits of the early 90’s.

But I had to consider the friends in question. Of the 5, 3 are 5 or more years younger than I am, so they’d have been 7 or 8 at most when it was released. One of the other two is a country music fan and probably wouldn’t have been listening to MTV at all, and Erin, the fifth, wasn’t permitted to watch MTV because it’s evil and all.

Now this doesn’t make me feel old or anything like that, but it does give me a very strong sense of being alone. These friends of mine, arguably my best friends despite how little I see most of them, are entirely separate from that little music-cultural period, the tail end of the Gen-X/MTV explosion that was extremely influential on me.

It’s very weird and I’m not sure I like it at all.