It was the first time you heard a particular note, drum beat or electronically created sound that made your ears tingle, your heart skip a beat and resonated with your soul. This is “My Song” – a series where the music that makes the person is spotlighted. James Bullock writes about a song that is synonymous with one of his favorite TV shows from his teenage years.
Like almost anyone with a sense of nostalgia, accessibility to various forms of visual media, and a little bit of free time, I’ve been having one of those moments where I’ve wanted to watch a particular TV show from start to finish. In this case, my most recent viewing obsession is the MTV animated series “Daria”. The thing that makes my fascination with the series so interesting is the simple fact I didn’t “get” “Daria” when it initially aired – and really how could I? I – an African American who, up to that point, had only gone to a school where ninety-nine percent of my peers were of the same race – wasn’t even in middle school during the series’ premiere that featured a teenaged Caucasian girl going through the stresses of high school life.
To top it off, Daria’s humor (or lack thereof) went way over my young mind unlike the show that spawned her, “Beavis & Butt-Head”. It wasn’t until the series’ first movie, “Is it Fall Yet?”, that “Daria” clicked with me as I had finally gotten to the point in my life where I could understand a lot of why Daria saw the world – realistic, if not morbid when it comes to her belief in the current structure of society – as she did. Though I wasn’t a social outcast like the series’ lead, I did have several moments throughout my high school experience being around or even being the Daria of my class. Like so many shows of my youth, the theme song of “Daria” is nothing short of iconic and gives me a smile every time an episode starts and I hear the familiar, “La, la, la, la, la.”
