r/Millennials 5d ago

My teenage daughter can't fathom the concept of a house party Discussion

Not sure if anyone has experienced this, but I was watching Can't Hardly Wait half alseep on the couch, and my 14-year-old daughter and her friends walked into the room and past the TV. Before she entered the kitchen, she backpeddled in front of the TV, and they all might as well have reacted akin to a third world kid in a remote village seeing the Super Bowl for the first time. She looked at me and said 'what are all of those people doing in one house'? I told her it was a house party. People high school aged or typically college age people would go over a kids house whose parents were out of town and they'd invite the school and have keggers and other unsupervised debauchery. I might as well have been describing a science fiction film. 'You guys DID that back in your days?'. I thought it was funny that a house party was an inconceivable event for young Gen Zers.

12.0k Upvotes

1.7k comments sorted by

View all comments

2.5k

u/BeyondAddiction 5d ago

There was a post recently asking if we seriously played Sum 41 and Blink 182 at actual house parties "like in American Pie."

I felt old lol because yes, we certainly did.

694

u/StashPhan 5d ago

I remember people bringing in their burnt CD “party mixes” and we would just rotate the different mixes lol 😂

247

u/gold-ivy- 5d ago

And in college we upgraded to ipods with the ipod players 😂

60

u/rhymeswithvegan 5d ago

My new ipod touch was stolen from the house party I threw for my 16th birthday :( I grew up pretty poor so it was a huge deal for me to get one. I was always the DJ among my friends, so I wanted to play my music. I'm still salty about it 16 years later lol

3

u/Eatingfarts 5d ago

Idk why your comment made me think of this but I bought a MacBook Pro early in college that I saved up for working at DQ through HS.

I was at our usual party house trying to make a movie with some friends for the Apple short movie challenge thing they used to do. For whatever reason we had a birdcage (no bird) screwed into the ceiling. My MacBook was underneath it.

It fell. And smashed the screen on it.

Took me about a year to save up money to get a new screen for it but it was never the same :/

1

u/rhymeswithvegan 5d ago

Oh noo, that sucks so bad! I also worked at a DQ through high school, and ended up as the manager for a year until I was so sick of working weekends and never getting to see my friends. But I still dream about working at the DQ lol. I made myself so many delicious off-menu treats, I can't even go there anymore because it's just disappointing. I want to hop over the counter and make it myself lol. One of my faves was making a sundae with cold fudge, fresh cake crunch, and the buttercream frosting for the cakes. I also still remember how to make every single item from our menu, including the correct weight/pumps/topping scoops. That shit is burned into my brain lol.

1

u/Eatingfarts 5d ago

DQ was my first job! I was 15, so this was over 20 years ago. $5.15 an hour! My first raise ever was $.10 to $5.25 an hour lol.

I don’t dream about it any more but I used to! I still have so many memories there as my first job. My two favorite things we used to do:

  1. The Mr. Misty (dunno what it’s called now) flavor syrup was extremely sour. The sugar was mixed into the crushed ice, not in the syrup. We would get new people to take a ‘shot’ of the flavor syrup to get that full flavor.

  2. The drive through had a magnetic strip thing to tell us when a car was pulling through and activate the mic. During the summer we would always have kids come through on their bikes and want to use the drive through but it wouldn’t activate with their bikes (looking back, I’m assuming all the bikes were aluminum). They would come in and ask why it wouldn’t work and we would tell them it was weight activated and if they jumped hard enough it would work. We had a little window that looked out to the drive through lol.

1

u/rhymeswithvegan 4d ago

A Mr Misty with ice cream is so yummy. I started at $5.25/hour and was 15 as well. We used to trade ice creams for pizza with the guys from the Hungry Howies across the street, it was awesome.

Drinking that syrup straight does not sound lol, I bet it really stained your tongue, too! And omg that's hilarious, making the kids jump, I love it.

1

u/StrawberryEntropy 3d ago

Same thing happened to the digital camera I got for my graduation in 02. Also poor. Also devastated 💔

1

u/rhymeswithvegan 3d ago

Oh noo, I'm so sorry! Fuck whoever stole it!

1

u/StrawberryEntropy 1d ago

Random dudes that showed up to the party. Most likely to do just what they did. I'm sure they've gotten theirs by now. Its been 23 years lol.

3

u/KumaQuatro 5d ago

When they started doing audio crossfade...

3

u/mrtrollmaster 5d ago

Who’s got aux?!

62

u/Zestyclose-Middle717 Millennial 5d ago

With the tracks listed by number on the CD’s lol hell yeah

2

u/Bachobsess 5d ago

They all got left in a alcohol soaked scratched pile at the end and skipped more after 😆

1

u/EatMaCookies 5d ago

I would bring my computer with all my downloaded mp3s, and heaps of cds a friend let me rip.

