Happy New Year, dear readers! Hope you all had a fabulous time seeing out 2012 and seeing in 2013.
I've actually found myself with a New Year's resolution this year. I haven't bothered with one for years and years. But, this New Year's Eve, an incident occurred to inspire me to make a pledge...
So, I ended up opting for a pretty quiet New Year's Eve. To help with the countdown, however, I decided to compose a party soundtrack, counting down (or up) from the beginning of the 1980s, when I was born.
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| 1984: Girls Just Wanna Have Fun, Cyndi Lauper (Image source) |
It was compiled in a quite quick and dirty fashion. I just opened up Wikipedia and looked up the singles that made the charts each year, picking out one that was suitably upbeat and had played some part in my life.
I wasn't being a perfectionist about the actual release date or anything like that. So long as a song was in the charts in the year it represented, that was fine by me...
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| 1992: Motocycle Emptiness, Manic Street Preachers (Image source) |
I wasn't agonising over making sure all my favourite bands found a place in there. I wasn't bothering to think beyond the charts or pull out obscure releases. It was just a party soundtrack, after all.
It was actually quite a fascinating exercise, to see what led on from what, where there was a sudden shake-up and contrast...
But as I progressed further on, coming into the noughties, I began to get a little bit anxious...
'Hang on a second', I thought to myself. 'These chart lists are becoming less and less saturated with songs I love... or even know...' There was a sense of relief every time I spotted something with which I genuinely had any affinity...
I managed to squeeze something out of 2010 but then it dried up. The problem is, I've been spending the last few years discovering new music, but new music to me, not genuinely new...
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2012: Ummmm...
Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy, The Andrews Sisters??? (Image source) |
So, feeling incredibly humbled and out of the loop, I swore to myself that I would pay more attention to new music this year. Even if I write most of it off, I want to at least know what's going on out there. Even if I end up just going for things with a retro twist, like
electro swing and modern close harmony groups such as the
Puppini Sisters (hey, maybe I do know something!), at least I'll be informed.
After all, I always say that, even though I love all my classic music, vintage clothes and historic architecture, I love living now, in the twenty-first century. We have such rich pickings to choose from as we root around in the past, finding and keeping our favourite aspects from each decade. So, true to my seeking out the best of every time and era, I should weave more modern music into my listening, interspersed with Ella Fitzgerald and Frank Sinatra...
Does anyone else have any New Year's resolutions? Or does anyone else feel they should make a pledge to become a little more au fait with the modern world...?
Lots of memories here. I know what you mean about the noughties. I lost interest in the music of the late nineties onwards. Been listening to The Cure a lot recently, will always love them! x
ReplyDeleteThe Cure are timeless! I always bring them out especially at this time of year, when it's cold and rainy... They're the perfect soundtrack! x
DeleteNice idea! Hehe, the Cure, ohmygosh how I loved them. Pfew, yes the 90s, halfway I kind of gave up and prefered other music than western pop. The world is much bigger than that. Yes ofcourse you can satisfy your ears with wonderful music made now, you just have to look beyond the charts. Why not take a journey into other styles (folk/classical/trad/world/jazz)? Pop may be omnipresent but not the only contemporary thing available.
ReplyDeleteAnd nope, I don't do resolutions. :-)
Definitely the kind of approach I'm going to be taking - steering clear from the main radio stations to find the alternative to the charts. When I used to listen to the radio all the time, that was always my approach, and sometimes the bands I liked just happened to cross over into the pop charts... Hope you have a great resolution-free and spontaneous 2013! x
DeleteHappy New Year me Dear!
ReplyDeleteI had the exact same realisation last year, It was only when a Muso friend asked me what my favorite album of the year had been, that It dawned on me just how out of touch I had become, the last CD album I had bought at the time was a Hatful of Hollow (which is almost 30 years old) I genuinely could not think of a modern album I had bought in a long while! So to save my pride, I have been making an effort to listen to new stuff, thats why its great that we can listen to the radio at work so 6 music has saved me as it has a good mix of new and old. I still can't confess to know anything from the pop charts (the radio 1 side of the airwaves) but at least its new music that I have a chance of loving! xx
Yours definitely sounds like the right approach. I will certainly not be listening to Radio 1 (it would never work! I would switch it off after less than an hour in rage!). I've not listened to the radio in soooo long, I'll have to work out what works for me. Or perhaps use a bit of Spotify and such like?
DeleteWhat an thoroughly interesting resolution and post. I too have scads of favourite bands from the years leading up to 2000, but from that point on, they become fewer and further between for sure (especially from about 2005 onward). My husband tends to listen to a fair bit of new music, but if not for him, I'd likely only catch wind of those songs that really become mainstream these days. I don't always like the music that comes out these days, but some of it is to my liking (Adele, for example), and you raise an important point regarding how it's good to not loose touch completely with new artists, as you never know who you'll fall in love with. Thank you for this terrific reminder.
ReplyDelete♥ Jessica
*PS*
Thank you dearly as well for your immensely thoughtful, excellently well said comment on my post about hair loss, Marie. I replied there, but just had to come tell you again here how much I agree with your point and how very much I appreciate your thoughts on this subject.
Your lucky to have someone to keep you in touch - my boyfriend is just as bad (or worse, even!) than me! And your more than welcome for the comment on your post x
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