Everything I learned from En Vogue.

It’s been the best rediscovery ever.  My friend Ruth gave me a copy of ‘The Very Best of En Vogue’ – the fiercest girl group of the 90s.  Seriously, immense – my iTunes calls it ‘R & B’ but they’re really that crossed with a power ballad and a 90s dance hit.  I know everyone probably thinks this about the decade in which they primarily grew up, but I really cannot get enough of that 90s production sound – from Nirvana down to crappy pop, basically.

Since receiving this amazing gift, and subsequently listening to such classics as ‘My Loving (Never Gonna Get It)’ (I also love parentheses in song titles) on my work to work every morning this week, it made me think about how En Vogue really were a much sassier and all-round cooler version of a girl group they were than anything that exists today.

Then, when I really thought about it, I realised that the messages I had absorbed from the work of En Vogue were as follows:

·         Free your mind – and the rest will follow

·         Be colour blind

·         Don’t be so shallow

·         That my boyfriend is nice because ‘he knows that my name is not Susan’ (that one came with the help of Salt n Pepa, and can probably be ignored if your name actually is Susan – like Sarandon, or my stepmum).

Finally, here is what in my opinion is their absolute best song, and one of the best songs of all time by anyone ever.  It reminds me of my friend Rachael and going on a school French trip, lovelorn and unwanted and warbling into hairbrushes.  It also contains a line with which I have always been absolutely fascinated – ‘if I could wear your clothes/I’d pretend I was you’.  In all my years (many) of extreme crushes and stalking tendencies, this is not an impulse I have ever personally encountered.