1990’s (Graduate School, Marriage, First Kid) an iTunes Music playlist of my favourites. 🎶
Tag: Music
Our 1980s Radio Favourites
Outsourced is an NJ-based band covering a broad range of the 1980s and 1990s pop and rock songs. Bhavna’s brother-in-law attended Rutgers University with all of the band members, all of whom are doctors. We first heard them play when one of Bhavna’s co-workers, a doctor and whose husband (who isn’t a doctor) also went to school with my brother-in-law’s friends, invited us to hear her perform with the band. She had been practising singing with them for a few months. The doctors are super busy, so the group only perform a few times a year.
The band drew a sizable audience filling the tavern that night. They played many popular songs from the ’80s and ’90s, including many of my favourites (U2, Duran Duran, Men at Work, The Police). We had a great time, but Bhavna and I realized that we listened to different things on the radio in the ’80s. She was very much into American pop, and I listened to (mostly) a mixture of British and European pop, American rock and roll, and of course reggae and soca. That is to be expected. She grew up in New Jersey, and I grew up in the British West Indies.
Bhavna and I also realized that we associated these songs with different moments and places in time. For many songs, I can recall the island where we lived when I first heard the song and the general time of year of some memorable event associated with the song. Bhavna doesn't think she has memories associated with songs, but I think she does.
My brother-in-law hosted a Super Bowl party this year, and we had a chance to talk with the singer for the band about how he chose the music for gigs and his favourite 80’s music. Bhavna was particularly interested in the playlist of 1980s music he had created on Spotify. He sent me a link with the list. As we are Apple Music users over the last two months, I have recreated her brother-in-law's playlist but added my personal favourite hits and made sure to include entries from Bhavna’s favourites.
Our 1980s Radio Favourites, a personal playlist on Apple Music, is a combination of our favourites.
NOTE: Martin McCallion's recent post prompted me to write this one.
Music
A song of photography!
Created by photographer Frank Jansen, the Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography.
A song of photography!
Growing up in the Anglo Caribbean (the old term is British West Indies,) I was mostly exposed to Kaiso ( Calypso ) and later reggae. Kaiso gave way to Calypso, which, due to regional musical influences, became soca (Soul Calypso).
I remember that my uncles listened to American Country Music by Johnny Cash and Hank Williams Junior and quite a lot of Elvis Presley. I can't explain why my uncles liked that music, but I developed an appreciation for it.
My father preferred famous American musicians such as Andy Williams and Nat King Cole. Still, as I grew older and my dad became an audiophile, he switched to Pink Floyd, Chuck Mangione, and Gato Barbieri. My musical tastes changed along with him.
In high school, I discovered my musical tastes. I liked Bob Marley, David Bowie and The Police, the Beatles, Peter Gabriel and Devo and Flock of Seagulls, Duran Duran, Tears for Fears, Prince and Michael Jackson. My musical taste was all over the map. Consistently inconsistent. But in the 1980s, I mostly listened to European alternative music.
First, records were spun on my father's audio equipment. He was a serious audiophile. Linn Sondek turntable and pickup, Bose 501 Series 3 and Quad ESL 63 hooked up to NAD preamps and Marantz amplifiers. Our living room was a listening room. I learned the difference between high bias metal and standard cassette tapes. I learned how to set the equaliser for each type of music listening experience.
Then CDs came, and plastic discs replaced my tapes and vinyl. High-quality digital discs quickly transitioned to lower quality but "good enough" digital downloads. It's not good enough. But that's where we are.
I discovered the band U2 in my second year of college. I listened to the Joshua Tree album until it fell apart. I had to buy a second copy. Then I bought all their older records. And the new ones as they were released. I had friends who travelled to Europe and bought me bootleg copies of tape recordings of concerts. I couldn’t get enough of the band.
U2 lead me to REM and Pearl Jam, Alice in Chains, Stone Temple Pilots and Nirvana. My 1990s were mostly filled with American alternative rock. I still listen to this genre today.
In the 2000s’ I listened to Cold Play and the OneRepublic.
Lately, I have been stuck on EDM. Paul van Oakenfold, and Tiesto, and Armin van Buren. Right now, that music seems to calm me when working and help blot out the voices of self-doubt.
Bob Marley reminds me too much of the life I used to have in the Caribbean and which I miss dearly. I don't listen to reggae and calypso as much as I used to.
Created by photographer Frank Jansen, the Tuesday Photo Challenge is a weekly theme-based challenge for photographers of all kinds to share both new and old photography.
