Music facts that will make you feel really old

Hearing a song or an album can put you exactly back where you were when you first heard it but sometimes that place is longer ago than you think. Nostalgia is a powerful tool, documented by the huge swathes of bands going on reunion tours in the next year. With bootcut jeans having a resurgence (thanks, Kendrick Lamar), Robbie Williams at the forefront of our minds, and Oasis finally reuniting, it’s easy to forget what year we are actually in.

I hate to be the bearer of bad news but the 00s are now 20 years ago even if most of our brains are still convinced it was yesterday. If you’re not keeping track; Iron Man premiered almost two decades ago, David Bowie tragically died nine years ago, and it’s been nearly 30 years since the UK last won Eurovision. We’re taking a walk down memory lane with some shocking music facts that will make you feel really old — sorry in advance.

Starting with a big one, it’s been 30 years (yes, really) since the iconic girl power band Spice Girls first spiced up our lives. Mel B (Scary), Melanie C (Sporty), Emma Bunton (Baby), Geri Horner (Ginger), and Victoria Beckham (Posh) formed in 1994. The Spice Girls were an instant hit after releasing their debut single Wannabe and are synonymous with 90s British pop. To this day, they have sold over 100 million records worldwide, cementing their legacy as one of the biggest groups of all time.

After six blissfully pop-filled years, the group called it quits in 2000 and have not reunited as a full five-piece in over 13 years… although rumours are rife. It has been nine years since Rihanna released her last studio album Anti and we’ve been begging for more ever since. That in itself is a horrific thought; soon secondary school age children will have never lived through a RiRi album drop.

The Umbrella icon released her first album in 2005, so we only actually had 11 years of her popstar era. If Rihanna keeps up her studio silence, we will have had more years in a row without new music than we ever had with. Rumours that she could be preparing to release something new have been on the increase but until the Fenty Beauty founder says otherwise it looks like she’s taken a bow. A traumatic moment in any Directioner’s life; on March 25, 2015, Zayn Malik announced he was leaving One Direction.

After seven Brit awards, seven AMAs, and numerous Teen Choice awards, the biggest boy band in the world had begun their downfall. ‘I am leaving because I want to be a normal 22-year-old who is able to relax and have some private time out of the spotlight,’ he said at the time as teenage girls across the UK wept. The rest of the band followed swiftly after but Zayn’s exit will always go down in history as the beginning of the end.

2025 also marks 15 years since the band was formed while on X Factor, claiming second place in the competition. Sadly, possible reunion plans have been overshadowed by the sudden death of Liam Payne last year. Some of Lady Gaga’s biggest hits — Poker Face, Just Dance, and Bad Romance — come from her debut album The Fame in 2008. It’s wild that it’s been so long since Stefani Germanotta first blessed us with her music. It would be two more years before her ionic meat dress moment.

After the album’s re-release in 2009, Gaga dropped a collaboration that would go down in history: Telephone ft Beyonce. In the accompanying music video in 2010, Beyonce said ‘promise we’ll never come back’ to which Gaga replied ‘I promise’. Despite the ‘to be continued’ title card, the duo has so far kept their promise and have not been back together in the 15 years since. The gasps that rang out around the nation on February 25, 2015, when the legendary Queen of Pop fell on stage at the Brit Awards.

Madonna’s dramatic performance was highly anticipated and the then-51-year-old did not disappoint as she slowly walked towards the stage with a huge cape trailing behind her. Reaching the stairs, she appeared to struggle with undoing the cape before it was pulled off by dancers, yanking Madonna backwards too. Ever the professional, the Material Girl hitmaker recovered quickly and continued with her performance but fans were on edge the entire set.

She later explained it had been ‘tied too tight’ and referenced her song as she added: ‘Nothing can stop me and love really lifted me up.’. Watching this, even a decade on, still makes us wince every single time. This one caught us off-guard, how can it possibly be 20 years since boyband Jonas Brothers first started out?. Most of us got to know the trio’s music after watching Disney Channel Original Movie, Camp Rock; well, bad news, that film is already 17 years old.

Nick, Joe, and Kevin shared an emotional statement celebrating the last 20 years of making music together. ‘To us, it feels like just yesterday we were loading up our family mini-van with a couple of guitars,’ they wrote on Instagram. Since starting the band as teenagers, the brothers have released six albums, had a six year hiatus, each been married, Joe got divorced, and between them have five children.