moments when you were awestruck by pop

Message Bookmarked

Bookmark Removed

every so often I hear a hit song coming out of a car or a club and i find myself frozen in my footsteps thinking wow, despite all the awfulness life really is better than it has a right to be...

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:45 (twenty-one years ago)

Happens all the time. The new Janet Jackson single is a fine example of same.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:47 (twenty-one years ago)

I saw three very cute shop girls laughing and dancing and singing along to "common people" last weekend as they loaded the outdoor racks of their kensington market shop.

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:49 (twenty-one years ago)

They want a thread about the new Girls Aloud single...

― mark p (Mark P), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember the first few times I heard "Hey Ya!" I was awestruck. Less so the next 11,234,523 times.

― Gear! (Gear!), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

i want moments!

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:51 (twenty-one years ago)

you know those love-at-first-sight moments when you want to ask a song to marry you

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 17:53 (twenty-one years ago)

twilight, last summer, walking down avenue a and hearing like glue at top volume out of someone's car.

― lauren (laurenp), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:08 (twenty-one years ago)

i sometimes think hearing music out of someone else's casr in the summertime is actually the best context for hearing pop

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm 15 or 16 and my alarm radio goes off to "Won't Get Fooled Again." I listen to the whole song before getting out of bed and nearly miss my bus. I must have heard it before, but that time I was just astounded.

― JC-L (JC-L), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

casr = car

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:10 (twenty-one years ago)

It's not online -- I think -- but my first article for Careless Talk Costs Lives was specifically about the joy of the 'hearing music from passing cars' phenomenon.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:12 (twenty-one years ago)

In the back seat of a car, coming home from some show, wasted drunk, my friend is changing CDs and I'm like "WOAH NOT YET MANG" cuz there's this thing on the radio with this fucking wicked beat and these massive Bollywoodish string flourishes and shit. Then the voice comes in and I'm like "NO FUCKING WAY". Why yes, dude, that is Britney Spears singing. And the thing is, the song only gets more awesome with each passing moment, and never reaches that "oh okay I've heard a billion songs like this before" plateau. This was the first time I heard "Toxic".

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:14 (twenty-one years ago)

TOXIC

― astroblaster (astroblaster), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

Specifically spending three additional minutes in the supermarket (well, Londis of Selly Oak) when Song For Whoever by The Beautiful South came on the instore PA is the one that immediately springs to mind. I was 19 at the time. It was ace.

― William Bloody Swygart (mrswygart), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:16 (twenty-one years ago)

~~Screw you, nick!~~

So, I'm amped up to hear this new Britney join that my homies round the world be hollering at me that it be the shizzo, so one day, I'm surfin' on some MTV booty and I see a new "EXCLUSIVE" joint on the box. This plane from like, 2080, flows onto the screen and this beat gets bumping and some Bond strings come in...

― Crickets Dance On Tequila Booty (Barima), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:19 (twenty-one years ago)

Still haven't heard "Toxic," actually. Doubtless it's pretty good. (Before anyone complains, Mr. Matos also said he hadn't heard it yet, so I'm not alone!)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:21 (twenty-one years ago)

I was in the video games section of HMV in Manc when Lemon Jelly's 'His Majesty, King Raam' floated ever so effevesently onto the store speakers. I stood in place, mesmerised and entranced for all 6 plus minutes of the song.

― Crickets Dance On Tequila Booty (Barima), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, you and Matos live in the US. I live in Ghana. You guys have no excuse :-).

― Crickets Dance On Tequila Booty (Barima), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

I called a woman friend who I'm sure knew I had a hopeless (in all senses of the term) crush on her. She picked up the phone and I was hit with an earful of the chorus to "Bye Bye Pride" by The Go-Betweens.

That was 16 years ago.

― Rick Massimo (Rick Massimo), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:23 (twenty-one years ago)

According to that theory, Barima, I have no excuse not to eat at McDonald's every day because it too was born here before taking over the world. ;-)

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:24 (twenty-one years ago)

I had just dropped off my friend after a little post-lunch smokey treat and was driving to work at 2:30 in the afternoon in my big piece of shit pickemup trunk, and was driving right past an Irish immigrant I knew at the time who was riding his bicycle the wrong way down a one-way street, when I first heard the synth-chimey 1, 2, 1 2 3 YEAH intro to "BOB". My stereo wouldn't get loud enough. I was laughing like a chimp on a nitrous bender. I blew a speaker. This was followed by the Longest Day Of Work Ever.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:31 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, I can't believe I have heard "Toxic" and you haven't.

― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

What are the odds of that happening?

