It's The First Time Together And I'm Feeling Kinda...
We've been perusing the oldies playlist for the last few weeks, but I'm back to my usual 90's self now. I love all music really (as evidenced by the elcecticness of my song choices on this blog), but the 90's have my heart ya'll. Most of my closest friends are huge fans of all 90's music and you better believe those who don't favor the decade have a black mark on their permanent record. Yes, it is that important for me. The 90's were just GOOD. While the 60's and 70's saw the rise of the singer-songwriter, and the 80's were a hot mess, the 90's were probably the most eclectic decade to date. There was something for everyone; Rap, R&B, Alternative, Pop. And a lot of it, even the Pop stuff, was good. Not all of it was amazing lyrics and soul shaking lyrics of course, but sometimes you just wanna hear a damn catchy song. And there were plenty of those to go around. I lived off BET and MTV, beginning in middle school and going on through college. I came to like some of the alternative stuff in college, prior to that I was all R&B and Hip Hop. My mom HATES Rap with a fiery passion I have rarely seen. As a result, we were not allowed to listen to it at home. "At home" being the key words. (The irony about this is that my grandma used to tell my mom in her teenage years that she was wasting money on records). It didn't matter anyway since we just borrowed CD's from our friends, copied them and listened anyway. We also had this magical thing called "radio" and in my high school years, a local station re-branded itself into my perfect radio station. I could leave the radio dial on that station for days and never hear a bad song. Every weekday at noon, that station played a "back in the day" show which consisted of an hour's worth of old school songs. One thing I love about my phone is that there are endless music apps available and I have about eight downloaded at the moment. In typical me fashion, I am obsessed with one for awhile and then cast it aside for the next one (good to see this mentality applies to many different areas of my life). The current obsession is an app called "TuneIn Radio" and it allows you to listen to radio stations from around the world. You can see what songs are on various stations before you click on them and there are literally hundreds of stations to choose from. You can rewind, fast forward and record what you listen to. I hadn't listened to the radio in eons before this app, I hate commercials, but I miss the old days of radio when you had no idea what song was coming on next and you cranked it up when it was a good one. Some would say the shuffle on the iPod is the same thing but it's not. It's different in some way. Whilst perusing the selection a few weeks ago, I saw the name of a DJ from my favorite station and was surprised to find him still playing jams. Turnover is so insane these days, but this guy has been there at least fifteen years now. I was even more thrilled to accidentally stumble onto that same hour long awesome-fest that is back in the day jams. Although I have to admit that listening to it now I kinda feel like Old Rose in "Titanic" when she looks into the mirror she lost decades ago. My reflection has changed a bit too. But I don't care as much when I'm listening to great music.
Today while listening to my show, I heard Outkast, Keith Sweat, Mase, LL Cool J and Mya, all in a half hour span. It was fantastic. And that show is what brings us this week's stroll down memory lane and dirty, dirty song o' the week. I think it's hysterical how, back then, we 90's kids jammed to a bunch of songs but had no idea what they meant until we grew up. There should be a TV show that puts the camera on people as they really listen to the words of a song they loved as a kid and realize that it's about sex. I remember hearing the very censored version of "Doin' It" when I was in high school and thinking it was a dirty song. Then I heard the uncensored version and I'm pretty sure I blushed, even though I'd already been doin' it myself for a few years. Of course my mom had no idea I was listening to this back then. I went to a birthday party for a friend, 15 boys and girls in a basement watching movies and generally goofing off, and there was a freak power outage. I swear that house was haunted because as the power went on and off, the stereo came on blaring and what song was on the radio? Most everyone at the party thought it it was too dirty of a song so I played along and said I didn't like it either. The problem with that was that I knew every word and couldn't help but sing along under my breath. Busted. That was embarrassing but was not nearly as bad as when I heard this song, in all of its uncensored glory, played from beginning to end in a Cold Stone shop while I was back home. And I was standing in line with my mother. I don't know that I have ever been that uncomfortable yo. But at least I had the common sense not to sing along this time. Then last year Crazy Aunt took a shine to all things 90's (told you she's my favorite) and she loves this song in particular. Nowadays, whenever we hear it she goes off on a tangent about how she regrets having never been with LL Cool J in her younger days. She says this as if he was some classmate she never got the courage to ask out. It's hilarious. And it's just one more reason why I love this song. Good, if mortifying, memories all around. Enjoy, perverts.
