I guess to understand the origin of my hysteria I'd have to go back to the beginning. It all began in Junior High school. I was watching TV and a commercial came on for a new radio station that was going to be coming to the area soon. A new station? I was used to the local hiphop/r&b stations. This was promising more than that (no pun intented). More than just r&b, hip hop and rap music? I was intriguied! So when the new station started airing I was listening and sure enough it was different than what I was used to. There was alternative, pop, dance and even some hip hop and r&b. It was different and exciting and new to me. Living in "Chocolate City" (Washington, DC) and being an African-American almost everything I was exposed to was rap, hip hop, r&b and sometimes go-go music. I was blessed with two parents who's taste didn't ONLY fall in those catergories (they also weren't about to have me listening to music with profanity, violence and disrespect towards women) so I was ready and completely open to something new. New to me anyway.
I was getting to that age where music was everything to me. It was air, food, water and music. . . in that order. I was about to hit my teen years with a thud and this would be my soundtrack. When I was doing my homework (since I hate utter silence) I would turn on the radio and to my new favorite station. This was also about the time that I discovered MTV and realized that I could NOT live without it. . . but I had to because we didn't have cable. I was able to adapt to this cableless teenage life. . . both Grandmothers had cable as did many of my friends. So whenever I was at either places I soaked up the cable like the proverbial sunrays. When that wasn't enough I discovered something on late night TV every friday night. It was called Friday Night and every friday after Conan O'Brien had gone off it would come on and show 2 music videos and then a few comedic acts. You could even vote on what videos you wanted to watch next week. WOW so I could get my music video fix during the times I couldn't get to TV with cable. Friday night at about 1:30 am I was watching my videos and then voting for what I wanted to see the next week.
On this particular week's show a video came across the screen that I thought was kinda funny. Five guys singing at a basketball court. . . simple enough. Suddenly, it starts to rain!! Oh no!! Yet they continue singing. Ok I thought this was kinda silly. "What's with the guys singing on the court and then it starts to rain. They're gonna catch a cold. This is silly." I later said to one of my friends, who agreed. "Yeah it's silly. I don't get it." In hind sight I have to ask, "Are there many videos that actually make sense??" No there are very few but, I digress. I thought the guys were cute but the video was odd.
-Christel M.
