Musical Saturday Morning

Yes, I already know I am going to get emails over this one - my un-abashed critics ... !

In the 1980's, MTV exploded onto the world's youth scene.  My church had a meeting of the youth staff in 1985 concerning this phenomena - the kids were watching American mucsic videos and we were concerned over the abrupt changes occurring in our youth group!  I was the only one willing to watch the videos in the afternoon, when the kids would be as well, and then report weekly what the direction of the prevailing videos were ... think Madonna, AC/DC, et al.  Sigh.

In the process of doing this, I found a few of the groups, particularly the English, actually had very interesting messages about life - not propaganda for youth - but a real concern over life.  Duran Duran, Enya, Pet Shop Boys, Thompson Twins main drive was the seemingly senselessness of life in this corrupt culture they as youth found themselves in.  I remember a LONG discussion one night with my lawyer over this - how come music this good be coming from the worse of humanity?  We settled for - you have to have lived the life, to know what was wrong, to write the song, to tell others of your angst.  And I just shook my head over the vacuous Christians so removed from life that they could never match the message, only the beat of the music.  No wonder Christian music was viewed as a sham outside of the USA and drew none of our youth's interest!  No one needs Stryper, we need a Christian Duran Duran able to point to Jesus, not the porno industry!

And I liked the music of the Pet Shop Boys.  "Techno (@#$@#$)" as my American friend in Munich called it, he should know he owned the most successful dance bar at the time - and it was all techno!  Sadly, most of the PSB's videos are laser generated, good music but offer nothing to anyone other than perhaps a glimpse into their character.

So, this one I have long liked, a bit of the angst of the 1980's youth mixed with the style of the day ...