walk this waayyyy!
the realisation that i am old struck me again in HMV. no i didn’t catch a look at myself flipping idly through cd racks and realised that the suspected chin hair was a reality, it was a series of things.
from 1995-2001 i bought every NOW cd, a compilation of the year’s best hits. i also bought grammy’s best hits 1995-2001. for the most part, loved them. a couple of the songs i could have done without, but i knew the words i could understand the words and they weren’t all about killing each other.
so today i hip-hopped my way through hmv, and admitted i couldn’t understand what was being said/sung over the in store speakers. i justified it by thinking that was because the room was so big and the sound gets distorted, the buzz of other people talking, the bing of the cash register…oh i was good.
and then i walked over to NOW 2005. flipped it over and scanned it idly, getting ready to smile as i read the titles of some cool tunes.
i didn’t recognise one.
i am sad but serious. not a one.
that’s because you are old, whispered some unfriendly part of my brain.
i fought the ugly whisper by putting on the headphones, thinking that i might not have known the titles, but i sure as sam heck knew the songs and would be familiar with them as soon as i heard the first tunes.
i gave up after the first six.
disgruntled, i put down the headphones and wandered around. comforted myself as i looked at the bestseller list and saw moby’s name. HA! i even had that cd. how cool am i. not wanting to answer that question, i continued my meandering.
then i saw something, in the corner, that made my heart race. it was, and i quote, "pop music". i was thrilled and homed in on it. there were three "pop" cd options to listen to…and i picked up the first one and started grinning. 80’s and 90’s music…there should have been a big sign…WELCOME HOME TESS.
whitney houston (or whip-me beat me as we ever so cleverly dubbed her) "you give good love", reo speedwagon, "i can’t fight this feeling", steely dan, "i really want to see you tonight" and "lady" (okay, they are 70’s but i really liked them)…it was memory lane as i stood there, soaking in the memories of suntan lotion, laughing at the mall, getting ready to go out to a restaurant with friends, their brothers and several male contenders…i only played a few favourties, and then decided i had to be democratic and at least SEE what the other cd’s had to offer. reluctantly i checked it out…i ignored the air supply and berlin, and focused on duran duran, john parr’s "man in motion" (from st elmo’s fire), rem "losing my religion", aerosmith, rick springfield, billy joel wanted to tell me he loved me "just the way you are", but we settled for "uptown girl", i tried not to moonwalk during "thriller", the recently dethroned miss america, vanessa williams got tasty revenge for "the sweetest days" and had to bite my fist so i didn’t cry while mike and the mechanics sang, "the living years".
20 years ago we listened to the music and really thought it was applicable to our lives. when i was 13 a friend of mine dedicated the song (remember when you could still do that?), "physical" to her boyfriend because she wanted him to kiss her at the theatre that night. i didn’t necessarily like all the songs i heard today, but that’s not what it was about. they evoked nostalgia.
i saw a gaggle of girls singing and bustin moves to music they knew and hoped they understood that the songs they download and are part of their lives will be part of their lives forever.
i am so glad i was a child of the 1980’s and a twenty somthing in the 1990’s. dressed in my respectable (fuschia) jumper, pink patterned chiffon skirt and sensible shoes (okay they were from nine west) i could admit i was a totally different generation from these teens. and i was glad of it. i am probably two generations removed from them. no worries
eighties music is often criticised by the "experts", but there are too many memories in the 80’s and 90’s stuff to make me able to see clearly what was so wrong with it. it was terrific. we liked it…can that be so wrong?
my eighties, my memories, my music. my goodness.
