Musical preference normally plays an integral part of any teenager’s life. This is hampered somewhat by the fact that it also must be universally acceptable to their “peers”. Take one wrong turn and you’ll soon find yourself being the laughing stock of your social group. Unless conducted in secret...
So, I used to be a "Power Rangers" fan. Yes, a closet hobby of mine that nobody (and I mean NOBODY) could know about. However, now it's been forever more etched into the "annals of blockchain history". Sorry younger self. Anyways, I remember chilling on the sofa, enjoying one of the many badly choreographed fight scenes packed within each episode, when something dawned on me. The soundtrack. That hard-hitting, rock anthem pumping out of the television set. It was... great! I turned the volume up and through the chorus of grunts and shrieks on-screen, I honed in to the background score. Oh, yes. It was high-level "bad-assery" alright and from that moment on, it was a done deal. I had to have it.
But the big question was how? I tried recording the sound off the television set via two black and red phono connectors conveniently located at its rear. No luck, as the sound effects took away from any aural pleasure I might have had. No, this needed a more permanent solution. I had to go out and buy the actual CD. Fast forward to later on that day and I end up at our local music outlet, Tower Records. I always loved the huge selection they had on offer and was therefore hoping they'd have a copy tucked away somewhere. Well, after a quick trip down to the TV and Movies section, there it was. A genuine copy of the soundtrack pertaining to one of the greatest martial arts shows on Earth. I picked it up and made my way over to the counter. Waiting until no other customers were about, I hurried over and placed it on the counter. I still recall that look the cashier gave me whilst scanning over the cover with her bar-code reader.
"Oh, it's for my younger brother." I blurted out, a little too fast for my own good. But she knew alright. She could sense my underlying excitement and knew it was, without a shadow of a doubt, for me to listen to later on that evening. But I couldn't care less really. I had found what I was looking for and was absolutely ecstatic.
Back home, I bounded up the stairs as usual and into my room. The cellophane wrapping was already blowing down the street somewhere after being ripped off it's plastic sleeve by yours truly. I turned my hi-fi on and looked out the window, making sure none of my friends were sauntering up the road, on their way to see me. Well, the coast was clear and the time was now. I was under no false pretences as to what I was doing. It was almost sacrilegious and I was well aware of it. If I got caught, I'd never be able to live the shame down and most probably have to get a new bunch of friends. But that didn't matter now. Placing the silver disc carefully upon the tray, complete with it's circular image of the five rangers in mid-pose, I closed it and pressed play. Preparing to rock out!
Though, after perusing through a few tracks, it didn't hit home like I thought it would. I mean, the sound was clean and crisp. In fact, those awesome tracks had never sounded better! I could hear every riff, guitar solo and slamming bass-line like it was being played right in front of me. I was super-pumped, but the euphoric effect of before was soon wearing off. I just couldn't re-create that same feeling. Was it the fact that the colourful visuals or action sound effects were missing? Or that the whole album had this added "sheen and clarity" that took away from the raw power that was the series itself? I just don't know, but something was most definitely missing. A key ingredient that was stopping me from merging as one with the music. In a nutshell, it started to piss me off. I took the disc out, placed it back in it's sleeve and shoved it into a drawer under my desk. I gave it one last glance before shutting it, wondering what the goddamn problem was.
"Great." I murmured to myself with a frustrated sneer. "There goes £16.99. What a load of shit."
I remember how expensive these disks were at that time. Many people solved this issue by buying pirate discs. It was incomparably cheaper. I’m not gonna admit that I did bought these cheap once as well, because of copyright laws, f..ck it, I actualy did.lol
Lol, there was a time a trip to the CD shop was something I actually looked forward to on the weekend. Must admit I do miss that to some degree... :)
Yes, exactly. I miss the old times as well. I wonder why is that. In 10 years, are we gonna miss this time we are living in now?
hhahah great story man! Currently listening to the sound to figure out what your hype was all about! LOL so you still have the CD?
Lol, thanks, buddy! And yes, I "still" have the CD. There's another story I gotta tell later concerning this particular album. I'll get a photo posted up next time... :)
I used to listen to singers such as Jessica Simpson or Mariah Carey, I kept the CD’s until now. Few years ago my wife found these CD’s and asked me, where are these from? I said I used to listen to them and she laughed. She just laughed, by not beliving this taugh guy can listen to this girly songs.
Oh mate! Well, you now know I've been there and done that. I guess we can't help what pleases our eardrums, right? :)
Oh Man @ezzy you are so so so amazing when it comes to write a story i just love your creativity and usage of proper grammar Wow<3
After reading these lines i am just laughing out loud :D :D :D
You are always a source of happiness My Friend :)
Very much appreciated, buddy. :)
You are always welcome :-)
I was a power ranger fan myself too, although I was very little at the time.
