This is an embarrassing admission, but it is part of my past, and I feel it is important to acknowledge.
For much of my early life, my music of choice (and of ignorance) was easy listening. That’s right. Not just cheesy music — a certain amount of cheese (Bon Jovi, ELO) is respectable for any child of the 80s. But I’m talkin’ Delilah–SoftRock–Toto–Celine easy listening.
The soft rock station was my alarm in the morning, and I listened as I got ready for school.
In my adult years I try to counter the childhood damage by listening to lots of indie rock and jazz, along with some classical and electronica. The wounds still emerge occasionally, though, like when I am in the grocery store and I start singing along to the muzak.
You’re the meaning in my life,
You’re the inspiration . . .
Why do birds suddenly appear
Every time
You are near?
Just like me,
They long to be
Close to you.
The extent of my cheesy past still shocks my husband occasionally. I mean, he knew I was an Andrew Lloyd Webber fan when he married me, but sometimes I horrify him with a proclamation that I love some recent Top 40 hit (Rihanna‘s “Unfaithful”) or with a rendition of a Celine Dion song (ouch, that one is really embarrassing). In fact, I think Paul can sense that cheesy music is on my mind right now, because it sounds like he is trying to block out any soft rock vibes with the soundtrack to one of the Indiana Jones movies.
Now see, that just reminds me of the soundtrack to the 1984 version of Dune, written by … Toto! And the circle of easy listening is complete.
One interesting side effect of my “soft rock” childhood is that I can sing Euro dance pop with the best of them (or at least lip-sync and look like a fool while driving the car). Tune in to WRVU Saturday afternoons, and I can just about guarantee you will hear some 70s or 80s pop song rehashed as a dance mix, complete with power strings and abnormally high vocals.
I wouldn’t say “horrify”, but it does make me sad for you, that you had to endure that for all that time. But i know you just didn’t know any better.
You did recoil appropriately when i played some of the ‘bad’ Stevie Wonder while playing name-that-tune tonight.
I think we have it mostly out of your system now. And what you have retained is somewhat useful in your knowledge of which dance tunes are covers of what so i know what i can listen to without being embarrassed. You have saved me more than once from thinking a song was cooler than it was 🙂
One of the most liberating aspects of aging is not really caring whether anyone approves of the music I listen to, the books I read, or the fact that I am movie illiterate! I’d rather take a hike than do any of the aforementioned!
Me own person.