Hoku’s Breakout ‘Snow Day’ Hit Captured The Last Gasp Of Millennial Innocence

Nostalgia exists for every generation, of course, but given the fact that they were raised on a steadily increasing diet of internet access, millennials have found unique ways of communally expressing their almost indescribable longing for the past. A constant online juxtaposition between what is and what once was creates a wistful, and oftentimes jaded, dissonance for individuals who grew up in that sweet spot between the mid-1990s and early 2000s. Songs, film, television, toys, food, and even the quality of sunshine seemed more…vibrant.

Yeah, it could be that we were all more present, more in-the-moment prior to the rise of social media and omnipresent screens, which negatively warped our perception of reality. And sure, it could also be a byproduct of rose-tinted glasses; our penchant to dampen the chaos of an eternally harsh world by forcing it through the naive simplicity of childhood, when the grown-ups would make all the tough decisions for awhile.

But maybe, just maybe, there was something truly unique about that brief period in time. The musical artist known as Hoku (born Hoku Clements) was already a young adult when she got her big break at the turn of the millennium, and remembers it vividly. “I do look back on that time and it feels just like golden, innocent, bathed in teal and pink and summer and sunlight,” the Hawaii native tells me over Zoom as we discuss her self-titled debut album, celebrating its twenty-fifth anniversary this week.

Released under the Geffen Records banner, Hoku prominently featured the singer’s breakout pop single, “Another Dumb Blonde,” written by successful Rock Mafia co-founders/producers Antonina Armato and Tim James, the former of whom signed Clements to a production deal. “I had been recording all these [demo]

songs and then all of a sudden, there was ‘Another Dumb Blonde.’ I was like, ‘Oh, this is it!’” Hoku says. “I just remember being really excited about it and feeling like, ‘Yeah, okay. This is something that feels like it could have some legs.’”

The Billboard-charting song was recorded and promoted as the marquee track for 2000’s Snow Day, a Nickelodeon-produced coming-of-age comedy starring Chevy Chase, Jean Smart, and Chris Elliott.

“I remember we got hooked up with Nickelodeon and that movie pretty early on,” Hoku remembers. “That really kicked things off, because then I did The Big Help with them, and that was my first big performance at the Palladium in LA. I noticed that once Nickelodeon was involved, once we were hitched onto that pony, things did go from there. It gave us a nice vehicle to rock it out with.”

The American Graffiti-esque Snow Day, in which a group of kids discover love and freedom over the course of a wintry day off from school, was emblematic of the films Nickelodeon tended to make at the time. Like Max Keeble’s Big Move and Big Fat Liar in the years that followed, the movie celebrated the wonderful and rebellious possibilities of childhood. Despite being played by big name actors, the adult characters had no power in these worlds and were often the main source of conflict — not to mention the eventual butt of the joke.

“It is kind of a bygone era now that you mention it,” muses Hoku. “I haven’t really thought of it before, but they’re not really making programming the same way … And it was sad to hear about some of the scandals that came out Nickelodeon later because … everyone [I worked with in those days] just seemed like they were having a really good time. This is not discounting anything that was that going on behind-the-scenes … I mean, everything has to change. Things change and move on, but it did feel like this magical moment in pop cultural history.”

While it technically has nothing to do with snow, “Another Dumb Blonde” — which plays twice throughout the movie (once in the story proper and then again during the end credits) — the song embodies the invigorating agency and crushing disappointments of youth.

The super-catchy lyrics told from the perspective of a young woman finding the confidence to dump her cheating boyfriend recalls the impassioned pleas of Dolores O’Riordan in The Cranberries’ “Linger.” More than just a simple break-up song, it’s a fiery and touching tribute to the rollercoaster ride that is the adolescent experience. It doesn’t matter whether you’re trying to stop a snowplow driver from clearing the roads in order to get an extra day off from school, or working up the confidence to tell someone how you feel about them. “Another Dumb Blonde” somehow recalls those formative experiences, beautifully capturing the highs and lows of growing up.

“Ultimately, it’s a really empowering song, which never goes out of fashion,” the artist agrees. “I think it did really resonate with people at the time. It had this sassy thing that lent to my image and that carefree kind of summer feeling. That’s timeless and something everyone goes through. The feeling of, ‘I’m not being appreciated, you’re dismissing me, you’re minimizing my value.’ So as long as that is a thing, I feel like ‘Another Dumb Blonde’ will have relevance.”

A little over a year later, Hoku saw the release of a second hit single, “Perfect Day,” which played as the main theme for Legally Blonde. As fans have pointed out many times over the years, Snow Day should have swapped its main song with the Reese Witherspoon classic. “It’s so funny because I literally said that to my label when this was all happening back in the day,” Hoku reveals. “And they were like, ‘Oh no, no. It’s fine. No one will even notice.’ Literally, almost every single person who interviews me or talks to me about this asks about that. I wasn’t in charge of any of that stuff back then, but I would have flipped them, for sure.’”

The carefree millennial illusion was shattered just two months after Legally Blonde in the wake of the 9/11 terror attack on the World Trade Center. For many who had come of age in the quietly prosperous ’90s, that terrible day marked the death of childhood innocence. There was no coming back. “It’s sad to think of that,” says Hoku, who was actually in New York at the time for the Disney Channel in Concert tour. “Things really did change. There’s just this layer of disillusionment and cynicism that couldn’t help but settle across everything. Pop culture is, in a lot of ways, a reflection of where we are as a society. Not perfectly, but it’s an art-form. It’s art reflecting back the world as artists see it. So you can’t help but have some of that cynicism make its way into it … It was definitely a big before and after moment for everything, including pop culture.”

With the passage of time, however, “Another Dumb Blonde” (along with its contemporaries) has become a comfortingly nostalgic time capsule with the power to transport the listener back to a simpler time. A time when kids were the masters of their own destiny with the entire world laid out before them. “It was a short period of my life and there were a lot of ups and downs at that time. But it’s these conversations, just hearing from people who connected with and have these beautiful memories attached to my music, [that I love],” finishes Hoku. “I’ve moved on with my life. I have a whole family and a whole life beyond that now … but it’s really moving and touching for me. It’s been a blessing to see how it’s unfurled as time has moved on.”