Late 90's Girl Power

I rarely watch MYX but I thoroughly enjoyed tonight’s Backtrax. Backtrax is a show where they play old videos from a certain era in the past. Tonight it was a tribute to female singer-songwriters, most notably those who became popular in the late 90’s. I just had to mention this here because, excepting Dave Matthews Band, Julia Fordham, and my more recent Michael Buble addiction, I’ve stopped buying secular music since the late 1990’s.

I also have to say that, since the end of the era of the female singer-songwriter, which was at this time at its peak with Alanis Morissette, Sheryl Crow, Sarah McLachlan and company, I’ve never really seen writing so good as to make me stop whatever I was doing and, as me and my friends would say, “pay homage to the song” (which we often did when Sarah MacLachlan’s "Angel" played on our CD player while on projects—‘la pang MP3 nun eh). Well, except Sting's writing of course. Ah, but there's no need to say that siguro. Everyone knows Sting's writing is incomparable.

Anyway, even if I promised myself I would sleep early tonight as I was already so tired from computing all the grades (finished three sections--yay!--so one more to go!), finishing my Beijing paper (submitted it na--yay! again), and sitting through eight hours of interviewing MBA applicants, I just couldn’t stop myself from watching video after video of this Backtrax episode! The late 90's femal artists were and have always been the best female artists for me. Wala pa talagang makapalit kahit andami nang Britney-slash-Ashlee-slash-Jessica-slash-Avril types na pumutakte sa pop music charts ngayon. These new girls are sadly, only girls, and I've always preferred listening to women.

Plus lately I've had it up to here with not-so-original "original" pilipino music. I’m really sick and tired of all the new-“old”-original-“remake” songs from bands high on talent but achingly low on imagination that have been plaguing the airwaves (yes, I believe "plaguing" is the right word) that I just had to had to had to sit down and experience these songs again. I even endured Luis Manzano’s irritating pagpapacute-ness just to wait and see what the next video was gonna be. Thankfully, hindi nasayang ang aking oras. Here’s the list of videos I feasted on tonight, in the order that they appeared…

Adia - Sarah MacLachlan
Where Have All The Cowboys Gone - Paula Cole
Foolish Games – Jewel
Cornflake Girl – Tori Amos
You Live You Learn – Alanis Morissette
Criminal – Fiona Apple

Super bitin kasi six songs lang pero super enjoy. Not only did I feast on the music, medyo nagsenti pa ako ng konti because this was the kind of music I kept playing in our project office when I was assigned to Subic and Fort Bonifacio in my IT consulting days. Kulang na lang talaga isama sa repertoire si Lisa Loeb, plus I would have been a million times happier if they had shown Julia Fordham, Sheryl Crow and Everything But The Girl, but hey, I guess we can’t have everything all the time. Actually, I have these CD’s naman so I know I can still play them over and over. Iba lang talaga ang experience if you get to listen to them song after song. Hate to wax sentimental but in my mind I was in happier times, pop-music-wise of course.

Alas, may katapusan lahat. And true to its form, right after this rarest of rare indulgences to non-FMradio-influenced aficionados like myself, MYX shows number one copier MYMP in another video of yet another “original” masterpiece, You Got It All. Ugh. Please lang! Tama na ang remakes… UTANG NA LOOB. Hay… I hate it when all good things must come to an end. But end, they do.