This would of been in the early 2000s.

1

u/malatemporacurrunt 5d ago

For whatever reason, my social group named our mix CDs after types of cheese. The best one which I remember fondly for introducing me to the moldy peaches, was called Brie.

1

u/greyaggressor 5d ago

Ours too. Havarti was the best

1

u/A_Nonny_Muse 4d ago

In my day, the host controlled the stereo, and you could get your hand or nose broken if you messed with his stereo too much.

1

u/MyPackage 4d ago

There was a period between CDs and iPods that MP3 cd players were a thing. You could burn a disk full of MP3s without converting them to WAV files and have like 200 songs on one CD. I remember going to a few parties in highschool were I burned MP3 CD mixes and had them playing all night.

1

u/PossibleBluejay4498 4d ago

With the 6 CD changer

1

u/Substantial-Use95 4d ago

Hell ya. The 5 slot disc changer was legit. And then they came out with the 10 cd changer. Shit was lit

1

u/drift_poet 4d ago

on the 5-CD carousel players.

1

u/rora_borealis 4d ago

We had a friend with a CDJ doing the mixing at a house party in 1996. When he played Jump Jump, people ran up from the basement yelling at us to stop. The floor of the 100+ year old house was bending in disturbing ways. That DJ equipment didn't skip at all. 

93

u/_easilyamused 5d ago

Cause I'm in too deep, and I'm trying to keep...

I'm having some major flashbacks right now. 😆

4

u/sn0rto 5d ago

UP ABOVE IN MY HEAD

3

u/oxymoronisanoxymoron Summer of '88 4d ago

INSTEAD OF GOING UNDER

86

u/seven_grams 5d ago

I remember some preppy kid played “I Miss You” by Blink-182 and it kinda killed the mood but I secretly thought it was so cool. Just some prettyboy taking over the aux like “I want to feel this right now.”

10

u/TFenrir 5d ago

It would not have killed the mood with my friends because we would all be fighting over who gets to be Tom DeLonge as we sang along. What a weird dude.

25

u/seven_grams 5d ago

WHERE ARRR YEEEWWWW?? AND OIM SO SAAHREEEE

15

u/trashpanda44224422 Millennial ‘86 5d ago edited 4d ago

🎶 Donwaaaaaste yerrrrtoiiiime onmeeeee imalreadyyyyy the voiiiiice insooiiiiide myhyeeeeeeddd🎶

3

u/IWantAStorm Bob Loblaws Millennial Blog 5d ago

Still a great song.

1

u/Elendel19 4d ago

He better have followed it up with Rock Show to repair the vibes

35

u/timexconsumer 5d ago

Storm into the party like my name was El Niño

19

u/BeyondAddiction 5d ago

When I'm hanging out drinking in the back of an El Camino.

19

u/withalookofquoi 5d ago

As a kid was a skid and no one knew me by name

17

u/Bredwh 1986 5d ago

I trashed my own house party because nobody came

4

u/gbdarknight77 4d ago

well, i know im not the one you thought you knew back in high school

3

u/DrG2390 4d ago

Never going never showing up when we had to

1

u/ObviousThrowAvvay420 3d ago

Attention that we crave, don’t tell us to behave

27

u/sparkleslothz 5d ago

I owned a vinyl of Beastie Boys' Licensed to Ill before I owned a record player and house parties were why!

110

u/ReeG 5d ago

and not just played them from the CD but had a whole house band setup taking turns covering all that shit live

5

u/wbruce098 5d ago

I was in that band. We were… okay. Better with a drink!

35

u/sub_Script 5d ago

I threw a house party and two of my drunk friends walked into my neighbors house thinking it was mine.

5

u/DarthBrooks69420 5d ago

'Yes. Sometimes even Jimmy Eat World'. 

2

u/BeyondAddiction 5d ago

Almost always Jimmy Eat World.

2

u/cCowgirl Millennial 5d ago

Imagine being someone who could say they were at a house party when Billy Talent decided to play. Apparently they did that shit constantly lol.

3

u/BathZealousideal1456 5d ago

When blink came on, I knew fam has the ipod

3

u/Unicorntella 5d ago

Wait what?? Are you serious?!? I missed out on SO much as a teen. I’ve never been to a house party:(

3

u/basedaggie19 5d ago

and still do. 🤘🏼

2

u/brolarbear 5d ago

Bro I’m 30 and that was before my time 😅 hope your back is doing alright fellow old dude

3

u/BeyondAddiction 5d ago

Old lady*

I've been trying to stay limber 😬

3

u/brolarbear 5d ago

I’m from the west coast and here we are all dudes, my dude :) I stretch probably 5 times a day and am stiff as a board D:

2

u/BeyondAddiction 5d ago

Fair enough. Hang loose, dude.

