Friday, April 4, 2014

80's Music Prepared Generation X For No Future or How Five Key Pop Songs Have Become Your So Called Life


As not only a dj who works for free at a college station playing 80's music but also a pop culture vulture of eighties sociological meaning I have some wisdom of how your present life was once predicted in your past. You were listening, but maybe zapping a tank or two on COMBAT in your Atari Game Console, throwing a lawn jarts at the neighborhood nerd or roller skating at the local rink with your Members Only Jacket flapping in the post three mile meltdown decade and not really absorbing the looming lyrics predicting your generation X fail of your adulthood. Here are a few of my five favorites you might have paid more attention back in the future so one can cope better in a divorce filled, post foreclosure, laid off and poverty stricken future post big government wartime. And why. The wisdom was in the star hits lyric page or a paper jacket inside an album....an easter egg in your adventure, no ?

WON 1


" Who Can It Be Now ? " Men at Work ( 1981 ) Released in 1981, this number pop one smash first hit for Colin Hay and his merry band of video making Aussies marked the beginning of a short run of fun popular tunes, positive organic sounds and goofy faces in videos. Their first single, going to number one in many countries and being completely overplayed on commercial radio was hard to ignore. But the song itself is really about ignoring the knock on the door of the landlord, as the loser rockstar to be has not paid his rent. He is trying to be quiet, at times getting kinda belligerent for a past due renter but to be clear, this slacker is ignoring the responsibility of single dwelling. Maybe in the future, you too would lose your home, occasionally your job and possibly the guy who owns the joint would remind you of your past due and a knock on the door or a call is usually the "aaaaaahhhh- oh no !" moment Colin brilliantly captured in a pop song. A foreclosed, divorce-weekend -custody generation would know well of issues of home and whether moving quickly to one of your 27 homes or one single parent sad dwelling if you rented and did not own. A fun poppy song about being on the verge of being homeless while a creative visionary soon about to release a song sampling the main riff of christian campfire favorite tune " Kookaburra" in flute as a follow up single. So warning Gen Xers, housing may be an issue when going back to the future !

TOO 2

" Do You Really Want to Hurt Me " Culture Club ( 1982 ) Released in 198?, This was the first single for the Club. Lead by flamboyant transdressing gay singer Boy George, this band knocked it out of the park with style, soul and odd looks. The band went on to release tons of emotive pop singles after another, but nothing as soulful and sincere as this first smash single. " Do you really want to hurt me " asks why this person acts resentfully towards their partner / lover / other dude dressed up like ethel merman. And you completely ignored the warnings of relationships in a post generation x broken marriage area that really seem to be about hurting people and the shock of the turn after trust. Making them cry, wailing men in mascara, all that horrible relationship breakup stuff. Apparently, feeling better at the expense of making someone feel lousy about a perceived relationship or a teasing of the toe in the water continues on past sixth grade. A reminder that at any age you will be at the mercy of someone you allowed into your little brittle heart only to have the knife twist as you realize the kill was all the pleasure this person was after. do you want to make me cry ? i guess if it still makes You feel better to inflict hurt, it's as timeless as diet soda and just as fake.


TREE 3 


Only the Lonely Can Play " Motels ( 1983 ) This is the first and almost only single for the band named after cheaper hotels in america, overtaken by Martha with the original band members becoming the Burning Sensations ( Pablo Picasso off Repo Man, Belly of the Whale ) and having few commercial success after the smash. The song makes me leap for any channel changing device or shop faster in an 80's soundtrack store, as even in the day it was a bore snore chore to sit thru for some possible Hall and Oates afterspin. And as an adult, this song should make perfect sense although nearly unbearable to listen to. You can't fuck around while you are in constant relationship status, married or long term moved in. Well, you shouldn't anyhow. But folks like myself in post divorce, no relationship string things can do whatever the f we want. Have donuts for dinner, see midget strippers, make shitty decisions on drunk dudes and buying liars spew for a spell. They just soak in like a bad sun in orange glow to give off a rancid hue of horrorshow. Being lonely does have it's advantages, and knowing full well my adult life was probably spent more with dogs over gods, you must embrace the suck to enjoy the play. and remember, only the lonely !


FORE !

"wouldn't it be good " Nick Kershaw ( 1984) Most of you love and enjoy this pop tune, he is a one hit wonder in the states and more beloved in the UK, other countries i can't pronounce and somewhere else worthy of David Hasselhoff tickets in a stadium. The video of him in a lost in space outfit helped me love him more, but this tiny sad tune released in a warm spring of HBO specials, mtv and horrible middle school moments in flub was more about dark things. Dark things like adult emotions that loomed in your future from failure, giving up when beaten, resigning when falling and throwing a race or two to avoid even sharing with another human your pain and suffering. You hope these moments come when life is over, but what happens when they over take your every waking moment of failure replay before their time ? How to repair a damaged emotional state is not a popular undertaking to reboot in a rewired world when my inner chip is a bit outdated to say the least. nor is it easy to do on your own. Much like the end of the chocolate war, what happens next when you don't get off the mat after refusing to join in the chant of greed?  Sick of fighting, frozen to the bone and wishing yourself away. Sound familiar ?


FINAL 5 !

" Tainted Love"  Soft Cell ( 1981 ) Two new wavey gothy gravey guys took an old soul tune and coldly one hit that wonder into your head forever. Not only it is your favorite dance-able break up song from back in the day, it for tells your future of low down dirty shame from horrible relationships. Soulful, sad and silly, Soft Cell manages to bang out all the shitty feelings that spew from just about every relationship crack / open wound that forced you into a safe marriage away from the pain of the occasional and back again when that monument tumbles into dust. Ow. In your shepre teens, you could not conceive boys would be allowed that close to the edit to fuck shit up like no other and of course vice verse, same as the first. Failure seemed pretty obvious the pain inflicted need to feed the hungry like the wolf predator looming over an answering machine message of rejection or a scribed note of goodbye, but decades of this crap to stay sick ...it's ....... it's back to the future with fail !
 Say hello, wave goodbye.....












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