Chp 568. Reliving the music, Part 1.

Since I've been so busy with my new job, new relocation and new projects, I hardly had the time to update my blog. And even though that is actually a trivial thing, the eccentric part of me is afraid I may not be able to fulfill my annual goal of "50+ blog posts a year" this time! :(

I mean, been blogging for 10+ years with an update of more than 50 posts every year is not something easy to do! Sure, 50+ posts per year is not a difficult target to reach for the first year, second year, third year or maybe even fifth year… but doing it every year for 10+ years is actually quite tough! And yeah, many of my updates may be nonsensical, but at least that kinda keeps the fire burning within me to keep writing :D I have seen so many awesome bloggers with really insightful and in-depth posts and humorous content who sadly just vanish from the face of the blogosphere within a year or two.

A lot of things can be a reason for one to stop blogging - Change in priorities, relocations, marriage, kids, loss of interest, the list goes on. Oh how I wish they could come back to blogging one of these days, I really miss many of my old blog friends :( As for me, I do plan to keep on blogging regularly for as long as I can…

So in order to fill up a couple of posts quickly in order to meet this year’s quota of 50+ posts, here is me deciding to write about some of my favorite "old time" songs. I’m talking about the 90’s. I know a lot of my visitors are in my age group (or older), don’t lie! :P I’m sure at one point of time, some of you had posters of a topless Samantha Fox or New Kids On The Block on your bedroom wall! :) :P

My aim is to blog about some of my favorite "oldies" songs now and then, songs that are not very popular today, hoping I can jog your memory and take you down memory lane. I mean, comon, we were brought up in the walkman and tape-recorder generation. Those days, a lot of "house parties" could flop because of many reasons -

(a) The  tape-recorder cord was not long enough to reach the plug point

(b) Power cut while in the middle of "forming a circle" on the "dance floor" and there’s no battery backup

(c) The batteries ran out and even after "biting" them, it could play no more than 2-3 songs

(d) The idiot in charge of bringing his latest collection of dance cassettes forgot to do so

(e) The tape-recorder "ate up" the cassette reel, ending in people carefully unwinding the tapes using a Reynolds pen…

The list is endless.

Today, things are so different. You want music? Everybody has them on their mobile phones or portable drives. And even without those, one can easily access Youtube or any cloud service to play whatever music they want. Imagine if that was possible those days! :)

For starters… remember how popular Eurodance music used to be those days? And how can one not mention E-Type or 2 Unlimited when it comes to Eurodance? :D

"Here I go again it’s time for me to fade away…" See, our dance music those days were not just about the music, they were also quite inspirational too.

E-Type singing - "You gotta move on, you better believe it, and you'll find out this is the time of your life" makes you wanna just move on if you face any obstacles or setbacks. Or for that matter 2 Unlimited singing "No Limit" - it wasn’t just a catchy beat, it was actually telling you whatever you plan to do or achieve, there are "no limits, we’ll reach for the sky, no valley too deep, no mountain too high, no no limits, won’t give up the fight, we do what we want and we do it with pride". (you just sang the song in your head as you read that, didn't cha? :D )

And then of course came the "Sweet dreams" and "Be my lover" era of La Bouche. I’m sure many of us must have heard of those songs, but how many of you have actually heard of their slow-jam number called "Do you still need me?"

Those were the days when a house party was not just about dancing to fast beat music but slow-jamming to songs such as this as well, usually played towards the end of a party. "Take my breath away", "Drive", "Waiting for a girl like you" or any song by Air Supply or Smokie was common back then. And of course me being the shy introvert, I'd always be the one sitting in a corner all alone during this moment. God I used to hate the slow jam sessions so much because of that.

What about Maria Montell? How many of you remember or know this song, the mixed version? :)

"This small town girl, needs to fly, to reach her dreams, in the sky, ai yai yai… and so the story goes, di da dee, di da di da di da di da di da di, dup dee" :)

It was a very catchy tune back then, though I guess not very popular… and speaking of catchy tunes, I guess Suzanne Vega’s "Tom Diner" would be one of my all time favorites…

"tut tut tu ru, tut tu tu ru, tut tut tu ru tut tu tu ru, tut tut tu ru, tut tu tu ru, tut tut tu ru tut tu tu ru"

Tell me that didn’t just take you back to those days? :)

Those were the days when Tifanny came out of nowhere and shook the dance circuit with her "I think we’re alone now" hit single. My eldest sis u Lapuii would teach me the entire dance steps in action, and me and my three elder sisters would enact the whole dance together, until dad or mom would barge in and furiously tell us to stop the music :)

Belinda Carlisle’s "Leave a light on for me" was also popular back then, and I still love the song to this day.

"Heaven is a place on earth" and "Circle in the sand" are also other favorite songs of mine by her, but I’ll try to cover such bands like Bangles, Carpenters, Alana Miles in another post :)

I’d like to end this post with a song called "Rush rush" by Paula Abdul. The reason why I selected this song is because lately I have seen so many posts by people of "my generation" criticizing the "current generation" of the type of music they listen to today. Sometimes we end up comparing the best of our era to the worst of this era, like the difference in lyrics composition between Queen’s "Bohemian Rhapsody" and a Nicki Minaj song! Comon, that ain’t a fair comparison at all :) We also tend to criticize this generation, say a Miley Cyrus swinging naked on a wrecking ball as too racy, but hey, many of the popular songs of our generation weren’t very clean either. Just listen to Paula Abdul’s "Rush rush" -

She’s like, "Rush rush… hurry hurry lover come to me… I wanna see… I wanna see you get free with me… I can feel it, I can feel you all through me…" Now that’s not very innocent, isn’t it? Yet many of us danced to that song. Or songs like "Sweat" by Inner Circle singing - "Girl I wanna make you sweat, sweat like you can sweat no more, and if you cry out, I’m gonna push it, push it some more" :) The same goes for Peter Andre's "Mysterious girl", Olivia Newton John's "Physical", Boyz II Men's "I'll make love to you", Donna Summer's "Hot stuff",  not to mention Sir Mix-A-Lot’s "Baby got back". Man we sure had our fair share of naughty racy steamy lyrics too! I guess the only difference between such songs and Nicki Minaj singing - "My anaconda don't, my anaconda don't, My anaconda don't want none unless you got buns" is that our generation pop bands were able to pull the same thing off in a much more classy manner :D

So this is my music flashback update for now, hopefully I’ll be able to update a few more posts like this later. Do let me know if you remember any of these songs mentioned here. Cheers for now :)