My latest visitor to *DOSBBIS Island is photographer, Robert W Kinkaid Jr. Let’s see what music Robert ahs chosen.
I spent the day baking, so baking analogies will follow.
Your youth as a whole is your ingredients, and you bake the cake of your life over time based on those ingredients; and everyone’s is different, with shared flavors generationally. It’s where these ingredients come from that define the distinct flavors of our musical soufflé die vie.
I am a white male who came of age in the 1980s in the suburbs of NYC on Long Island. I grew up on cartoons and movies and sci-fi. One of my most favorite shows to watch as a small child was “Our Gang” aka The Little Rascals. In the 1980s this was a throwback to a time gone by, but why did kids like it? Well, it was on TV, but it was about kids. It is because of Alfalfa that I thought everyone was singing at the radio station. But also, because of this show and cartoons like Looney Tunes and Merry Melodies, which originally were filmed in the 1940s, I have always liked jazz.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zj1FifK3bbg?rel=0]
I was in band. I wasn’t popular, but I really enjoyed playing music. I played trumpet. This was my favorite song to play every year through High School. I got to do the horse whinny. My high school band was good. We were not the Boston Pops either.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fRNIuQo71Qg?rel=0]
We have a nice traditional, vanilla base. A picked on kid in the 80s…..hmmm. Oh, depressed kids love sad songs to roll around in melancholia don’t they? Let’s add some bitterness. This is found in your NIN and Stabbing Westward and this wee diddy:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-fX0UbpZls?rel=0]
And I’m a geeky nerd dork with my sci-fi
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J-fX0UbpZls?rel=0]
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y8Z_eWlQJRA?rel=0]
Let’s add some rebellion. But what kind? Metal bands? No. Punk? It was fading and let’s be honest, I never had the hutzpah (see your Yiddish dictionary) to pull that off. Plus dad the NYPD cop wouldn’t stand for that. Oh, wait. What’s this funky jive? Rap? Well, yes! And not just any rap. Old school hip hop. Yes, some bravado. Yes, some other negative things, but not gangsta harcore rap. It was new. It bothered my parents. And for me, I was looking for cool music, and fun lyrics. Spokes of my rap wheel are Run DMC, The Sugarhill Gang, Grand Master Flash, and LL Cool J, but the hub are 3 white Jews from NYC:
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Naf5uJYGoiU?rel=0]
I’ve been baking for 41 years now, I wonder how I’ll come out.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YuAl6ie6UFQ?rel=0]
*DOSBBIS – Deserted Off Season But Busy In Summer
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