Tuesday, January 18, 2011

Songs of Childhood

When I think back on how music of the 1980s affected my childhood, five artists/bands always spring to mind first: Madonna, Cyndi Lauper, Michael Jackson, Irene Cara and Air Supply.

I can't tell you how many times I bopped around my bedroom to "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun," or how much I adored (and still adore, now I'm in my thirties) "Crazy For You."  I don't know how I got away with listening to "Like A Virgin" so much--I guess my parents figured I didn't yet know what "virgin" meant (and I didn't).

"Flashdance (What A Feeling)" was the song that would make me a star, and "Thriller" was, well, thrilling. I remember how cool it was to watch the video, and how I always got a little bit scared by it. And for some reason, Air Supply was a favorite, too.

MTV was a new entity--it actually showed music videos back then, how novel--and we were still a few years off from that new-fangled compact disc. iTunes? I wouldn't download iTunes and buy an iPod until 2006. Computers weren't even part of my daily life yet.

And these songs were the soundtrack of my life--the songs I danced around my bedroom to, the songs I sang off-key in my little girl voice, the songs I dreamed to.

Not much has changed, really, except for the soundtrack itself. ; )

Some other songs I loved:


(The hair! The tiger shirt!)




(THE CLOTHES! THE DANCING!! God, the Eighties were insane.)



1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Thank you for your blog post! Russell Hitchcock from Air Supply is actually coming out with a new album "Russell Hitchcock - Tennessee (The Nashville Sessions)" Check it out at russellhitchcock.com, you can preorder the album there.