What were you listening to?

For the past couple of years, I’ve made the big switch from 987FM to Class 95 (I still listen to Lush though). Thus,if you ask me, right now, I’ve no freaking idea who’s In in the pop arena.

Even when my friend recently pointed out that Avril Lavigne had just released a new album, my first reaction was, “You mean Avril still singing?”. Yeah, I no more feel the connection between me and the pop music of this generation.

I’m not saying music from this generation sucks, indeed recently I’ve been seeing a proliferation of great bands and solo artistes which I believe I’ll still be listening to in the next decade. Some example would be The Fray, Lily Allen etc.

The switch was made also because firstly, I’m feeling old and Class 95 plays great music from Pet Shop Boys to Sting, and secondly, they play 80s! Yes, hate me if you want to, or call me uncool but I think the 80s have some of the greatest ,though at times stupid songs. Things seems to be carefree back then.

Newave music and synthpop. Sometimes I wish I’m an eighties kid. Rick Astley and Al Corley might do injustice to the mambo jambo era, when they had more than that, from Gazebo to Duran Duran. You see, I can go crazy over the eighties (I love Mambo nite!) that whenever Class 95 have all-eighties weekend, I’ll be stuck to my Zen’s player FM.

After the long intro, here’s the real entry actually. Haha. Read on…

Anw, for non-listeners, Class 95 have themed weekends in which every weekends they play only songs to fit the theme for the weekend. All-80s weekend is my favourite! When they had all-90s weekend, I was lamenting how terrible music from that era was.

However, despite the terrible music the 90s produced, I am a nineties boy. I grew up in the nineties (and the turn of the millenium), and no matter how much I hate it, listening to those songs just brings me back to yesteryears.

Who can forget the boybands! They infiltrated the music scene back in the late nineties! Backstreet Boys was the rage when I was in Sec 1, that every infotainment programmes on TV (remember Vidz?) and magazines (Lime was the coolest mag) would be incomplete without them. My friend promised to borrow me one of their CD and she never did. And then there’s 911, And and Dec and N*Sync.

The Hansons were still going Mmmbop. Remember? Singapore seems to be a hotspot for boybands cos it seems like almost every week, we would have visits by them. Gurmit Singh seems to always host them on his weekly talkshow. While my friends and I used to go gaa-gaa over Savage Garden, pssst I was a closet fan of A1.

Moffatt’s Miss You Like Crazy – Dang, I’m still humming to this shit!!!

Then, there were the girl groups! Sugababes, Destiny Child but do you still remember S Club 7? Yeah, must they play S Club 7 during everyyyy school events??!!!! “Reach out for the skies, climb every mountain higher..”, haha freaking irritating, but strangely enough, I enjoyed watching the series they had (can’t remember the title), though I don’t understand why I enjoyed watching it.

Oh, can you forget Spice Girls?! When other guys were salivating over Emma Bunton, I was all over Victoria Adams! Damn she’s hot! Guess what, 2 become 1 was one of my favourite song by them, cos that’s the first song that after listening to, I straight away relate it to sex. Went up to my fren, “Hey you know what were they trying to sing about in that song?”.

They were like “Huh? What?”, me replied -”Sex!”. Yeah, back then we were too innocent to actually understand the real meaning behind the term ‘making love’, and we can get really excited over ‘sex’!

I need some love like I never needed love before, wanna make love to you baby

My era wasn’t about trashy pop only. I first learnt the meaning of ‘Thong’ from Sisqo. Yeah, everyone was chanting ‘Thong, Thong, Thong’. Vanilla Ice was also the rage back in primary school.

Imagine my grown-up cousins dressed up in that baggy overalls during Hari Raya, and I was like “Rosak!”. Well, Coolio‘s Gangster’s Paradise was an anthem for the mat wannabes. Some of my drama teammates (yeah I was from the English Literary Drama Debating Society back in school) were insisting that the song to be played during one of our shows, and I oppossed the idea,although I like the song badly too.

