In 2008, Microsoft embraced me—or at least my culture and demographic—with a commercial for Zune 3.0, starring Common and featuring his Universal Mind Control, which was inspired by Planet Rock. It unveiled a new and uncomfortable reality: companies were now using music from my youth as a nostalgia trip to sell products. It reminded me of the first time I’d heard Planet Rock, a quarter-century earlier.

It was 1982, I was in the 8th grade, and my school was holding a talent show. I believe I sang as part of the school choir, even though I had no singing talent to speak of.

During rehearsals, I was privileged to see the dancers. Oh, the dancers. Tall, leggy, and stunningly beautiful to my 13-year-old eyes.

I remember clearly those dancers bending and twisting on stage as they were “shot” by the lead dancer to the pulse of the music. And the soaring, high-pitched “NAH nah NAH-naaah, nah-NAAAH NAH-naaah, NAH nah NAH-nah nah-NAAAH” electronic refrain emanating from the auditorium speakers. I had no idea what I was listening to. It was, of course, Bambaataa’s Planet Rock.

I didn’t know what rap was, what electronica was, or who the hell Afrika Bambaataa & The Soul Sonic Force were. I had only moved to the U.S. two years earlier. I still had my strong foreign accent, and was just discovering American music.

It was very different from what I was used to.

That song (and the image of those dancers) has now stuck with me for more than forty years. It’s my earliest and most enduring American musical memory^[1].