The Importance of Being Earnest (and Maybe Just a Little Bit Cringe)
On hearing the drums echoing tonight, waking up to a beautiful day in the neighborhood, and throwing off inhibition.
Somehow I managed to live twenty-eight years on this planet without once hearing the song “Africa” by Toto. Maybe I caught a few snatches from a grocery store sound system or heard a line or two in a video somewhere, but until recently, my only exposure to the song was the words of oft-quoted line “I bless the rains down in Africa” with no accompanying tune to create an earworm in my head.
When I finally did hear the song on Spotify, something in me latched onto it immediately. Was it the harmonies? The satisfying repetition? The easily-learned melody? The somewhat inexplicable lyrics? Whatever the draw, I wasn’t alone– Vice.com published a breakdown in 2017 of why “Africa” had become “the internet’s favorite song.” I was just six years behind the times, I guess.
As a homeschooled kid who grew up mostly sheltered from secular music, I’m usually a bit more than six years behind the times. So when I posted a somewhat self-deprecating tweet about my first experience with “Africa,” I expected to be gently ribbed for what was probably poor taste in music. But instead, my Internet friends…
