by Aquamanda
This is the first of a monthly column on music by Dulwich-based DJ, singer and musician, Aquamanda - offering up an eclectic playlist of trends, bands, gigs, views and opinions all about music with a Dulwich and South London theme.
Aaah, the treasured BBC 2 play of the 70’s, – maxi dresses, charades, canapés and a heart attack. But zip forward a few decades and I’m with a real Abigail planning her 18th birthday party in Dulwich. I’ll be DJ-ing. Now, whilst I have a vast collection of music spanning most genres, the very latest up to the minute r n b is not necessarily abundant in my cd box. I better get with my thing and get listening to some happenin’ tunes p d q.
I have a couple of secret musical accomplices, one of which is my 15 year old niece, Briony. When I stay at her house, we often flip through the music channels whilst she insists on straightening my curly hair with her ceramic irons (takes years off me). I always leave with a CD of current dance and R n B tracks – you gotta keep up with the kids. Abigail meanwhile had emailed me a suggested track list of her faves – and I was pleased to say, with Briony’s help, I had about half of her requested tracks.
I’d been round her house a few days before and there we sat laptop versus laptop on the sofa. I scrolled through some of my iTunes playlists, covering current dance tracks, she picked out her must have tracks, purchased some there and then, and burnt me a couple of CD’s.
Crikey, how things have changed. In the olden days, when I was 18, we had 7” singles and cassettes – which all too often got tangled up, sounded distorted if had got hot or near electrical appliances. Many a Sunday I’d be found at the top of the stairs with tiny microphone held up to tiny radio , tape recording the top 20 countdown. Then there was the treasured mix tape, played over and over, songs forever associated with a particular place and time. I also used to love drooling over albums, curled up in a big chair, huge canister headphones on and pore over every credit, thank you, lyric and gaze over the graphics and photo’s in an almost tracendental state whilst lost in the music.
I spoke to Lucy (19) in Herne Hill. Thankfully, despite being able to download any tune virtually anytime, anywhere, she does still buy albums by her favourite artists, for the same reason as we did – “because it’s good to actually have something in your hands”. Phew, the CD is not quite dead. Music these days is everywhere: little earphones wedged in the ears of students, joggers, commuters. People who you thought probably only owned one REM album now have 10,000 tracks on shuffle. We used to lend out albums (sometimes never getting them back),wait for days to hear our fave tune pop up on Radio 1, now we can just swap iTune libraries, noting after the computer cross- fertilization process, we now have 3 days of pure acid house on our new rave playlist. Were there that many different songs in 1990? Some party!
With my borrowed tracks plus the newly purchased double compilation “MASSIVE R n B” which I felt I ought to familiarise myself with, Abigails party went down a storm. Things now are so much more glamorous, confident, sexy and sassy than when I was 18. Well, what do you expect from my “Punk & Poser” themed 18th birthday party, which meant layers of ruffles, bin liners, Pierots and Adam Ants complete with unflattering theatrical make-up. No pelvis swivelling bootylicious moves for us – more acrobatic shape throwing or moody minimalist robotic arm waving.
Sexy? Can’t remember being sexy.
The evening went without a CD in sight. All a bit smooth and accessible. All done via importing the tracks into the mixing software on pink laptop. I kind of missed rummaging through my cd boxes for “you know, the one with the blue cover”. And I miss squinting at every credit, thank you and lyric. Maybe I’ve not given up the cd decks completely just yet……
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