Vicky Goes On (Again)

Tag: music

  • Earworms

    “There was something in the air that night… can you hear the drums Fernando? There was something in the air that night… can you hear the drums Fernando? Chiquitita you and I know… There was something in the air that night…”

    I’m being driven insane. I used to have the radio on all night and wake up with snippets of songs stuck in my mind until some mystery would allow me some respite. Usually around 11am the earworms would leave me and I would be fine until the following morning. I always assumed that the earworm would visit because my subconscious brain had heard a song in the night and for some reason it had stuck.

    BUT, this can’t be the case as I have not been listening to the radio all night and yet still I awake with a random Abba medley or “rainy days and Mondays always get me doooown…” or “who needs to go to work to hustle for another dollar? I’d rather be with you…” or “look at me as I’m looking down at you, No, I’m not being flash… oh Geno, wooah-oh Geno”

    Are they messages?

    Writing this has helped get the Abba remix out of my brain so that’s really helpful. Thanks guys.

    I just read the wiki page on earworms (and fear I have opened a can of (ear)worms) and have become distracted. Read it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earworm

    More later.

  • Some Might Say (we’re too nostalgic)

    Did you hear that Oasis have reunited (and it feels so good)? I’ll bet you have because from the announcement to the ticket sales fiasco to the opening shows that is all I know about the current music scene. Oasis have reformed and they’re on tour and middle-aged men are sticking on their bucket hats and sticking drugs up their noses (allegedly) and being Mad Fer It and re-living the 90s.

    Ah, the 90s when life was good and we were all so happy. No economic issues (apart from that recession in the early 90s and Black Wednesday), no wars (apart from the Gulf War, many civil wars, Al-Qaeda insurgency… look, I looked this up on Wiki and felt overwhelmed with despair so let’s not get into it), great snacks, great fashion, 5 TV channels, hey – no problems at all.
    Cool Britannia. Brit Pop. So much colour, everywhere, all of the time. No wonder grey is so popular nowadays. Although I do fear that the pendulum has swung too far away from colour. Have we never thought about the middle-ground?

    Look, I liked Oasis. I liked Blur. I liked Portishead, TLC, Madonna, Pulp, Sade. I have eclectic tastes. I even owned an Oasis T Shirt I bought on the Portobello Road. Because I was cool. And it was cheap and I lived nearby and we didn’t have the internet. And Woolworth’s still existed. And life was easy. BECAUSE YOU WERE YOUNGER. And now you’ve got kids/mortgage/knee pain (maybe all three. I just have knee pain) and you’re thinking about mortality and purpose and looking back is more comforting than looking forward. Guys, we’re here because we’re here. That’s the meaning of life.

    Oasis have reformed because they want all that sweet, sweet cash. I think this says more about the dire state of the music industry than anything else. Artists have always been the people who profit the least from their music. They used to make some money from selling their music and now they don’t. They make money from touring. From merch. They don’t even make money from streaming. Isn’t that absolutely bat-shit insane? But record companies make money, don’t they? They always manage to profit. Wankers.

    What do we do about this? Support local bands. Go to small live music venues. This props up local bars and pubs, allows music lovers to see live music without selling a kidney for tickets, supports talent and not corporations and maybe will make us all bring a little bit of the 90s to this god forsaken time.