raised on mtv: all i ever wanted
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"a week without you,
thought i'd forget.
two weeks without you,
and i still haven't gotten over you yet."
since it is the first day of my vacation, my first vacation since 2005, i thought maybe it would be fun to resurrect those "raised on mtv" posts that dale and i used to do. here is a little "background" of what the original idea was about:
i was thinking about doing a personal music reflective project that would explore my raised on mtv adolescence, and the songs and videos that impacted my life.
sure, there was radio, and i was definitely a kroq girl. and it was records and music magazines that i spent all my allowance, babysitting earnings, and lunch money on. that all considered, mtv and music videos were enormous to me growing up, and were formative in my connections of the visual arts to music, and in the way i craft stories (and films) in my mind when i listen to a song.
vacation was released in 1982, the first single off of the sophomore album of the same name by los angeles based girl group the go-go's. it was near impossible to be a teenage girl in the 80's, in california especially, and not fall for the go-go's. the appeal of the girl group, i had it bad, and my friends and i would lay around each other's bedrooms dreaming up our own band. and we lip-synched to the albums, hairbrushes as microphones, our hair full of aqua net, and the stereo turned up far past 11.
though vacation was never my favorite track (i was more partial to 'lust to love' , 'turn to you' and 'head over heels'), it was the band's highest ranking single in the u.s., charting at #8 on the billboard 100.
for me, it was the video i remember so vividly. the awkward water-skiing that was oh so staged, but oh so adorable in the sheer silliness. there was something in that commaradarie of friendship, and the "message" (if something so pop can be deemed to carry a message) about escaping heartbreak resonated clear and strong to me at 14, when it came out...and for quite a few years later.
today it just makes me smile because i feel it is an anthem, of sorts, to finally getting to disconnect from some of my stress...and yeah...there is always someone who you can't get your mind off of, even when you are far from being a teenager.
so, c'mon, who was your favorite go-go?
mine was jane. i have a picture somewhere with her, back in the late 80's. i should try and dig it up one of these days.
Comments (10)
I think everyone slept on Charlotte Caffey. Whenever people talked about the Go-go's, it was always Belinda this and Jane that. Plus, she got to play the lead guitar. :)
kate was more of a belinda fan, she looked a bit like her back then. i think i favored the dark hair and looks of jane, plus she was pixie adorable.
good call on charlotte though ;)
I SO wanted to be a Go-Go growing up, It didn't matter which one but I always favored Gina...
yeah, i wanted to be a go-go (or a bangle), too.
gina...keen choice.
unfortunately i grew up in NYC in an apt. Drums were not an option.
my best friend had a set and we messed about with them often. she had a very tolerant mom...and i guess the neighbors never complained. it was a house though...tis different when you share walls...
i know since i live in an apartment. i think the neighbors would kill me if i brought in a drum kit.
unless we sound proofed my room but that wasn't gonna happen. I was happy with acoustic guitar for several years.
It surprises me that Vacation was their single that made it the furthest up the charts. I don't know what I thought it was, but I didn't think it was this one. Huh. Learn something new every day :)
I dont know if you know this, but I have this record on vinyl. Brings back so many great memories
Really happy the mtv series are back!