Any year with Vampire Weekend, Adele, Kanye West, Radiohead, Britney Spears, R.E.M., The Ting Tings, Madonna, “Single Ladies,” “Paper Planes” and two songs named “Lollipop” can’t be that bad. Herewith are thirty music highlights of 2008.
Throwback Thursday: 1986
For many years I’ve been saying that 1986 was a crap year for music. I prove myself wrong with this week’s Throwback Thursday playlist. Listen to these gems! How did I get this so wrong until now? My theory is this: In 1986 I was still listening to top 40 radio more than other formats. While there were many great hit songs in ’86 (as evidenced by the playlist below), there was also a lot of garbage songs that were successful on the pop chart. My thoughts of all those garbage songs outweighed my fond memories of all of the good songs. Well, no more, missy! Nineteen eighty-six was a good year for music. The proof is in the pudding (pudding meaning this week’s Throwback Thursday playlist).
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Throwback Thursday: 1997
“I wanna really really really wanna zig-a-zig-ah”
“Beep beep, who got the keys to the Jeep? Vroom”
“Pissin’ the night away”
“Joni Mitchell never lies”
“Poppa been smooth since days of Underoos”
“Love me, love me / Pretend that you love me”
“What I look like? Patti LaBelle or somebody?”
“Kiss me here, touch me there, hanky-panky”
“Mmm bop ba duba dop / Ba du bop ba duba dop / Ba du bop ba duba dop / Ba du yeah yeah”
“Woo-hoo!”
So many memorable lyrics emerged in 1997. Hear the ones above and then some below:
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Queer Music of the 1990s
What makes compiling lists of queer music by decades more challenging as we move forward in time is that the number of songs from which to choose keeps increasing greatly. For today’s playlist, I started with a list of several hundred songs by out LGBTQ+ acts or with LGBTQ+ subject matter, from which I whittled it down to the 30 tunes below. I second guess myself a lot. Should three of the first four songs be by straight-identifying acts? Should I include a lightweight novelty number over something by Maria McKee? (I decided yes, though I love Maria.) I didn’t necessarily choose my favorites. Instead I went for songs/acts that were on some level trailblazers. Here they be:
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