Every now and then I like to do these retrospective mixtapes not just for the sake of nostalgia but to remind you that the person posting these things is not young and is in fact quite proud of being from her generation. 1990 seemed like an important year for me for more than one reason. I discovered a lot of great science fiction that year. I started writing fan-fiction (!!) though I did not know that was what I was writing. I just wanted to extend the story of a mindship — so you could say it was the first bit of SFF mindship fiction I ever wrote. I read The Neverending Story. I was saving a lot of my pocket money to buy each Tolkien volume. And these were the tunes that I was listening to. Well, some of them! Wasn’t really much of an alt- or indie-person yet (there were some exceptions in the music I’d been consuming for years but I hadn’t really noticed, I mean, how could I?)
1991 was the year grunge started registering in my brain, 1992-1993 was when I started going consciously indie in my listening preferences (I was also buying/reading more music magazines and paying attention to reviews etc). But apart from pop music, I was listening to a lot of classical music, opera and jazz back in 1990 as well. Saving money to buy cassettes, whether original or (coughcoughcough) and I was recording anime tracks from anime I recorded on the VCR via an old 70s cassette recorder that my Dad left behind while building up a stupendous library of mixtapes both on cassettes and VHS (so many music video compilations, lost to time).
Groove Is In The Heart — Deee-Lite
I didn’t really think I was crazy about this song when it came out but every time I think of 1990, this is the song that seems to define the music landscape of that year for me. I mean, how could you not want to dance?
The Love Shack — The B-52s
Falling — Julee Cruise
Vision of You — Belinda Carlisle
Wicked Game — Chris Isaak
No way I could leave this out!
My Secret Heart — Kylie Minogue
Enjoy the Silence — Depeche Mode