Are class songs an official thing? I'm not sure, but they are real in my mind. I might be incorrect in counting each of these as my "class songs" but to me these were the songs that the students most congregated around and seemed to regard as our official theme song during our last months before graduation. I really liked one of them.Â
College (2001): Nelly, "Ride Wit Me"
I never liked this song much and I don't really have incredibly fond associations of the time either. Song-wise, this song doesn't land for me--it's too light to dance to, it's hard to sing to and something about the mixing just makes it flit around annoyingly at the top of my ears. It's not even my favorite Nelly song ("Hot in Here" and even then I prefer that when it's mashed up with "Stayin' Alive.") My lack of enjoyment of the song reminds me of the parts of college I was glad to leave behind, mainly some lame people and a few too many parties (I don't mean that I partied too hard: I mean I was actually tired of going to goodbye dances and parties and hangouts.) There were good times and great friends too in college but I feel like I never had to pretend to like "Ride Wit Me" in those situations.
8th Grade (1993): Boyz II Men, "End of the Road"
Truth be told I never liked this song all that much either. It was too on-the-nose as a graduation song and it was rather dirge-like in its sombreness (although if more dirges sounded like MotownPhilly maybe I'd change my opinion.) That said, my 8th grade class had a penchant for the dramatic so this song was perfect for everybody swaying together, arms slung over each others' shoulders during our graduation party in the church rectory basement. There was a very specific sway we did. You'd go right-right, left-left. There was no other way.
High School (1997): Blackstreet, "No Diggity"
This song is awesome. It's funky and easy to dance to. I remember not only loving this song every single time it came on at a dance but feeling proud that it was somehow "our" song because it was such a superior song. It's a song with swagger which is how you want to feel about your class. Ironically, I had little to no personal swagger at this time (compared to now, obviously, when all I have is swag) but it was fun to live vicariously through my homies Blackstreet and Teddy (the original rump shakers.)