Ain’t Nothing Gonna Break My Stride

We’ve all heard it before. “In the future everyone will be famous for fifteen minutes.” Of course with the advent of You Tube, blogging, and various social networking tools this concept has been taken to the next level. As a child of the 1970’s and 1980’s I remember a time this was not true. 1984 was probably one of the richest years musically as it introduced us to Madonna, Prince, Cyndi Lauper, WHAM, Duran Duran, and many other pop acts. Lionel Richie released “Can’t Slow Down”; his best selling album to date. This album included “All Night Long”, “Running with the Night”, “Hello”, “Stuck on You”, and “Penny Lover”. These songs were instant hits, which received significant playback and is still played on Light FM and oldies stations regularly.

A few years later “Dancing on the Ceiling” and “Say You Say Me” were released. This would be his last commercially successful album. In a changing world, the music of Lionel Richie no longer fit the times. Over the next 20 years, music would have a harder edge. Heavy Metal, Grunge, and Rap became the new anthem. To be fair, many of the musical offerings from these newer genres are enjoyable. After all, who did not enjoy “Hey Ya”, “Crazy”, and “Let’s Get it Started.”

Thankfully, 1980’s nostalgia seems to be an all time high. Lionel and his long forgotten music seems to be on the radio more often these days. Thank You Rock of Ages!!! Thank You Glee!! Thank You Lady GaGa!! Still I miss the ballad that rocked and the memories that it seems to conjure. From first loves to freshman year the music seems to serve as a soundtrack of days that have long passed. I suppose that is why these songs of old can often seem larger than life. I suppose the new tunes shold be about new memories. So… do you remember what was happening the first time you heard “Boom Boom Pow?”