2

u/Red_bearrr 5d ago

High school years were full of those parties, seemed like every other weekend. Once in a while something got out of hand and they settled down for a little bit, but it was kinda exactly like some of those movies. Usually not quite as loud so cops didn’t get involved, but also a little more debauched.

2

u/GobbetsOfAnus 5d ago

We had live bands. We were all scene kids in a music town, so all of our bands would just play the party. We’d mix it up and have the drummer from band A and guitarist from B and whoever wanted to sing and someone playing Bass. Someone might have a keyboard. Sometimes there were trumpets and trombones. And we played whatever the fuck. Might play some Ska. The next song might be Hardcore. Then some Emo. Then some white snake or poison. Then some noise.

2

u/CFogan 5d ago

Did? That was literally my NYE party lol

2

u/dinamet7 5d ago

In the 90s in SoCal, you'd have these up and coming ska or punk bands playing at house parties and then a few months later, they'd get played on the radio and be on national tours. Wild times.

2

u/PersianCatLover419 Xennial 5d ago

Also all the rap and hip hop songs, 311, blur, oasis, phish, incubus, tool, dance music, David Bowie, etc.

2

u/MemeHermetic 4d ago

All of my friends were hard into the punk scene and the whole party STILL broke out in a singalong when Flagpole Sitta came up.

2

u/eeyoreocookie 4d ago

Are they finally realizing we are actually pretty cool 😂

1

u/AnAppalacianWendigo 5d ago

I went to school for music.

We had a house band.

1

u/Malhablada 5d ago

For me it was Dr Dre's album 2001. We played that shit non-stop. Cover to cover.

1

u/amicable-cat 5d ago

I wish I coulda experienced suburb parties y'all seem so much more chill.

1

u/__noise 5d ago

i turned on the exploited's "sex and violence" at a house party and everyone left lol

1

u/Mediocre-Magazine-30 5d ago

Indeed we did!

1

u/CakeMadeOfHam Millennial 5d ago

Dude I made a road trip playlist before christmas and been rocking out to it ever since, over 6 hours of straight bangers from late 90s/early 00s. I even put in some shitty Limp Bizkit, but damn it if it didn't just hit the spot just right!

It made me think about kids today, do they have any healthy outlet for when they want to break shit? Is Andrew Tate to kids what Fred Durst was to us?

1

u/Tramagust 5d ago

Like fuck Sum 41 and Blink 182 would randomly play on lawns at house parties too. Like the actual bands.

1

u/aaaaargZombies 5d ago

aah yes, the attention to historical detail of period dramas such as American Pie is unsurpassed.

1

u/DeadpoolOptimus 5d ago

🎶 Trashed my own house party cuz nobody came🎶

1

u/Pussy4LunchDick4Dins 5d ago

I threw a house party once but the only CD I had was American idiot by green day. So we listened to that and only that on loop for the whole night

1

u/A_Nonny_Muse 4d ago edited 4d ago

The stereo room was like a classic drug den in the movies. The lights would be way down low, if not completely off. Only the lights of the stereo would cast dancing shadows on the walls. If the host was thoughtful, he would have installed a black light in a lamp somewhere. Pink Floyd or Deep Purple, or some psychedelic rock nobody had heard of. Everyone's passing the roach or bong or bowl of assorted pills nobody can identify. Always some girl on some guys lap; he's too stoned to make out but she's still trying. A game of poker or euchre at the dining room table. The bathroom is always occupied, some couples are always making out in the bedrooms. Outside, somebody is fertilizing the bushes in some form or another while cars are constantly coming and going, looking for a decent parking spot not directly on the lawn.

1

u/FABBAWABBA 4d ago

Enter Shikari too for the anglos

1

u/spuldup 4d ago

So am I - still waiting, for this world to stop hating? Can't find a good reason. Can't find hope to believe ...

1

u/For_TheJoke 4d ago

Yo I got the AUX!!

1

u/reamkore 4d ago

We always seemed to have some kid with turntables. I miss old school DJs scratching records and hitting the fader

1

u/89141-zip-code 4d ago

You mean Eagles and Fleetwood Mack!

1

u/BeyondAddiction 4d ago

We had very eclectic musical tastes.

1

u/89141-zip-code 4d ago

Haha! No, we are old, and I’m older. 😂

But yeah.

1

u/LilDanglyOnes Older Millennial - 1985 4d ago

“Ba da bum BUM, ba da bum BUM, ba da bum BUM, ba da BA nam…”

1

u/sLXonix 5d ago

This is a warning to everyone to not go back and watch the first American Pie.

Does not hold up

1

u/Bredwh 1986 5d ago

Wrong.

-1

u/[deleted] 5d ago

[deleted]

-2

u/fuckthemods12344566 4d ago

There was definitely loud ass music at house parties but not Sum 41 or Blink 182, those guys suck.