Radio Ga-Ga

It's been more than two weeks already since I started living a television-free life. I tell you, it sucks! If before, I always look forward to bum days because I would get to see my favorite TV shows, now I dread staying in my boarding house for even just an hour. I'm so pathetic. I miss Rory and Lorelai! I miss Mommy Elvie in Misadventures! Heck, I even missed the series finale of Dawson's Creek! (Although thanks to Miaka's generousity, she recorded the show for me.)

Good thing (or consolation enough), my roomie left his radio in our room. Back in college, I was the radio guy. Our dorm TV's on until 1am only and since there were like hundreds of us sharing one boob tube, I turned myself to the radio. Man, those were the days! My faves then were NU 107 and RJ Radio. And I was the OC listener. I'd stay up until 12midnight just to hear the Midnight Countdown and not only that, I had a notebook wherein I listed down the top 12 hits per week! :) I still remember purist rocks fans getting angry when Hanson's "Mmm Bop" made it to the charts, Fuel's "Shimmer" staying put in the countdown for more than one year, and Weezer's chart-topper "Pink Triangle" being my official rock anthem in sophomore college. Being a happy lister, I followed both charts of NU's and Rick Dees (so I also get updated with American Pop.) My affinity for radio ended when I graduated from college and began working. And since I worked for the visual medium, I started focusing more on TV and the cinema.

Things have surely changed while listening again to radio these days. There's already a Jam 83.9 station that plays some good acoustic pop. KC FM which used to be "We Are Family" KC radio is now gone. Chico and Delamar are back in Monster Radio. Radio Romance is already DWRR "For Life" and together with "Kailangan pa bang I-memorize yan" are the "jologs" radio stations to reckon with. They already upstaged Campus Radio "Forever!" which back in college overused the Mission Impossible theme as its station jingle. :) I'm already not familiar with the deejays but I never was anyway. It's because I don't like it when deejay's talk more about themselves and their opinions about floppy issues rather than the music. As if the fake American twangs aren't irritating enough!

I am very glad though that NU 107 still rocks! They still have deejays with fake British twangs but at least their Remote Control Weekend remains playing good music. It's definitely nostalgic to hear Creeper Lagoon's "Dear Deadly", Blur's "Beetlebum" (from which I got my pseudonym), and Better than Ezra's "At The Stars". Listening to the Midnight Countdown last Saturday, I realized how I missed some good music because of not listening to the radio. Among the hits that weekend, I like Me 1st and The Gimme Gimme's version of "The End of the Road" (a riot!). Itchyworms topped the charts with "Buwan". (And the deejay told the listeners that they're on Friendster! Oh really! "Just type Itchyworms as the first name and Band as the surname.") Itchyworms is a decent band but nothing really beats the Pinoy alt-pop bands of the mid-90's. Itchyworms just sounds so bohemian burgoise, although to their credit they make their own music.

The good effect is that listening again to good music made me want to mixed tapes (or CDs now) again. I used to do this in college, being poor and not being able to afford an orig CD or even, tape. In fact I shared my mixed tapes with my younger sis and I'm so glad that it made her want to become an alt-chick rather than a pop bimbo considering she's part of the Spice Girls and Britney era. Don't get me wrong though, I love the Spice Girls but you must admit you don't want your younger sisters to act like them. So anyways, I checked my High Fidelity yearend list of Top 10 songs since 1999 and asked my good friend Michiko to burn the music for me. Looking at my list, I was surprised how mainstream I've become after I graduated. I was embarrased to see Britney Spears, A1 and N'Sync on my list along with Collective Soul and Fatboy Slim. :) But only temporarily because I did like those songs and one thing I don't wanna become is to be the snobbish music listener. So what if I like the Dido-composed "I'm Not A Girl Not Yet A Woman?"?!? :) Liking those pop songs is actually symbolic and memorable for me since those were also the years when I began working for mainstream media; working for which ironically opened up my mind and freed myself from elitism. Who has the authority to say what's cool and uncool to listen to anyway? When I was younger, I listened to a lot of "jologs" songs and I wasn't ashamed to sing along with them. The "cool" concept is just uncool. Music should be looked more as part of our life stories and society's history.

As Madonna croans, "Music makes the bourgoise and the rebel." :)