80's Mix

Nostalgia is a foreign concept to me.  I don't seek out music specifically to remind me of a time in the past.  What I like are songs that seem to raise themselves out of their time period.  The very fact that they transcend being time placeholders is attractive.

I've been meaning to write about Ernest Cline's Ready Player One for awhile.  Mainly regarding the Alchemical framework it is built upon.  The book in general is a good sci-fi adventure built on a speculative virtual reality world called OASIS.  The fictional creator of this world was a bit of a recluse and obsessed with his teens during the 80s.  Cline included 80's trivia so arcane that I didn't even know it existed.  But then again, I wasn't really into video games back then.  Yes, I did have an Atari but only after it became affordable.  And then most of my player cartridges were purchased from the bargain bin because they were extremely expensive.

Many of the songs Cline listed were a big blank to me.  I wasn't an Oingo Boingo fan.  I hated Rush.  The others I do recognize weren't big on my playlist.  And I avoided all the TV shows and movies Cline fanned in the novel.  However that isn't to say I was a pop culture illiterate.  I just fanned different things.  Still I'm surprised Cline didn't mention "Moonlighting" in the novel (so big in the 80's)  nor the old touchstones that were still popular with 80's teens.  I mean it seems every 80's teen party wasn't complete unless there was a drunken singalong to The Who's "Pinball Wizard".

I created my own playlist at 8track of oldies that reminded me of the decade that started video games.  The majority of the songs are from 79 to 84 but there are a few from later in the decade.  The latter half of the decade I began to tune out because I didn't enjoy the music that much.  Obviously I liked the early transitional period more.


Labels: , , , , ,