The Sound of Music

Me: “I think little kids with transition sunglasses look funny when they turn dark.  They look like mini PM Dawn’s running around the playground.  I can’t quite describe it.”
Him:  “PM Dawn?  Who’s that?”
Me:  **GASP** “You don’t know who PM Dawn is?!?!?”

For as long as I can remember, the soundtrack to my life has always been an important part of my life experiences.  I think at an early age I turned to music as not only an outlet for the issues I was going through, but to also serve as a reference point for those random moments in my life.  A certain song can conjure up memories of playing outside of my apartment complex, swimming at the local pool, or riding in the car with my father.  I think before my father left, a lot of the soundtrack was soft white noise.  I can’t pin point actual songs the way I can now,  after he left.  That may sound a bit weird or strange, but stay with me here.  I may have used music as a way to fill the void that I felt in my life.  I mean, I’m not therapist, but I play one on TV. *wink*

I distinctly remember getting my first pair of jellies and biker shorts.  I had the shape of a pine needle when I was younger, but you couldn’t tell me anything in my baggy biker shorts and flopping off my feet jellies.  But when I think back to that time in my life, I can hear loud as hell Salt N Peppa’s Push It song.  And when I used to spend days at one of my babysitters houses, she would always do my hair.  And she would ask what style I wanted, and I really wanted the asymmetrical cut she had, but I knew that wasn’t happening at the tender age of 7….. but I distinctly remember Madonna’s Like A Virgin song playing in the background as she did my hair.

I can’t hear any song from Little Shop of Horror without thinking of my godsister performing the play in her high school musical production back in the early 90s (or late 80s, I forget).  When I got my first boombox CD player for Christmas in 1992, my mom included the Mary J. Blige What’s the 411 CD and Super Cat’s Don Dada CD.  By the end of Christmas night, I knew all the words to Grand Puba’s part and the rap on Dolly My Baby.  The movie Crooklyn actually makes me want to go back to the 1970s and sit on someone’s stoop in Brooklyn (mind you I was born in 1980)!!  I love the music in the movie.   The way the music in that movie evokes emotion in those that view it, is the same way music evokes sentimental feelings in me.

I have even gotten to a point that when I hear a song debuted on the radio, I get upset if it’s released in the “wrong” season.  Hear me out.  You know there is a certain beat that you would go crazy with, while your windows are rolled down, and it’s nice outside.  Some beats/songs don’t get justice in the dead of winter with the volume on low or medium.  And even on high, it sounds like muffled noise.  I liken it to them playing Will Smith’s Summertime song in December.

I recently went to a movie premier at the Kennedy Center.  The movie Big Words, directed by Neil Drumming, was sponsored by AaFFRM.  My husband and sisterfriend (Nae)  were with me.  We thoroughly enjoyed this movie.  It was about MUSIC!! I mean, it was about way more than music, but I was able to identify a bit with each of the characters.   My husband who loves to write and perform rap music could identify with always having a rhyme in your head.  Being able to viciously tell a story about his surroundings without blinking an eye.  Pen and pad aren’t necessary for him.  I liken my husband to the character MC Wordsmith.  LOL.    I think I can identify with DJ Malik.  Trapped in the past, pissed when someone remakes a song to a beat I danced to back in the 80s.  Like the group who sampled Time After Time by Cyndi Lauper in 2011.  NOOOOOOOOOOO!! That song is a classic. That song makes me think of my childhood.   I get sad when I listen to that song.  And I like that! It also makes me think of the movie Romy and Michele’s High School Reunion.  Yes I know that some songs from the 80s contained samples of songs as well, but that’s beside the point, and I’m not trying to hear all that right now. 

Don’t get me started on the Sister Act 2 or Lion King soundtrack, whew child!!  My kids always stare at me when I rap songs from the 80s and 90s as if I wrote, produced and performed the song myself.  I’m sure car rides will never be the same after I went apeshit when OPP and Self Destruction came on.  Oh yea, and Jingling Baby.

I don’t know.  I’m pretty sure at this point I am rambling.  But I know that if I truly tried to write on paper how music takes me to different points in my life, this would be the length of a thesis and not a blog entry you’d like to read.  In my mind my life is literally like a movie.  While some may assign clothing, tv shows, smells to specific moments in history, I see music.  Yes, see.

Where does music stand in your life?  If it’s not music, then what does it for you?  Food?  Places?

Check out the trailer for Big Words.  I’m telling you this movie is HILARIOUS!!!!!!!!