[Before I go to hand in this essay and thus finish my pop culture course (yay!) I thought that I would type a short piece for all of you. As for the get together… I currently have 4 people who have said they 'probably' be there.]
Anywho… music has always had a great effect on my life. The odd thing being that I never really stopped listening to children's music until I was no longer a child. In fact up until I was about 12 years old, my favorite tunes to listen to consisted of children's favorites… many of which on ol' cassette tapes. In fact some of my favorite tunes were Sesame Street greats, Yogi bear stories, and Cabbage Patch Kids tunes. In fact, most of the music I listend to on my own time had been likely recorded in the 1970s and 1980s.
Mind you, that's not to say that I didn't listen to my parents music also. I loved my dad's country and rock 'n roll. The Beatles, classical music and classic rock were tunes available from my dad's massive record collection which he would play on occaision. I also listened to oldies via my mother's radio station of choice (my dad listened to the country radio station when I was a child.
My first real stereo system of my own had the great appeal of not only a radio, but a record player and an 8-track! I was ever so pleased to be able to play whichever classic records that I pleased, plus to tune into country radio whenever I wanted. Some people might think it odd that I loved my 8-track player… (although I much prefered my record player). Alas, I only had about 4 8-tracks with which to play. Yet, I continued to listen to obscure children's music, country, classic rock, The Beatles and classical music (just to list a few genres).
I also loved listening to musical soundtracks… and found that Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, Cats, and Les Miserables were favorites for those times when I was fighting the most horrible of moods. These still are numbered among my favorites, and continued to be during my junior high years.
It wasn't until 1992 when I was ten years old that I started to listen to what one might call 'popular music' or even recent tunes (with the exception of whatever newer soft rock/Celine Dion etc. that my mother listened to on her oldies radio station or country on my dad's). I remember tuning into Power 92 for the first time as if it were yesterday. It was 8pm on a weekday night, and back then they had a feature where at 8pm they would play two new up and coming songs, people would vote on them for an hour and the winner would be played at 9pm. The winner would of course become the 'champion' for the next night, which would be pitted against another challenger. After 5 nights of winning, a champion would be retired, and two challengers would be pitted head-to-head. I don't remember whether there was a champion that night going in, nor do I remember the other song, but they played Donna Lewis' 'I Love you Always Forever' which I listened to, fascinated, as I lay upon my European Ikea bed. The song would go on to win the 8 o'clock showdown as they called it, and later become the top song of 1992 on the Power 92 countdown at the end of the year.
That song was my favorite that year. Maybe it was just circumstance, but it was… and remains associated with oh so many memories. In fact for that reason (and that reason only) when I stumbled across the CD later in life, I made sure to get a copy.