Wow, so I knew every single reference in Charli XCX and Troye Sivan's club-ready, '90s-packed "1999" video. It's a pop cultural knowledge deeply embedded in my soul, and it's with a mixture of pride and embarrassment that I present to you, for journalism, every Spice Girl, Backstreet Boy and chat window from memory.
AOL Instant Messenger
Charli as Steve Jobs and turtleneck posing with an iMac G3
Charli as Lisa "Left Eye" Lopes in TLC's "Waterfalls" video
Charli as Rose, Troye as Jack in Titanic
Charli as all five Spice Girls in the "Say You'll Be There" video
Charli as New Radicals' Gregg Alexander, complete with Skechers and bucket hat
Troye as all of the Backstreet Boys in the "I Want It That Way" video
Troye as Eminem in "The Real Slim Shady" video
Charli covered in rose petals, a la Angela Hayes in American Beauty
Charli as Rose McGowan, Troye as Marylin Manson at the 1998 VMAs
Charli and Troye as Sims characters
Charli in Aqua's "Barbie Girl" video
The Ooga Chaka Baby on a Geocities-style homepage
Charli as Trinity, Troye as Neo in The Matrix
Troye as frosted, Ramen-curls Justin Timberlake circa N*SYNC
Charli in The Blair Witch Project
Hanes Her Way
Water-proof wrist watches
Nokia cell phones
Surge soda
eBay, Nickelodeon, Bubbalicious gum, Beanie Babies, Netscape logos
AOL's "goodbye" sign-off
Thank you for coming to my TED Talk, or whatever the late '90s version of a TED Talk would have been.
Copyright 2021 NPR. To see more, visit https://www.npr.org.
