I will admit, I know little about this song. I think it came out around 1985 or 1986. I’m not sure. I could look it up, I suppose, but I prefer letting it float in the sea of memories of the period. I was doing a lot of travel for America at that time. I’d come back to the states, stay a few weeks, hear some new music, and leave again.

Yet, the song, ‘Word Up!’, was very popular and catchy. I knew about half of the words, I suppose. Word up was an expression that seemed to be used like, “That’s true,” “I agree,” or, “You bet.” The expression further evolved into just, “Word.” Yet, back then, and even now, I can’t reconcile the song’s use of the word with those expressions. To me, this song seems to be asking, “What’s going on?” Still, easy to sing to, and a cool techno beat. Well, we thought it cool, back when we were young.

Here is Cameo with ‘Word Up!’, from sometime in the last quarter of the twentieth century.