Comments | infopractical: 99 Red Balloons

infopractical

99 Red Balloons

Nov 02, 2006 14:37

This morning, during my almost daily trip to the coffee stand down the street, just before my morning walk, I heard the old Nena song, 99 Red Balloons, playing. I love that song, as does nearly everyone who was young and concious during the height of the Cold War.

( Where is our 99 Red Balloons? )

Comments 21

perspectivism November 2 2006, 23:02:02 UTC

Great post; thank you for typing it.

To the song...

"Bad Day" leaps to mind!

perspectivism November 2 2006, 23:02:50 UTC

Actually listen to it, to appreciate the tones and moods.

infopractical November 2 2006, 23:35:27 UTC

True, and that's an awesome song. In fact, it's one of the best pop songs ever recorded that I don't own, which I may remedy shortly (though I think Amanda has it somewhere burned on a car travel CD).

R.E.M. was my first favorite band. I caught onto them when I was in the fifth grade and snatched one of their albums from one of my brothers' casette collections. I quickly saved up to buy Life's Rich Pagent and Document, and accumulated all their music for a few years. I've rebought a few CDs since.

You probably picked one of the absolute best candidates for the song. But R.E.M. just doesn't resonate with enough young people these days. In fact, what I'm reaching for might literally take an unknown like Nena in order that nobody has any preconceived notions about the artist. Otherwise, the music just can't have that kind of reach.

kirinqueen November 3 2006, 01:17:03 UTC

R.E.M. was my first favorite band, too, though not until I was in 9th or 10th grade.

I think you should listen to Muse's Black Holes and Revelations, if you haven't already. They like "Knights of Cydonia" on the radio stations I listen to; I have no idea if it's popular elsewhere, but I think several songs on the album are danceable.

Thread 8

perspectivism November 2 2006, 23:06:23 UTC

Who could write that song?

Smart as you are...I find I feel that REM, Ben Folds, and a few others CERTAINLY CAN write anything we can conceive. (Also, I like feeling that there's extreme competence out there in our world...so this belief has extra survival value pushing at the boundaries of its literal truth.)

infopractical November 3 2006, 00:11:23 UTC

I don't know. I'm still looking for that song that impcorporates analysis of iterated games. When I hear it, and it's good, I'll bow down, buy copies of the CD for all my friends, and travel around the world catching concerts like an unemployed hippie.

perspectivism November 3 2006, 00:52:10 UTC

candid November 3 2006, 01:20:35 UTC

Iterated games? Why didn't you just say so?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cc5bGWeuA6Y

Thread 5

candid November 3 2006, 00:10:55 UTC

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i0rLMsxYah0

infopractical November 3 2006, 00:14:09 UTC

By God, that's it! Surely this is the song that sums up what being young in this world is about to a mind concious enough to recognize that boyfriends and the clothes in our closet are what make the world tick.

the closet! candid November 3 2006, 00:15:51 UTC

I knew the floor couldn't be the best place for my clothes!

And Another Thing infopractical November 3 2006, 00:15:21 UTC

Post something so vile in my journal again and I'm going to pay the four most vapid women I can find to follow you around for months...making conversation with you.

Thread 6

paperstar19 November 3 2006, 06:08:50 UTC

I have nothing useful to say, but I liked this post.

a long winded, meandering response to your long winded meandering post blipangel November 3 2006, 17:20:51 UTC

"pop(ular)" music and the potency of its content has ALWAYS gone through wild mood swings. It seems like every time pop culture carves out a new low point benchmark for intellect insulting content and ability to ignore significant geopolitical unrest, the underground responds in kind. It always has and always will be cyclical. The interesting thing about today's musical cycle is the advent of internet (and other) technology spawns multiple cycles that appear to be phasing on top of one another. Niche genres that previously were lumped together ie goth/industrial/techno/metal have given way to goth, inustrial, gothindustrial, IDM, drum n bass, black metal, doom metal, etc... etc... Pop music is in many ways synonomous with major labels, which are integrally associated with pay for play schemes on radio. Since radio is (imo) going the way of the dodo, pop music is struggling to find a simple mechanism through which it can push its bullshit. dumb it down even more, sex it up more, make it more violent... these are the stimuli to ( ... )