― Rockist Scientist, Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:33 (twenty-one years ago)

Wow, I just kinda relived that whole first-time-I-heard "BOB" moment all over again in my head just now. I was seriously like punching the ceiling of my truck and shit. I R A REDNECK.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:35 (twenty-one years ago)

I dunno, Rockist, I'm not all that surprised myself!

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:36 (twenty-one years ago)

Ned, I can't believe I have heard "Toxic" and you haven't.

Slimmer than the odds of Ned biting into a huge fatty boom-batty Big Mac apparently.

― Crickets Dance On Tequila Booty (Barima), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Nine Inch Nails "Head Like A Hole". It was so well timed for me, it was like, over the course of like 3 weeks...

pubes -> testosterone -> suddenly really horny -> also suddenly really angry -> "Head Like A Hole"

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:44 (twenty-one years ago)

When I was in my teens with my ear glued to the radio all the time, these cool awestruck moments happened a lot more often.

Only twice was I so awestruck that I was fixated to my seat and scarcely able to move. First, for Joy Division's "Atmosphere". Second (years later), James' "Laid".

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:48 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh man, "Laid" came out like the same week I first made-out with a girl (not just kissed, but like MADE-OUT). Holy shit. Plus that was around the same time that my two closest friends finally conceded I was the only one of us that could actually sing; this song had a lot to do with that revelation. Tone deaf people singing alond with "Laid" = NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 18:56 (twenty-one years ago)

we were 17, senior year, theatre tour road trip, 10 kids fairly packed into 2 cars [mazdas or honda civics or something 80s like that], pretty much everybody liked each other but everybody was dating someone who wasn't there or was just terminally shy.

in the car i was in, we were listening to that cure comp on the b-sides, "happy the man", and making gun shooting gestures at the other car on the bang-bang drum beats, while they were listening to "everybody dance now" for the first time ever and going bonkers, just completely bonkers. their heads were like the tails of happy dogs. somebody in their car wrote on a note pad the name of the radio station for us, and we changed it, and heard the second half.

it was like, this is why the suburbs exist, and are full of white people, and that's ok... we sort of felt, in that barrelling car motion and proximity of squeaky-clean lust bathed in hilarious musical modern joy, we felt the sunbeamlike ramp upwards into our future successes as progressive lawyers and performance artists and computer graphics designers. and we felt each other up a bit, as we writhed in this ecstasy of about 90 seconds.

― mig (mig), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"Laid" was almost ruined for me during the mid-90's when it became a staple of student pub playlists (say hello to the aforementioned tone-deaf blowhards, dumbasses who lip-sync the "she only comes when she's on top" line with a smirk on their faces, and so on).

But all that was years ago so I have reclaimed it for myself once again.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Thing about that song is that it's actually the worst on the album...

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:08 (twenty-one years ago)

I like mig's story.

― Comment dits-on...eh... le NA? (Nick A.), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:10 (twenty-one years ago)

I do too!

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:22 (twenty-one years ago)

Working in a tiny kitchen with 4-6 people of wildly varying music tastes and one lone FM radio boombox between us, control over the dial was highly contested. One time, when this dude named Filemon who claimed to be from Italy but was very obviously a Pacific Islander (he said "capice" like kuh-PEE-cee) was flipping from his pinaccle-of-faggotry eurodance stuff to someothing else, he stopped on this quite bizarre sounding thing with popping noises and babies cooing and this smooth-as-butter young lady's voice asking us if we were that somebody. The kitchen pretty much ground to a halt for the duration. That was the only moment we ever all of us enjoyed the same piece of music simultaneously. You know what that song is.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:27 (twenty-one years ago)

I was also wondering; am I the only person for whom a physical reaction to awe inspired by amazing pop music includes overwhelming giggle-fits?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:29 (twenty-one years ago)

I remember listening to In Utero for the first time and grinning a lot.

― Comment dits-on...eh... le NA? (Nick A.), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:48 (twenty-one years ago)

that's sad! yeah i remember hearing that record and feeling all optomistic too, like he'd figured his way out...

― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:54 (twenty-one years ago)

I was also wondering; am I the only person for whom a physical reaction to awe inspired by amazing pop music includes overwhelming giggle-fits?

Check with GiggletitsDan Perry and see if he agrees.

― Crickets Dance On Tequila Booty (Barima), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:56 (twenty-one years ago)

Predictable answer #63245: the first time I heard "The State I Am In" by Belle and Sebastian (on Mark Radcliffe's radio show). I was going through a rough patch in my life and was beginning to care less and less about music - it brought about feelings I didn't think I could feel about music any more. And they still have that effect on me.

― ailsa (ailsa), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 19:59 (twenty-one years ago)

I fought it with all my might, but even I must admit that "Cry Me A River" by poppy pederast JustinTimberlake is excellent.

