GREAT songs from 1986.

Okay, so 1986 baby!

For our first video, on our stroll down memory lane, I give you a classic hit from 1986. Unless you were living under a bridge in 1986, you couldn’t get away from this song, and honestly I love it. Her name is Janet, Ms. Jackson if your nasty. This video to me is great, it’s a little bit cheese, and a little bit nasty, and there’s even a little crazy thrown in there, a’ la a cameo by Paula Abdul.

“Nasty”, is a great song off the album “Control” by Janet Jackson.  This video is great, and it teaches us so much. For example, when in a movie theater and some dude is harassing you, the best way to make it clear that his advances are unwelcome is to jump up and start singing and dancing. You may not realize it now, but this will invariably come in handy in life at some point. A case COULD be made that these men in the movie theater were so attracted to Ms. Jackson and her super sexy shoulder pads, that they couldn’t help themselves, but not to worry, Ms. Jackson puts them in their place.

Also, Ms. Jackson makes it known that she will not stand for nasty girls, or nasty food. A good way to live if you ask me. She does however, like a nasty groove, which I think we can all get behind. Am I right? Perhaps most importantly, she lets us in on a well-kept secret, and that is that nasty boys never change. I think many of us have forgotten this important lesson. Lot’s of wisdom here from a young Ms. Jackson, such a shame that in 1986, we had no idea yet, just how wise she was.

My next selection is a very recognizable song from 1986. West End Girls by the Pet Shop Boys was a pretty hot song back then, and peaked at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 in the US. This is a great song, and the video really stands up pretty well for being close to 25 years old. But can I just say thank Jebus that the 80′s are over and people don’t use those terrible video filters and effects anymore?! Thankfully they are only peppered into this video. Really they are as bad as a star wipe to black. Which I am sure we will see as we take future trips down music video memory lane. Not to worry I will point them out.

Now here is a song you may recognize or remember, but maybe you didn’t have the tape, or record. Baltimora released the song “Tarzan boy” to some success in the US. The song peaked at number 13 on the Billboard Hot 100.

The video gives us a possible clue as why they were one hit wonders. So we start the video with a bunch of shitty imagery, then we go into this dude actually dancing himself out of frame. I can handle it so far, but then we get to this 80′s split screen bullshit and for me this is the beginning of the end. The splitting the screen into more than one screen with the same shit on it is right up there with the star wipe for me. For those of you who don’t know what I am talking about..

A Tribute to Star Wipes:

Anyway, back to Tarzan Boy. I gotta be honest, the lead singer guy is kinda freaky. Also I liked this song way more before I saw the video. So if that happened to you as well I apologize for ruining it for you, but the truth just has to be told sometimes. Additionally the song lyrics don’t make a hell of a lot of sense, but that’s not terribly important.

Lastly, I give you a classic that will be stuck in your head for the rest of the day, Word up, by Cameo. You’re Welcome. Oh, and yeah that is LeVar Burton in the video.

Perhaps I was unaware, but were codpieces really “in” back in 1986? If they were all I can say is.. Damn, that is crazy. If they weren’t then you have to hand it to the dude in Cameo who was full on sporting a red cod piece through out this whole video. Also on a random note, is it me or do all the women in the video look completely strung out? I’m just saying. Well maybe not the one dancing in the cell, but clearly she is the exception.

More gems of the video music age coming soon!

Little know fact about me…

I love me some music. All kinds of music really, almost any kind you can think of there is something I am familiar with and really like, some little subsection somewhere (yeah even country music.. shut up). I am sure the love of music was instilled in me by my Mother, which I am officially thanking her for here (Thanks mom!). I can remember being really young like 4 and we would be in the car, some song would come on the radio, and without fail she would ask “who sings this”?

Now at 4, sometimes you get it right, and sometimes you don’t, but I got better and better as the years went on, and knowing this mostly useless information became almost second nature to me. Somehow I really developed an affinity for the “one hit wonders” of the 80′s and 90′s. It’s really kind of sad how much useless knowledge is stuffed up there in my brain, and while it is full of these gems, very little else can get in. I am afraid I am going to forget how to drive or something one of these days because I am trying to stuff new shit in. I’ll keep you all posted on that.

So, as I am sitting here listening to some classics “one hit wonders” and other music I like online tonight, I thought “wow, I should do like a whole blog series on this”.  And you know, that’s what I am going to do. I have been quite uninspired as of late, so I have decided to take action. Specifically, by not watching the news anymore. It’s too effing depressing, and it fills my head with anger, bitterness, and many other unpleasant things that I just don’t want in there.

So, see you later Rachel Maddow, I love ya, but damn girl you’re bringing me down. Keith Oberman, I love watching your hair turn whiter and whiter every day, and you always have such nice ties, but bro I can’t hang anymore.

We’re gonna talk about fun things, yeah the world sucks, and it’s getting worse, and crazies still roam the Earth, but you know what.. It’s going to be a lot easier to deal with it all when you watch some old school videos. And some new ones that maybe you’ll like, and some older ones that maybe you’ve never heard of before. That will make the oil spills easier to swallow!

May as well start off with a fun one from the 1990′s which will become immediately evident by the clothes in the music video. If you remember this song let me know in the comments. If you never heard it before or don’t remember it let me know what you think.

AHHH 1992 baby, what a year.  I remember this song on the radio once in a while, and on MTV every now and again (for you kids that don’t know MTV used to play music videos.. for real).  I always thought the song was a little catchy, but was never surprised that Positive K, (if that is indeed his real name) couldn’t follow it up with another hit.

Okay kids, gotta go find more fun videos for new posts. Peace Out.