90s Music: Yes Please

I wouldn't want to be a part of your generation.

My dad said this to me as he handed me the keys to my car. He had gone to wash it for me, and it was one of those rare occasions where Lil Wayne was playing in my car. Needless to say, my dad was not impressed with what he's been forced to listen to.

I said to my him, "this isn't my generation. I'm an 80s baby. And I must say, music from the 90s was dope." I will not claim Roscoe Dash, 2 Chainz, Tyga, Lil B, C, D, E, F, or G. I will not. If you asked me about the most recent album I purchased, my answer would be Watch the Throne, before that? I wouldn't even be able to tell you. Full Moon? Maybe?

I'm not inspired by music today. It's just not good or worth my money. I grew up listening to New Edition, LL Cool J, Nas, Jay-Z, Common, Mary J Blige, Jodeci, Silk, Minnie Riperton, the O'Jays, Michael, Whitney, and the list goes on and on. My father would play music from the 60s, 70s, and early 80s, and my brother played the mid-late 80s and up until I was playing my own music the early 90s. There was never a day that I wasn't surrounded by music.

In junior high, I'd wake up early to watch music videos while I got ready for school. Sometimes I was late because there was a new video on and I couldn't leave until it went completely off. When I got home from school, I'd lay on my parents' living room floor with my homework and my snack, and I'd let the videos watch me until I finished solving for X.

Back then, and even now, music just made you feel good. When I listen to music from the 90s, I can almost always remember what was going on in my life at the time. Some songs trigger break ups between my friends, some remind me of times when I'd sit on the phone and laugh and sing with my friends, and then there are those songs that remind me of a time when all of those things started to change.

People criticize BET and MTV for not playing music videos anymore. Granted, I have my own issues with BET, but how are they supposed to play videos when there are none worth playing or watching?

Shout out to VH1 Soul. If you want to listen to real music and watch old videos, that's the channel to watch.

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Alana Stoner

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