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 20:03 (twenty-one years ago)

Oh, don't worry Alex, your righteous hate and contempt for folly just got transferred to me in that case.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 20:05 (twenty-one years ago)

In terms of pure, sparkling, candy-coated pop dressed up as something else (in this case, British indie/punky post-grebo fraggle-whatsis), I remember hearing "Red Berry Joy Town" by the Wonder Stuff for the first time and being blown off the porch. Awestruck indeed. Likewise "Unbearable".

― Alex in NYC (vassifer), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 20:09 (twenty-one years ago)

It was the Darkness, drunk on my roof at night, last fall, right after I quit my job and right before I went out to Portland OR. I got into them through ILX, thanks !

― Linoleum Blownapart (calstars), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 20:12 (twenty-one years ago)

I like mig's story.
Ha, T/S: C&C Music Factory vs The Cure

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 20:26 (twenty-one years ago)

My mom told me a story a few minutes ago about how, when I first heard Talking Heads' "Burning Down The House", I (only like 5 at the time, mind you) belted out "BARNEY ROUND THE HOUSE" at the refrain.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 20:32 (twenty-one years ago)

several times.

One was Duran Duran's 'Ordinary World' which I got on hold with the Royal Bank while on a break at work one evening last fall. I closed by eyes and fully blissed out to the chorus and was caught way off guard by the system when it finally picked up.

Oh, and Tina Turner, 'We Don't Need Another Hero', which is magnificent, over the PA in a medical building on Monday

― derrick (derrick), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 21:06 (twenty-one years ago)

this is a terrific thread.

i don't really have any stories. i blame the unromanticism of downloadable music. after reading tom's review in nylpm i listened to aaliyah's "we need a resolution" and thought it was one of the greatest things i'd ever heard. it suppose was one of the first times since pre-teenhood that i really connected with r&b emotionalism. i remember when i heard 'ugly' for the first time too - i had it on repeat while it was downloading, and couldn't wait to catch the next microsecond of sound as it appeared. it really left me breathless. i was thrilled. it was like watching a jet take off. i think i even cried a tear. this kind of uncontainable heart-bursting joy is fairly rare for me, perhaps the only other time i've really experienced it was while listening very hard to kim deal's vocals on "no aloha", if that counts as pop. i think the last time i came close to this was with "like glue". i was standing on the dancefloor, waiting for a delayed hiphop show and i think 'glue' was the first crowd warmup record they played. there was hardly anyone standing with me, i was about right in the middle of the two huge speakers, maybe a little to the left. and i just stood there, staring at the speakers, enraptured. i managed to mumble something to my friend about how good what we were hearing was. after the first chorus or so i made sure i'd memorized enough words so i'd be able to google and, consequently, slsk it. it made me feel good about the world.

― m. (mitchlnw), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 22:03 (twenty-one years ago)

okay, so i've kind of got one story. but it sucks.

― m. (mitchlnw), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 22:05 (twenty-one years ago)

Most recently: Lonnie Mack's "Why." It's almost a white blues version of Lorraine Ellison's "Stay With Me." And if you've heard neither, for shame.

― Michael Daddino (epicharmus), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 22:08 (twenty-one years ago)

the first time i heard kaleidoscopes "flight from ashiya" i was in tears by the end, just such a perfect song. also not long ago at all i was completely gobsmacked by a show i saw of a friend's band. their songs were among the best i've heard anywhere in the last god knows how long. to say i was surprised and in awe is to understate.

― the surface noise and the analogue warmth (electricsound), Wednesday, 16 June 2004 22:14 (twenty-one years ago)

one month passes...

I'm going to just cite what I wrote on the "Moments when you were awestruck by pop" thread
Like many others are saying, "Laid" and "Atmosphere" may not be my overwhelming faves, but they're up there, and for whatever reason the time I first heard them sticks out.
Interestingly, both times I was standing in the exact same spot in the kitchen in our former house.

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 22 July 2004 16:30 (twenty-one years ago)

shit, I just posted to the wrong thread!

― Barry Bruner (Barry Bruner), Thursday, 22 July 2004 16:31 (twenty-one years ago)

re-discovering "Wood Beez" after buying the LP used in St. Louis--this was in the early '90s.

listening in a chemically altered state to Skip James' "I'm So Glad"

and recently, grooving to a fairly obscure song by The Marmalade, "Station on Third Avenue," absolutely perfect.

also recently, discovering Nino Tempo and April Stevens' 1967 single on White Whale, "You'll Be Needing Me Baby."

and in general, any time I hear a great Beach Boys song--"Let the Wind Blow" and "Till I Die" are current obsessions.

― eddie hurt (ddduncan), Thursday, 22 July 2004 16:42 (twenty-one years ago)

You must be logged in to post. Please either login here, or if you are not registered, you may register here.