When did we stop having fun?

My life is better with O-Zone's Dragostea Din Tei in it. I only know about this Romanian Europop song thanks to one of the earliest internet memes — the Numa Numa video, uploaded to Newgrounds in 2004.

Its popularity wasn't always rooted in good-natured fun, but that's always how I saw it; Gary Brolsma enjoying himself, completely uninhibited. Not mocking the track, but flowing with it in the way you do when no one's looking.

I feel the same when I listen to Chappell Roan's Good Luck, Babe!, with its bouncy, syncopated synth line. I can't dance, but if I could, it'd be to this track, especially as it slides into glorious final chorus.

There are times when it sounds like I'm mocking a song, either by purposefully interfering with the lyrics as they jump out of the speaker and into my mouth. Or by accentuating specific mannerisms in the vocals.

MUNA's Loudspeaker is one of my all-time favourite songs, but I take Katie Gavin's unusual and back-ended intonation of 'loudspeaker' and make it even more ridiculous and elongated — and only because I love the song so much.

Probably the best known version of this imitation-in-love phenomenon is Blink 182's classic, I Miss You. Tom DeLonge's delivery of his opening line ('Where are you?') is so beloved, it spawned an entire meme sub-genre.

The TikTok apple dance, set to Charli xcx's Apple is a variation on the theme. It's one of the most popular songs from Brat, and has racked up almost half a billion streams on Spotify alone in just over a year.

It explores Charli's complicated relationship with her family, seeing herself as an apple on their tree. The dance is a little more literal, culminating in raising the invisible apple above your head before snapping it apart.

It's a more choreographed sibling of the Numa Numa dance – giving yourself permission to just enjoy the music. There'll always be a place for introspection, for pouring over lyrics to search for hidden meaning (hello, Swifties 👋🏻), but not every moment has to be so serious.

Sometimes, it's okay to just let the music wash over you and let go of whatever's holding you back. To scream 'where are youuu' at the top of your lungs, do TikTok dances with your friends, and even admit that, two decades on, you still remember every step of the Tragedy dance.

Just Press Play

I'm James on a Mission. I still maintain a local music library of songs amassed since the early 2000s. When the pandemic set in, I tasked myself to listen to every one of the 20,108 tracks and giving them a star rating.

I have just over 1,700 remaining, so I placed new releases to one side this week and plugged into records that I've not spent enough time with, like Dreamkid's deliciously nostalgic self-titled synthwave album, picking up new favourites like Obsession.

Though, I couldn't resist the allure of the new entirely. After teasing a new collaboration, Amy Lee (of Evanescence), Poppy, and Courtney LePlante (Spiritbox) dropped End of You.

All three vocalists are in incredible form, and it's also so fun to get a Poppy/Courtney team up after that Grammys kerfuffle, where Courtney roleplayed as Poppy after an interviewer got confused. (Metal Hammer).