Despite traveling to New York City frequently since my toddler years, I reckon that the real inspiration for moving here was not for theatre, not because I saw Seinfeld/Sex & The City/or even Throb, but because of MTV's Street Party.
How I stumbled across Street Party is mostly because I outgrew ABC's lineup of syrupy sweet sitcoms on Friday. (Full House, Family Matters, etc.) I wanted to feel a bit more sophisticated and hip, and a 2 hour block of dance music certainly fit the bill.
I don't know if this was the first ever video I saw on Street Party, but I certainly remember it like it was.
I know that time moves forward, but if I have nostalgia for any period of time, it was for the early 1990s (1990-94), at least musically. It was a time when dance music had old school rap, the big dance producers, and the beginnings of what would develop into today's electropop.
The funny thing about nostalgia, is that you can start colouring everything differently just because of the passage of time. Take the classic Pump Up The Volume. When it first came out, I thought the video was dull, and the song just kind of dragged. I see it now and I remember being back in the living room of my home dancing, because it's Friday and the weekend was just starting.
I still never bought the single though. A single I did buy and played to death was Everybody Everybody.
The US didn't get that flower happy version. No, we got what I will go on record (no pun intended) as the fiercer of the two. We got the Le Freak mix.
When that whole scandal came out about how Loleatta Holloway's vocals were used by both Black Box and C+C Music Factory, but not "visualised" by her, my little 11 year old self was just stunned. I truly think Katrin sold Everybody Everybody like nobody's business. To this day, whenever I try to do stare someone or something down I think of the way she mouthed "ow" at the beginning of the video.
As for C+C, I did not care all that much for Gonna Make You Sweat, but Do You Wanna Get Funky (which featured Loleatta finally getting her due) will always be killer in my book. It was a damn shame that the video never got as much play as I think it deserved. (But hey, it was 1994 and we were about to become a flannel nation.)
It's rather remarkable the songs that have stuck in my head from this period, but I suspect that it is mostly due to the fact that from 1988 to 1994, dance music was an escape for me. It took away a lot of the isolation and conformity that surrounded me in Wisconsin and gave me 4 to 6 minutes in my own personal Emerald City.
Note that I definitely am saying dance music instead of house, because at this time you did have danceable rap, which is damn near non-existent these days. I regret never being in a club when this song came on. (He name checked Lanie Kazan!)
I may go to hell for suggesting that this is dance rap, but I'd put Slow Down in this category. (Years later, I used to love saying "smack you with hose full of sand.") The message of course totally went over my head as a preteen.
And of course, Kid'N'Play (their cartoon on NBC aired once in Milwaukee before being pulled).
Martin Lawrence owes them. Big Time.
One last one, because it would be a sin for me to not include some Bobby Brown. (This video, along with Jane Child's I Don't Wanna Fall In Love contributed to my view of New York, and why I was somewhat dismayed to find post-Giuliani NYC so anti-septic.)
I could seriously dwell on this period for nigh on an eternity, but it's time to bring today's edition to a close.
Closing out today is Vanessa Williams, who in the late 1980s pulled off the greatest career resuscitation that I can ever recall. (I was also too young when the photos came out for them to even register in my mind. So she's always been a singer/actress to me.)
Her ballads are still played often these days, but I think her dance songs were pretty impressive. Hopefully she'll release some more one day.
Next time: Theme Songs A-Go-Go...and Grunge, plus the finale.
1 comment:
that "dance rap" stuff is freaking awesome.
and i'm just blown away by how beautiful vanessa williams is -- when she was younger as well as the more mature (though surgically polished) we see today.
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