Old Songs

How do you define "old"? The concept of age, after all, is relative not absolute. What is old for one, may not be necessarily old for another. Take for instance Magic 89.9's Friday Madness. Back in high school, they used to play those New Wave hits all day long. In one of the rare times I tuned in to the radio, I heard one of Lenny Kravitz's bad-ass guitar solos. For me, anything released before the 90's will always be old. Conversely, those produced after the 90's I'll always consider new.

I'm an oldies man to the core. I love stuff that are tinged with time's tender (and not-so-tender) travails. From surplus Japanese electronics, retro track & field outfits, pre-War Manila to cougars like Cory Quirino and Jane Seymour, I love 'em all! Perhaps it's due to the warm fuzzy feeling brought about by nostalgia. All things old evoke that homey emotion.

Nothing reflects this deeply-wrought appreciation than my taste in music. For as long as I can remember, I've always listened to the so-called "mellow" and "slow rock" radio stations such as 94.7 and 96.3, respectively. As my musical horizons widened, I became exposed to various types of music. I had a long alternative music phase in grade school, wherein I listened to great bands such as Garbage, No Doubt and Suede. In high school, I explored the alien sounds of the defunct NU 107's brand of rock only to end up belching out those immortal Side A hits like "Set You Free" and "Forevermore" at the latter years of my secondary education.

Since I had lots of free time for the good part of the 2008, my musical appreciation widened considerably. I discovered a hidden liking for Jazz (swinging jazz, big band jazz and piano jazz). Perhaps it was the years spent listening to my dad's Smooth Jazz radio stations that did the trick. Jazz is an entirely different world from my old power ballad, mellow songs, John Mayer-laced playlist of yore. Although I learned to enjoy instrumental music from my favorite classical composers, Jazz stands out.

As a self-confessed videoke afficionado, the standards are an integral part of my repertoire of songs. I absolutely adore listening (and singing) songs like "I've Got You Under My Skin" and "The Way You Look Tonight" in my own style of crooning! It's like being in a time warp to a time long gone - a time of Humphrey Bogart-accented American English and World War II, an era without WiFi and 24/7 business news. It certainly feels like looking at a black & white world through the lenses of color.

Music is so wide and diverse to be constrained by taste, preference and prejudice. Living in this day and age where huge amonts of information flow freely across the globe is the perfect time for one's musical longings to be poked, rattled and turned topsy-turvy with an eclectic approach in writing one's playlist.

Reposted from my old Multiply blog