Coolio – Gangster’s Paradise

I clearly remember Macy Gray’s ‘I Try’. I sang that song when I wanted to seriously leave the drama company, and they thought that was the best joke to ever come from me. I didn’t quit in the end.

I was also made to listen to Celine Dion’s ‘My Heart Will Go On’ too almost every minutes! My heartbroken friends would listen to Celine, my friends whom is in love would listen to Celine, I’ve made to tag along friends who wanted to woo girls, and they’ll buy anything Titanic! Celine Dion and Titanic were like everywhere! That period was a real agony! Who can forget James Cameroon and “I’m the king of the world!!”.

The Cranberries ‘Zombie’ was also the coolest thing to listern to when I was in primary school. Always visit my friend’s house after school cos he had The Cranberries cassette! I can’t afford cassettes back then. My uncle would gave me his Now That’s What I Call Music collection, and I still remember I can rewind Alanis Morisette’s cover of ‘What If God Was One Of Us’ over and over again. Yeah, tapes, and you’ll love to dig and twist the holes using a 2B pencil.

Oasis was a must (still is) to all those learning the guitar. I didn’t bother to pick up. I like Suede instead. ‘Saturday Night’ was a favourite back then, and still is. ‘Lazy’ too. Damn, they were great! When they came down I was too young to actually ask my mom to allow me attend concerts (unlike kids nowadays).

I considered Radiohead’s ‘No Surprises’ video one of the best vidz back then (other than Jamoroquai’s). I could watch it week after week. Most of my friends I knew of didn’t listen to Suede and Radiohead, thus I was the anti-social, anti-establishment one back then.

Radiohead’s No Surprises – Just love this…

Can’t help, but love this one too. Miss those rebonded, centre parting hairdays, ala characters from Final Fantasy

The nineties was a crazy, quirky period in terms of Dance music. ‘I’m blue da ba dee da ba daa’, haha how can you forget that!!! Not only that, how about Aqua, Vengaboys! Currently, only Bengs with Sparks hangover listen to them, but back then, it was the coolest thing to listen to. And Prodigy, it’s a must for all my PowerPoint presentation background tracks. Anyway, who sang ‘Calcutta’? That Indian accented guy whom went, ‘Cal, calcutta cutta cutta lah hei’, he’s funny!

But hey, the honour should go to Los Del Rio’s Macarena! I think that’s the biggest track of the 90s! Well, I wasn’t a fan though. When everyone was learning the Macarena’s dance move, I was busy humming Fools Garden’s ‘Lemon Tree’. Yup, both songs were released around the same time that they took turns to top the chart every week. My late best bud in primary school (he’s passed on, God bless his soul) would argue with me which song is better, Macarena or Lemon Tree. Till now, I’ll still stick to Lemon Tree.

Please, sing with me this one, please :
I wonder how
I wonder why
Yesterday you told me about the blue blue sky
And all that I can see is just a yellow lemon-tree

Vitamin C’s Graduation was released during my ‘O’ levels, and imagine the emotions we went through. Yeah, those were the memories. There’s more than the ones mentioned. Jewel, Jamiroquai, Smashing Pumpkins, Britney Spears, The Corrs were all product of the nineties.

Despite, how I dislike the era, still listening to them brings back memories of those days, when we were young and free. I can attach a story, a memory, bitter or sweet, to every songs from that decade. I can write a whole chapter on this.

I just miss the era.

I will tell my grandchildren what I listened to. It may seems uncool to them, yet I’ll still be proud of it cos it’s MY generation, just like how our parents reminisce over the 60s.
Sooner or later, Mambo nites will play 90s instead. By then, 90s will be the new eighties.

(Writer is feeling slightly sentimental as of late. He’s aging yet he’s still caught in his prepubescent mentality and that explains this entry. Anyway, he loves Pet Shop Boys cos they sounded gay. Writer believes Britney Spears was the hottest female solo in the nineties but he’s had enough of her. This is writer’s last entry as stated in the contract. Mr Sharuddin now owes him writer’s writing fees.)

Editor’s Note: Visit Hairol’s Blog here