My mother figure passed away Monday morning so today’s song has an added meaning to me now. She may have been the crustiest guardian angel at times but I knew she wanted the best for me. She was 84 years old so there are a LOT of memories to be had and held onto.

Rule of thumb – if you find yourself on Piers Morgan’s show, and he’s agreeing with you…you done fucked up somewhere and you need to shut it

If Michael Jackson songs were going to be removed from a streaming service, I really didn’t think that this would be the reason.

I’ve been hearing “Believe” a lot more recently, almost as much as I did when it was at peak popularity. My go-to radio station has played it more often, I’ve heard it at work…It’s just been everywhere all of a sudden. Then again, maybe it never really went away. This is one of Cher’s most enduring and endearing hits to me, though I know there will be people who disagree with me. Yes, it’s under heavy auto tune, and that’s easy to make fun of now…

…But, back when I was a kid, it sounded like the future. I found it off-putting at first, but it’s only grown on me with time. I think I was aware enough of Cher to know she’d been around for a long time, yet I still feel this was a song no one saw coming. At least as far as being a smash hit. I think maybe people were thinking the 80s would be her last hurrah. They were proven wrong.

To give you an idea about how big of a song this was, I’ll take you on a brief trip down memory lane. Spring 2000. I was at my childhood best friend’s house in the late afternoon for a sleepover with her and a close friend of ours. We were already hyped up on sugar and had the radio on in her room downstairs. The other friend and I were singing along to “Believe”, which followed right after a Britney song (so this was probably a Now That’s What I Call Music CD we were listening to).

I mean, that’s it, that’s the memory. A brief snippet of time. Fast forward, the childhood best friend and I don’t speak anymore, not even to exchange birthday wishes. That pretense was dropped on my most recent birthday last year. The other friend, however, gives my FB statuses likes when she can or happens to see them. We’re obviously too busy to message, but she does take that time to check in. I’m glad our old friendship still has some meaning then, even though I also lost some years with her, too. Anyway, all that to say…Kids didn’t care that Cher was an older artist. For all we figured, “Believe” could stand alongside whatever Britney, Christina, or other pop girls were releasing at the time.

I didn’t even touch on the fact that the lyrics are absolutely cathartic after a break-up. It just feels so empowering, that knowledge that you can and will do better than that other person. Unfortunately (or fortunately), I have found that that’s just as much the case with platonic friendships as it is with romantic relationships. At some point, you need to be aware that it’ll never work quite the same way again and just let go. You WILL get through this. Because you ARE strong. Those words are the reason I think it’s become such a gay club anthem, too. It’s a celebration in spite of the hurt.

So, uh, yeah, “Believe” is an unabashed 10. Now and forever.

Let me get this right – you ‘really feel sorry’ for the people of NY who, 20 years ago, had to endure the hardship of a music scene that doesn’t happen to float your boat (but was actually pretty awesome)? Congratulations on being an idiot.

When I was a kid, another boy my age from across the street would ask me to hang out all the time. I could not stand this kid, he drooled all over from his braces, would not stop talking and made me watch for many hours as he played with his train set.

I would try to avoid him but he would sit on the porch until my family emerged from the house so I would have to hang out with him. One day he had me over and said, “Brace yourself, I’ve just heard the greatest song in my life.” I prepared myself to hear anything…and then he pressed play on his CD player…on came Monica’s “Angel of Mine.” He started enthusiastically singing along to it, play acting it out as children do.

And then out of nowhere he grabbed his pillow and swatted me in the face so hard I pancaked on the bed. He then repeatedly hit me with the pillow, saying “It’s a pillow fight!” as “Angel of Mine” continued to play. I didn’t have a pillow and his antics escalated to smothering me with the pillow as Monica hit those power notes.

I eventually threw him off of me and shouted “I don’t like you! I don’t like pillow fighting! And I don’t like this song!” I stormed out of the house and you would have though that ended us hanging out…but no, my parents kept encouraging me to hang out with this kid until he finally, thankfully, moved. So many stolen hours of my life spent with this kid.

It’s true that I did not like him or pillow fighting, but I lied to him when I said I didn’t like the song. It’s a great song, 8 out of 10.

Grandpa: “Kids today don’t know GOOD music!”
Also Grandpa: “The class of 2002 is making music inspired by my generation and I hate it!”

I saw Interpol, the Strokes, YYY’s, the Rapture, and many more during that time period. It was a pretty amazing time for music.

In the latter half of the 90s I was a non-stoppable bad decisions machine. I made a lot of bad choices. But the worst, in 1998, was to date a guy who beat me and belittled me. As a kid, my parents would hit each other and have scary fights, so I just assumed this was normal, that he did this because he loved me and I deserved it. I spent 6 months with this guy, and I could have easily stayed longer, given my low opinion of myself. This song did not magically make me leave him, I somehow got the strength to do that on my own, but this song did help me refuse to get back together with him, and to try to start making better decisions for myself. I still had some bad decisions left in me, but not nearly so many, and this song was part of the turning point. 10/10.

she tried to be an ally but she choked, tried to apologize but she stumbled

Alexis Taylor has one of the most ageless voices. What a delight.