Old School Music Friday-1988

Ironically, this week's theme for Old School Friday was supposed to be movie soundtracks, and I am the only one blogging about something else. 1988 is a year that I remember more for it's art than it's music. Modern artists born out of the graffiti age were coming into notoriety, Basquiat and Keith Haring most notably. I remember feeling a lot of love for the up and coming New York artists.

As far as the music...well, let's just say there was a lot less love. When I looked over the top 100 songs of 1988, I saw a list of songs that either I didn't remember, couldn't care less about, or absolutely hated. Who the f**k was Will To Power? They were in the top 10.

There were songs on there that I really used to loathe, and still do. I did, and will now, change the station when I hear them, especially "Gett Outta My Dreams" by Billy Ocean, "Pink Cadillac" by Aretha Franklin, and "Never Gonna Give You Up" by Rick Astley. The last one I swear they played every 8 minutes in rotation. I also think I was the only Black person in America that didn't think Anita Baker was the second coming.

Songs ranged from the blandly corny; "Fast Cars" by Tracey Chapman, to the blandly poppie "Girlfriend" by Pebbles. Even the reggae was watered down--"Red Red Wine" by UB40. No wonder "Welcome To The Jungle" was so hugely popular; it was the only song that could keep you awake that year. Thank God for the wave of new styled music that came soon afterward.

I did like Keith Sweat's "I Want Her", but who didn't? I also liked this one, which was used once by my old school music fam, but it is a classic, and I still would listen to it all day:

By the way, for those of you that might be interested, I will be on WFMU with Billy Jam and Michael Gonzales about the year 1988 between 3-6pm EST today. You have to check their website to see if it will be streamed. Here is a list of the others that are scheduled to drop in; hope to have you come by and take a listen:

1. Lisa Cortes, former Def Jam ex./current film producer for Lee Daniels Entertainment

2. Todd Craig, writer and teacher/has written a literary hip-hop novel called "tor'ca" (swank books)http://profile.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=user.viewprofile&friendid=158723809&MyToken=d34472d0-be10-433b-ae3d-9f337b7c6274

3. Steve Flemming, music blogger :http://auralexamination.wordpress.com/

4. Marcus Reeves, author of Somebody Scream (he might be in the studio with us)http://www.amazon.com/Somebody-Scream-Musics-Prominence-Aftershock/dp/0571211402/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books
&qid=1210090372&sr=1-1

5. Donnell Alexander, author & editor/"Rollin' With Dre"http://www.donnellalexander.com/books

6. Serena Kim/ former Vibe editor, writer

7. Miles Marshall Lewis, writer and editor

8. Bill Adler, hip-hop renaissance man

9. Amy Linden, writer (tentative)