Music Monday: Flashback

While Emily and I were driving somewhere tonight, Matchbox 20's "Push" come on the radio. She immediately went to change it, scrolled through several channels, and then realized that it was easily the best thing on at the moment. I'm not exactly sure why she isn't a fan, but I remember "Push" as one of the very first "secular" songs that I ever heard. Growing up, we went to a Christian elementary school and a Christian middle school, and most all the music that we listened to was on Christian radio stations, especially when the second school we were at was based at a church with a radio station in it. All that said, I didn't really hear much outside of that realm apart from "new" Amy Grant (Baby, baby! I'm taken with the notion...) which was arguably her best work.

But I remember a time right about when we moved into our first house outside the parsonage in Winter Beach that we started catching the VH1 Top 20 countdown every Sunday morning. While the women-folk were running around getting ready, my brother and I would sit back and see what the most popular music videos were. This was in the mid- to late-90s, and I remember many of those videos vividly. A few of them helped shaped my decision when I bought my first batch of CDs through a clearing house type scenario, a "buy 12, get 12 free sometime in the next 30 years" deal.

I can still recall the songs on the top 20 countdown: Matchbox 20's "Push," Fiona Apple's "Criminal," anything by the Spice Girls, the Verve Pipe's "Freshmen," The Wallflowers, Will Smith, Paula Cole's "Where Have all the Cowboys Gone," Weezer's "Buddy Holly," Coolio's "Gangsta's Paradise," 2 Pac's "California Love," pretty much anything by Mariah Carey (she owned the 90s), Toni Braxton's "Unbreak my Heart," Alanis Morissette, Jewel, the Goo Goo Dolls... they were all there.

Eventually, after listening to all the CDs that my brother had every night as we fell asleep, I decided that I wanted some "cool" music for my own. My very first collection included Bringing Down the Horse by the Wallflowers, Big Willie Style by Will Smith, the Godzilla soundtrack (featuring the Wallflowers, Puff Daddy (before he was Diddy), Jamiroquai, Ben Folds Five, the Foo Fighters, and my first exposure to Rage Against the Machine), the 1998 Grammy Nominees, Yourself or Someone Like You by Matchbox 20, What's the Story (Morning Glory) by Oasis, and I'm sure a handful of others, I can't remember them all.

When I heard "Push" tonight, and I realized that I knew just about every single word of it, I was taken back to that time, back to before I knew anything about what I was listening to, before I knew anything about what I would come to like when it comes to music. While my tastes have changed significantly since then (can we all agree that Will Smith should stick to acting?), I still have the vast majority of those CDs, and I would still listen to them today. Of course, I'll skip "MmmBop" and the Rolling Stones on the 1998 Grammy Nominees CD, and I'm still trying to find my Matchbox 20 album, but the fact remains that the 90s are classic to me, they're my first exposure, my first musical love. In ten years or less, 90s music is going to be what gets played in clubs as "retro." They'll have "90s" night and dress up like Friends or Seinfeld characters. That blows my mind. It makes me feel old.

Whatever. I'm still singing along.