I always say that I stopped paying attention to new music after the Bangles’ "Everything" came out in 1988. But the truth is a little more … melodramatic.
After five long years of dating a Colombian control freak -- the kind of guy who thought Carlos Vives, Luis Miguel and the Gipsy Kings should provide the score to every waking moment -- I emerged from that relationship musically shell-shocked. Picture me, trapped in a BMW 352i with “Bamboleo” blaring for the thousandth time, praying for death -- or at least for Blondie.
Once I regained custody of the stereo, I discovered that the ’90s actually had some incredible music -- and, unsurprisingly, it was mostly the women doing the heavy lifting. Saint Etienne, Ivy, Garbage, Shakespears Sister, Belly, the Breeders -- they were the cool younger cousins of the divas we grew up worshipping. And of course, some of my childhood faves -- Everything But the Girl, Paul Weller, Divinyls, Aimee Mann, Sade, Chris Isaak -- were still carrying the melodic torch into adulthood, making it safe for me to sing along without irony.
Then I stumbled upon this list of the best-selling albums from each year of the ’90s. Out of the 10, eight were by women. Artists like Madonna, Whitney, Mariah and Cher strutted through the decade like the legends they were and still are -- with Alanis doing her best angry-diary thing in the corner.
But by the end of the decade, things started … well, hitting a sour note. The music got worse (Celine), then worse (Shania) and somehow even worse (Britney). By the 2000s, I wasn’t sure whether to turn on the radio or flee the country. (At least Argentina never stopped believing in rock.)
Maybe I’m just nostalgic, but sometimes I miss when music had a pulse -- when choruses soared, bridges mattered and the girls sang like they meant it. Today’s playlists sound like background music for a skincare commercial, or worse.
So yes, I still joke that I stopped paying attention after the Bangles' eternal flame figured out a way to extinguish at the end of the '80s. But if I’m being honest, I think music just hit its own decrescendo -- and I never quite recovered.
In fairness, maybe it isn't reasonable to think you wouldn't be let down when you grew up in an era when the average Top 20 includes the likes of Stevie Wonder, Prince, Diana Ross, Madonna, David Bowie, Tina Turner, Chaka Khan, Elton John, Rod Stewart, Hall and Oates and Cyndi Lauper.
I stopped caring about pop music at about age 25, when I had a party and made the mistake of playing a CD (yes, those) from two years before. My little gaggle of gay boy friends at the time (all of them long-lost to history) snickered at my "old fashioned" taste in music. It was shortly after that that I gained an interest in Classical music and later married an opera singer. Oddly, someone claiming to be Sam Smith has recently been communicating with me through Tumblr. He showed me a copy of his ID when I questioned his identity. I'm old enough to be his dad and I'm not a fan so 🤷 I dunno.
ReplyDelete