I simply wasn't quite cool enough to be so proto-indie
(minutemen?  i think i just learned about em in social
studies); i know i adored Thriller, which was a couple
(?) years old at that point.  I know we listened
pretty much nonstop to Madonna's rekkids, s/t and LAV.
 I also could sing every uh-huh or oh yeah on any
radio song within a 2 year radius of 1984.  Thanks to
MV3 and MV60 non-cable video shows, Gretchen, my
cohort in musical crime, was starting to load up on
Echo and the Bunnyman, Art of Noise, Adam n the Ants
and ...Wham. (the "club tropicana" video featured
George Michael in speedos lounging on a pool chair,
which titillated us mightily...if only we'd known then
the arduous life of a fag hag, we might have opted to
become metalheads. Talk about mixed messages on that
rekkid, sheesh: get back! hands off! go for it!) 
Naturally, I had all the words to scritti politti's
"perfect way" hanging in my locker at school.

Of course, I also liked "Rhinestone Cowboy" and
Journey and Christopher Cross.  Of course, I was 12. 
What I knew at that point was either what my siblings
liked or what we could glean from Friday Night Videos.
 You folks who had Minutemen and Ultravox on heavy
rotation - how old were you?  I know if I'd been 4
years older I would have had a significantly different
take on things (as does my bro, who provided me with
Paul Weller, XTC, Smiths, REM, etc...you know,
respectable stuff.)

None of which really changes the fact that, as top 40
music goes, there have been worse years than the ones
in which Prince, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bruce
Springsteen, and Cindy Lauper held sway. IMHO.

--kelly

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arma non servant modum


	
		
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