Everybody Wang Chung

Iowa was a great place to grow up. As a kid, I could play with friends in the corn fields or ride bikes on the gravel roads. I would leave home before lunch and come back home at dinner. And my mom would never worry. When I rode in the car with my folks, we listened to KFAB, the big AM station out of Omaha, for our news, the farm report, weather and, most importantly to me, the music. I can remember the Eagles and CCR in the 70s and singing along in the back seat.

I turned thirteen in 1981. Honestly, I can remember a few Journey songs from the early 80s, but not much more. I was focused on other things. Things like girls. In fact, a girl is the reason I remember the Journey songs. That was her group and I was interested in her, so I listened to Journey.

It was 1984 that everything changed. Things changed for so many reasons. I started high school. Friends and school occupied as much or more of my time than my family, and my music changed. The reason for the change: technology! A lot of teens in the 80s were experiencing cable television for the first time. They could watch HBO movies or videos on MTV. We could not get cable where I lived. I had NBC, CBS and ABC, and a fuzzy PBS station from Lincoln, Nebraska.

So, I bought my own music. My first acquisition was my Betamax VCR and the movie "Purple Rain." Absolutely life changing. Because the VCR cost so much and each movie was a fortune for a teen back then, I only had that one movie for nearly a year. As a result, I have seen "Purple Rain" over a hundred times. This movie was the soundtrack of my teen years. "Darling Nikki" and "The Beautiful Ones" played in my mind when girls were around. "Let's Go Crazy" and "I Would Die 4 U" seemed to beg me to have fun and live as wildly as possible. Even though I loved the title song and "When Doves Cry," one song made everything better. One song became my medicine for a broken heart. One song became my victory during defeat. That song was "Baby, I'm a Star."

The point at the end of the movie where Prince's autobiographical character, the Kid, is redeemed through singing "Purple Rain" and then moves onto "Baby, I'm a Star" was beyond inspiring to me. To me, the Kid has survived it all and become strong. He has won at the end. Cinematic gold.

My other life-changing technology also arrived in 1984. I bought a Sony CD player. Not a DVD player. Those wouldn't exist for many years. My CD player was a huge, black box that played one CD at a time. For quite a while, I only had a CD from the Police that I played over and over again. I still love those guys. It was Madonna that changed everything, though. It's hard to describe what an impact Madonna had on teens, and me, in the 80s. Her music was fun. She was sexy. The lyrics were flirty. Girls started to dress like her. Other artists began to copy her. It was amazing. I loved listening to "Holiday" and "Dress You Up." I danced with my girlfriend to "Crazy for You" at Homecoming and Prom. "Like and Virgin" and "Like a Prayer" were scandalous and liberating. I loved her so much. I think she left me behind in the 80s, but I still love her today.

My teen playlist is dominated by Prince and Madonna and mostly provided energy and a boost to my mood when I needed it. It's a little misleading to call it a playlist. Even though I would make mixtapes for my friends on cassette, I usually listened to all of an album on the CD player or all of a movie on the VCR. I think back at that was a fun time. Except when it fell apart.

Wang Chung released the album "Mosaic" in 1986, the year I graduated high school. I bought the album for the song "Everybody Have Fun Tonight." I purchased that CD, which I think might have been my fourth CD, around Christmastime. High school was coming to a close and I was head over heels in love. She was amazing, She was everything and I couldn't imagine life after high school without her. However, she could. I remember driving home after we broke up thinking that the whole world just ended. When I came home, I went to my room and put "Mosaic" in to boost my spirits. When I played it, "Everyone Have Fun Tonight" didn't seem right. I couldn't listen to it. Instead, "Betrayal," one of the album's deep tracks began to play.

I listened to it for hours. It tells the story of a love lost. A wife cheats on her husband. He is crushed. This song had nothing to do with my breakup, but it spoke to me. I felt betrayed, even though my girlfriend just wasn't as into me as I was into her. At 17, that doesn't make sense though. Over the next few days, "Betrayal" gave way to "The Eyes of a Girl," another Wang Chung deep track. Finally, my teenage attention span let me appreciate my favorites again. I remember "Betrayal" every time my heart is broken, even to this day.

I had a great time in high school. My teenage years were super fun. My life has been mostly "Baby, I'm a Star," "Dress You Up," and "Everybody have Fun Tonight." Every once in awhile, I have a "Purple Rain" day, a "Love Don't Live Here Anymore" month, or a "Betrayal" year, but that's how real life goes, I guess.