It's a late night in the small town of Hanna, Alberta, Canada. At a suburban home, a small gathering is occurring, with plenty of booze, music, and fun to be had. Party attendees are drinking heavily, getting wasted, having a blast. Someone shouts, "Hey guys, look over here!", holding a camera in front of their faces. "Hang on!" shouts one individual, who picks up a nearby large, shiny object and places it upside-down on his head. "That's hilarious!" shouts his buddy, who stands next to him as he throws up the devil horns, posing for a picture. Another person tries to sneak into frame, but it's too late. The camera flashes. A moment is immortalized. Years and years go by. Chad Kroeger is digging through a photo album and finds this picture. He gazes at it for a moment as two questions pop up in his head. Instead of doing research or simply looking closer at the image, he writes a song about it, turns it into a chart-topping hit, and forces me to answer them.
The year is 2006. VH1 and MTV are surprisingly still playing music videos, but the same one keeps playing over and over again as you switch between the channels. It's all over the radio, on TV shows and on movies. It's playing at the mall, sports venues, restaurants, bars, parties, clubs. You can't escape it. It's in your head, you sing one hook, the second one, the third one you didn't even realize. How did we get into this mess, how did we as a people let this happen? Well, in a world full of deceit and lies, the only source of truth comes from the hips of a Colombian superstar.
Ever since I heard this song one afternoon at a Las Vegas hotel pool deck it's been playing intermittently through my brain ever since. The song that's unfortunately often misattributed to random alternative bands such as Third Eye Blind, Eve 6, and even Story of the Year holds the spotlight in this episode as we looks into what it might take to truly drown the whole world, and figure out what on earth is happening in that apartment complex.
It's March 31st, 2020. I was kept up all night by a pop song that entered my head that I swear I last heard 19 years ago. So naturally I spent the next day and a half listening to it on repeat, researching information behind the song, and trying to make sense of the confusing accompanying music video.