ultimate new wave party

that was the name of an 80's compilation cd that i received for christmas many years ago. just the other day i was driving in the car and heard the 90's at noon on kroq. it made me sad because when i was in high school i listened to richard blade's flashback lunch which was all 80's and it was fantastic. on friday nights i would often drive around with my friend tyler in my family's '85 blue station wagon (with the fake wood paneling) listening to star 98.7's totally 80's friday nights. at the time it just seemed normal for stations to be playing all 80's on the radio because it had been less than a decade since the 80's and the music from that decade was so timeless and so great. i guess that i just assumed that music stations would forever play 80s whenever they had a flashback lunch or a flashback weekend. why wouldnt they? hearing stations play 90s flashback music made me feel old. it is 2008. 10 years since i was driving around in the beautiful 'bmw' (big mormon wagon - cheesy, i know. but fitting for the car. it was so classic. the fake wood paneling was peeling away - chipping away if you will. the material on the ceiling had fallen off so it was just this brown sticky material. the gas gauge stopped working so you had to watch the odometer and head to the gas station every 180 miles. it also stalled occasionally, even though it was an automatic. the hood was so big a family of 6 could comfortably have a picnic on it. it was supposed to be blue, but was so faded by the sun and other elements, that it was a nice combination of rust orange and faded blue. here is a great blog post about the car, written by my brother.)

anyways, it makes sense that stations should play 90s music in 2008 just like they played 80s music in 1998, but what doesnt make sense is 90s music. how does one define 90s music? i was trying to think of 90s music and i just couldnt really define it. furthermore, i dont think its nearly as timeless as 80s music. dont get me wrong, 80s music isnt exactly timeless like a 'beatles' song or like 'pink moon' by nick drake where its just a quality song that will forever be great and the sound is so good that it could have been written yesterday, even though it was written 30+ years ago. its 'fitting' no matter when you listen to it.

most 80s music only 'fits' in the 80s. but its still timeless. how do you define the 90s? baggy clothes? grunge music? even if you can 'define' it, its not nearly as enjoyable as the 80s. disco was timeless, but it was ridiculous and embarrassing. 80s new wave wasnt exactly cool and was ridiculous, but it wasnt as embarrassing and it was humorous. but in a good way. 70s disco was just wrong. borderline sinful.

so what is 90s music? nirvana? pearl jam? harvey danger? third eye blind? blah, blah, blah. stations still play nirvana. a lot. too much. and pearl jam is still trying to put out records. well, i know eddie vedder is still making music. harvey danger was a fun one hit wonder, and as much as i enjoyed their song 'flagpole sitta,' its just not as timeless or enjoyable as an 80s one hit wonder, like 'i melt with you' by modern english. (although an interesting thing about harvey danger is that they seem to have a token asian. one of the finalists on american idol is asian and my friend and i were talking tonight about how we couldnt think of any asian rock stars or asian bands. surely they exist, but none came readily to mind). and third eye blind is just a crappy band and hearing them again makes you realize that your life has only improved during the last 6 years and its because you havnt heard them on the radio in that time.

i think one of best things to come out of the 90s is rap music. you get a good mixture of early 90s rap, like early snoop dogg, tribe called quest and naughty by nature, to wyclef, tupac and wu-tang clan later on in the decade. im not even a big rap fan, but i think as a whole, there was a lot of great rap during the decade. i guess that most of the rap that i listen to comes from the 90s. i havnt really evolved or kept up very well on current rap music, but that is because what i do know or have, 90s stuff is good and very fulfilling for me. im not sick of it. but the rest of 90s music wasnt the same. i didnt want to cruise around listening to the music over and over. i wanted to move on and hear what the next decade had to offer.

also, i think its interesting how in a way, all 80s music sounds the same, but in a good way. i mean, the b52's, billy idol, poison, van halen, sugarhill gang, public enemy and michael jackson dont all have the same sound, but i feel like they all sort of do, or at least it sounds like they all are influencing each other more so than snoop dogg and third eye blind influenced each other.

anyways, i dont think 80s new wave is the greatest music of all time. i just think that in comparison to 70s music and 90s music, there is no comparison. as a whole, 80s just dominates. between new wave, 80s butt rock, the beginnings of rap and the king of pop, the 90s dont stand a chance, at least not when you are cruising around in a boat-sized station wagon on a friday night.