Going on a road trip any time soon? Looking for the perfect soundtrack to capture the giddy spontaneity of the road? May I suggest taking along epic 80s boxset
Like, Omigod! The 80s Pop Culture Box as a way to bring the good times?
I'm just starting to get comfortable with being an actual fan of 80s music. (
Brad will be proud!) My
boyfriend, on the other hand, is well beyond the comfort level with his fandom, and is completely into rehashing every last radio hit from that era. In the past, this would have been met with little more than a blank stare from me; when he put this 7-cd box set collection on in our car, I admit I braced myself for impact, but turns out it was more entertaining and silly, more of a conversation-starter, even, than anything
else we could have spent hours listening to in close quarters.
Track after track brought either squeals of recognition and memories, like
Frank Zappa's "Valley Girl" and my total fave,
Bonnie Tyler's "Total Eclipse of the Heart," or was met with a vacant look by me and incredulous gasps by my partner in crime, who couldn't get over the fact that I had never heard
"Pac Man Fever" by Buckner & Garcia or
"The Look of Love" by ABC. What can I say? My parents sheltered me back in the 80s! While I of course appreciate gems like
Prince and
The Replacements, I've spent the last few years even further deprogramming myself and very slowly coming to terms with the fact that musically the 80s weren't complete and utter trash. Nostalgia aside, based on the tracks I had never heard before, this box set goes a ways in proving that singles from the 80s work hard and succeed at providing something pop music nowadays is sorely lacking: fun...which is exactly what you need when you are endlessly stuck in a two door car in the middle of nowhere!
