Music Confessions

Somewhere, there is a woman in her mid-40s who still goes out showing off her midriff at Poison concerts and already saw this Broadway show (twice!), and who’s going to read this post and be like, “right on.”

This isn’t for you.

How much happier does music make us?
The participants’ dopamine levels rose by up to 9 percent when they were listening to music they enjoyed, and “one person experienced a 21 percent increase,” says Salimpoor. “That demonstrates that, for some people, it can be really intensely pleasurable.” People who don’t get chills also experience the rise in dopamine, says study co-author Robert Zatorre, as did the eight subjects when they listened to other participants’ selections, but the rush wasn’t as strong.

—From a piece on how listening to good music is like doing dope, eating tasty food or doing it.

I grew up on the side of town where you didn’t hear much hair metal, Pink Floyd, the Beatles or anything like that. When people starting putting the booming systems in their cars all you heard was the bass. I feel like I lost out on an eclectic musical upbringing, but when I really think back, I had much of the same suburban appetite as most other kids who grew up in the 80s. There’s an episode of Chappelle’s Show where a black cop started singing “Every Rose Has Its Thorn.” In the skit, they look at him all WTF?! and he responds, “I grew up in the suburbs.”

Now, like I said, most people in my hood were into Public Enemy. My best friend in the world was trying to push Run-DMC on me since “Rock Box.” But it took me a while to come around. There are kids from Beverly Hills who caught on to rap at an earlier age than me.  So it goes.

For me, this post is like my musical therapy. I’m opening up about my musical past, like how you do when you’re on the shrink’s couch telling her or him about your past and all that goodness. Some of us have to have “guilty pleasure” listening that we hide from our friends. I’m not saying I like this stuff now, but I can sing every word if you bust out Guitar Hero. Below, some of my guilty pleasures that I think a lot of  80s kids in Jersey taped off of Z-100 at some point, or watched on MTV back in the day. Shouts to Romeo-G, for indirectly inspiring this post.

–There are tons of Jersey bands to rep, but I know everyone was into this song at one point or another.

–Thanks Youtube, I never knew there was a longer version to this song. I got someone to buy me this cassette, to this day, I can’t find anyone else who did the same. Still a classic intro. Actually, wait, this was the song I liked.

–I know I’m going to get so played out for admitting this, but I got someone to buy me a cassette by these cats too.  Messed up I would’ve been clowned by Mike Judge.

—Lastly, at the top of the post, a cassette I remember getting someone to kick out good money to Sam Goody for. Sorry, pops.

And that’s it. The rest of my music collection took off when my grandfather copped me a Boogie Down Productions tape and I never looked back.