Ten years ago, I finally grew up.
While that may be a harsh thing to say about a thirty-two-year-old person, it was true. After many years in college and graduate school, I managed to claw my way out of school and into a real life. I had met a new lady in 1998 and we were still dating. In late December 1998, I moved back to my hometown. I looked for and found a job. I courted that lady and we married in August 1999. As the fall of 1999 crept onward, the millennial rush started. Remember Y2K? Remember all the End of the World books and movies? Remember all the Best of lists? As a historian, the ending of 1999 brought a confluence of eras. You could have the Person of the Year (can't really remember), the Person of the Decade (Bill Clinton is my vote, for better or worse), the Person of the Century (Gavrilo Princip; think about it: who else affected the 20th Century more?), and the Person of the Millennium (Johannes Gutenberg). It was an exciting time.
On my car stereo back then, I was being introduced to new music by artists I had never heard of and older artists I knew and liked were creating some of their best music. For me, 1999 was a very special year and the music is an integral part of it.
So, I'm sharing some of my favorite albums and songs from a decade (!) ago. It'll be an on-going series for the next several Mondays, at least through November. Maybe you liked some of these albums, too. Maybe you hated them. I'd like to hear from you.
First up (a bit later today): Sting's Brand New Day.
The 90s were a weird decade for music. The 80s still had their footprint on the music up until around 1992 or 1993. Then with the likes of Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, and Nirvana grunge took hold and I tuned out.
ReplyDeleteAs a college DJ in the mid-90s I was still firmly holding on to the eighties (even referring to the years as nineteen-eighty-fifteen, sixteen, and seventeen for 1995, 1996, and 1997 respectively). When grunge went the way of disco I started to pay attention again.
There was some good stuff in 1999. While not a Sting fan, I did enjoy your review of BND. I look forward to your reviews of other material from that year. I think my favorite album from that year was either Toto's Mindfields, Collective Soul's Dosage or Def Leppard's Euphoria.