My name is no, my sign is no, my number is no, you need to let it go.

Remember when we used to have girl groups? No? Well, back in ye olde 90s and early 00s we used to have the most amazing R&B girl groups dominating the charts. Artists like TLC, (early) Destiny’s Child, Blaque,  All Saints, En Vogue, (MKS) Sugarbabes, Britney, PINK, Brandy, Mýa (oh god, Mýa!), Christina Milian, Jennifer Lopez were making some really awesome pop & RnB music. *falls down a rabbit hole of nostalgia while researching this list*

NO feels like an anthem of that era and I love it.  It’s weird how something can sound dated but still kind of fresh? I guess because it’s been so long since anyone has done a song in this genre that it’s kind of refreshing to listen to. 

I get 90% of my gifs from tumblr, and it’s been kind of amusing reading all the comments excitedly talking about how , “omg this apparently sounds like throwback Britney!” and other comments talking about how terrible the styling in the video is. Well, I mean yes it is terribad, the 90s were a weird time for all of us, and no matter how hard they keep trying fashion can’t ever convince me that bucket hats or all denim is cool. Her styling looks off in the modern climate because she’s committed to this concept. I actually like how she’s fully committed to it!

It’s so that era that it hurts, everything from the lyrics (girl power!), to the styling to the set location is perfect. It has everything but the weird CGI aliens artists seemed to be obsessed with in the 90s. The technology was new, we were very excited.

I’ll be honest, nostalgia is the main reason why I like this song. It reminds me of being 13 and making mixtapes (yes, tapes) from the radio. When life was simpler, and finding new music was an exciting adventure of walking to the local Woolworths (showing my age here) to browse their chart collection. Watching MTV all day just to catch a glimpse of a new music video, and staying up to secretly watch Top of the Pops.  

I would buy singles religiously and I still have them all boxed up in the attic because they all have wonderful memories attached to them. Also, I’m a lowkey hoarder of memories. 

Annyywhooo. NO is brilliant if you loved that 90s-early 00s anthems that were belted out by girl and boy groups. This sounds like Britney, like Destiny’s Child like Backstreet Boys like N’Sync all at once and it’s awesome. 

The message is also good too, NO. No is a complete sentence, you don’t have to explain yourself, if you’re not interested the person that is hitting on you, then NO should be the end of it. I like that she is appreciative of the effort it takes to approach someone, but I’m glad that she makes it very clear that just because it took courage on the part of the other person that you’re not obligated to do something you don’t want to do. 

GIRL POWER!