Today I discovered, I can put “90s” into Pandora and it’ll generate a 90s pop or 90s alternative station. Best day of my life. (Sorry, Husband.) It’s like listening to the 90s music channel on cable but I don’t have to be in my living room monopolizing the TV and being laughed at for listening to the cable music channel.
My 90s station got me thinking about my dearly missed mixed tapes I use to make by recording songs off the radio using the mind-boggling technology of a boom-box.
Back in the day we didn’t have have luxury of toting every song ever in our music collection. If you wanted some SWV, you’d have to cut out some Ace of Base.
In the future all these multi-functional music devices will be more useful as compasses and cameras, edible plant finders and generally for their survival apps. Your space for music will be rationed like a can of fruit cocktail.
[I can hear all the heavy sighing about how you’ll be ditching your electronics ASAP because they won’t work once the power plants are down. Wrong! What you need to do is make yourself a solar charger before hand and keep it in your Go Bag.]
Personally, I want some mindless feel-good songs; the kind I can’t help but sing along and dance to. Maybe 3Oh!3, Ke$ha, Hellogoodbye, Robyn and straight 90s pop. There’s no better aid to help one deal with the ruination of society and wholesale death and destruction than some Backstreet Boys in the key of “Everybody,” or “Cobrastyle” by Robyn.
But it’s not all fun and games, sometimes we need to reflect and come to terms with the horrors of what has become of humanity. Sometimes we need to think about the people we’ve lost and the stories that use to be told. Sometimes we need Folk songs. Not the boring or creepy kind that make you think about hill folk sleeping and waking with a bottle of whiskey though. The musical stylings of Billy Joel, Bruce Springsteen, Ani DiFranco are just a few who have that gift for weaving tales with characters and plots and tunes.
If you’re in the mood for something both folksy and fun, try some Imani Coppola or throw it way back to Weird Al Yankovic.
On the subject of fun, I’m going to have to recommended songs by cartoon characters. Preferably educational ones that make you feel slightly superior to your peers who insist on indulging in entertainment meant for adults who already know (or don’t care) all the nations of the world or how bills become laws or why the wolf cries to the blue corn moon or whatever it does.
I won’t tell you which songs should make it to the afterlife with you, that’s too big and too personal decision. But I do suggest that you think long and hard about what you’d have on a playlist that you spend, possibly, the rest of your life listening to. A list that the person who gets your stuff when you die will also totally judge you by…
We all need a good soundtrack for the apocalypse! Being a product of the the 80’s-90’s I am also quite familiar with cassette tapes and boom boxes, though my taste in music is significantly different, being more of a Soundgarden, Nirvana fan. My “mixed tape” would definately include some AC/DC and some Pink Floyd. Throw in some Rage Against the Machine for good measure!