1983

I just finished up listening to the 1993 playlist at work earlier this week.  So clearly I'm not catching up on these reminiscences any quicker than I'm listening to them.  After I finished up the '93 playlist, I decided to take a break from it for the rest of the week.  Instead of jumping into 1994, I made a playlist of all the unplayed songs that are 9mb or larger.  I know, I'm a freak, but I'm enjoying it.  A little bit of the 90s, a little bit of the 00s and a little bit of the 10s.  Tomorrow I'm starting 1994.  I'm anxious because that's the year everything changed.  That's the year Ken arrived on the scene.  I'm curious as to what memories come barreling through as I go through the songs of that year.

1983 doesn't look to be too different from 1982.  I finished up my junior year of high school and entered my senior year.  There are a lot of songs that bring me back to high school.  The thing that brings me the most joy about 1983's music is the brief insurgence of Neue Deutsche Welle into mainstream America's consciousness.  Neue Deutsche Welle, in other words, is German New Wave.  The new wave scene was pretty big in Germany and a few artists managed to crossover in America with German language hits.  Nena's "99 Luftballons" and Peter Schilling's "Major Tom" and Falco's "Rock Me Amadeus" all hit pretty big in the US.  Peter Schilling didn't get too much airplay with the German version of "Major Tom," but Nena did get as much German language airplay as English.  German was my favorite class in high school, so this is why I particularly loved hearing this music.  But I'm probably getting ahead of myself.  Nena's album wasn't released here until 1984, though the German album that "99 Luftballons" came from came out in Europe in 1983.  And Falco's breakthrough didn't come about until 1985.  But this is where it started.  And it started a life long obsession with German New Wave stuff.  I wish I was more versed in it, but I'm happy with what I've discovered over the years.

My lp purchases were starting to show a change in direction from previous years.  Sure, there's still pure through and through pop music like Billy Joel and the Pointer Sisters (man, I wore that record out), but Culture Club and Human League were paving the way to my growing obsession with New Wave and Brit Pop.  And I won the both SYNCHRONICITY and THE CROSSING in radio call-in contests.  Those two albums I also wore out.  And until that point, my entire collection, little as it was, was strictly vinyl.  The Police and Big Country albums were both cassettes.

Looking back at the songs and albums in my 1983 folder brings me so much joy.  There are too many things about that year to love and very little not to.  Aztec Camera, Kim Wilde, The Waitresses, Heaven 17, the first Madonna album, Ultravox, XTC, Paul Young, New Order, Laura Branigan, The Fixx, The Motels, Cyndi Lauper, Violent Femmes..... I could go on and on.