Teens react to ’90s music is one of the best React videos yet

If you’ve ever been on YouTube (and who hasn’t, at this point), you’re pretty much guaranteed to be familiar with The Fine Bros. and their React videos. If you’ve been hiding away from all technology for years, here’s a quick rundown: They gather a group of similar people (kids, teens, old people, etc.) and ask them to “react” to something. Sometimes it’s something new and surprising. Sometimes it’s something old and before their time. In the first-ever episode of the newest React video series, “Do They Know It?”, teens listened to hit songs from the 90s and gave their honest reactions and revealed if they had ever even heard the songs before.

Now, since the teens in the video were all born in the 90s (and some of them barely even made the 90s cut — one girl confessed that her birthday was Dec. 10, 1999), it’s not really that surprising that they didn’t know the songs by heart. After all, who really knows the music that was popular when they were a baby or a toddler?

Aside from one musical wunderkind (you’ll spot him easily when you watch the video — he’s the one in the glasses who has heard of pretty much every 90s song and band except the Backstreet Boys), most of the teens really struggled with the task. When they did know a song, it was usually thanks to something else in pop culture, like the song being featured in a more modern movie or parodied by Weird Al. The video is designed to make people who actually grew up in the 90s (as in, those who were born in the 80s) feel super old, listening to current teens’ clueless reactions to the music they grew up with, but from a teen perspective, it’s like being on a pretty cool gameshow. Take a listen to the songs yourself and see how many you know, and how your classic music knowledge stacks up against other teens’. 

Is it funny? Of course it is. Whether you know the songs (and are wincing that the teens in the video don’t) or don’t know them (and totally sympathize with the clueless stars of the video), it’s still a fun idea. But, I have to say, I think the coolest takeaway from the video is that a lot of the teens genuinely liked the 90s songs, even the ones they hadn’t heard before. Increased cultural awareness is always a win in my book.