I remember how they used to join together to create sort of a huge robot! I even had a bag with my all the power rangers printed on it.
Those were good times for sure.
Man, their collective assembly to form the giant robot. It was like pure eye-candy back then. Ah, the memories... :)
This new series is very interesting, I just finished reading the first 2 chapters.
I have to say, music was a big part of my life as a teenager. It still is, probably, although in a different and more intermittent manner. Honestly I never really had this feeling like I had to hide anything from anyone when it came to music or television: that part of your story picked my curiosity. Maybe we just live in very different countries, or maybe my peers used to be sillier than I was. Then again, I was never the cool kid, quite the opposite, and my metalhead years admittedly started as sort of a rebellion to the perceived order of things.
At any rate, I also liked the part about your reaction. Music is often less effective when taken out of context, and sometimes the production is too clean and ruins the power of a good piece (just ask blacksters who record their albums in the woods with a tape recorder). I had a similar attraction to the soundtrack of Cowboy Bebop, but that was honest, good music and it worked perfectly even on a stereo.
I look forward to the next chapter buddy!
Thanks very much for the feedback, @ziofeda! I think I would have been more suited to your crew, but the crowd I used to hang with with all about "perceived style". And some of the stuff I was into back then was anything but. And I totally agree about music sometimes sounding too "clean". I think that's what mess with the impact of that album on me at the time. I wasn't capturing the real essence of what I really loved about the tracks. The rugged rawness of the sound I suppose. (God, that sounds bad, lol)
Hope you enjoy this...
GO GO POWER RANGERS!!!
Oh man! I'm getting goddamn goosebumps! What a cover! :)
Oh my God @ezzy, hahaha, I enjoyed the hell out of binge reading these stories about your adolescence!! Awesome, I love it, it's inspiring actually, maybe I'll do the teenage girl's perspective!
I tried to keep a diary, but I was really bad about keeping it up to date, like you I was much too busy living the experiences. The road rage guy, priceless. But this one, the power rangers, haaha, I was nineteen and my boyfriend (now my husband)'s son was ALL about it, I was frequently cast as the pink one (Kim) in the backyard for some Live Action Role play :)
Oh, thank you, sweet @dreemit! I got so many stories from my misspent youth, so thought I'd add my diary onto the Steem blockchain for preservation purposes, lol. The pink power ranger, eh? Well, SHE RULED!!! Lol... :)
Thank you for stopped by, lovely @dreemit! Bless... :)
For me, it was always more about falling in love with a single, buying the album, and realizing the rest of it was trash. Although I’m also a little stunned that one album set you back that much money. Depends on when you bought it, I suppose.
Oh, the price of an album back then was pretty expensive. But in the pre-napster days, we had no other choice I guess... :)
Go go Power Rangers! :P
And £16.99 for that? Sheesh... how times have changed!
Lol, tell me about it. And to think, it only costs a few pennies to make. How we got ripped off back then. :)
Well they obviously had good business to make with Power Rangers Fanatics, such as yourself haha :P
Great post...
Thank for sharing...
I enjoy your story @ezzy
The best good luck always in this steemit
Your story was a lot of fun
Amazing,Look forward to hearing more @ezzy
Hehe.. I wonder how that love and hype for the sound track all of a sudden went away. Me too I loved the powerranger track but I do respect the love you had for it. Hope you get another sound track of you'll have much hype for. This hype and excitement is fun
I wonder if I will ever recapture that same excitement, buddy. The world was a very different place back then to the way it is now, lol.
well i am just about to read it .. let see
@ezzy me gusto mucho tu historia me gustaria leer mas historias como esta tienes mi voto! y te seguiré.
me gustaría que también me sigas y me des tu voto en algunos de mis post actuales! saludos desde venezuela!
You got nothing on me...
Listen to this song first.
Now, imagine in your head a 13 years old scrawny kid whimpering away:
Bonus point: add heavy "Russian" accent
it feels so good when you read posts of such..This comes with another emotions within....l simply feel the speaking voice of what you just shared and keep sharing more @ezzy
Man, I loved the Power Rangers too when I was younger. Hell....to be honest I even enjoyed the recent movie. go go Power rangers!
Nooo! I hated the Power Rangers , I could never see the appeal. My little brothers liked them though, so I had plenty of exposure to them.
Oh wow, were CD's normally that price back in the day or was this a higher priced disc? Seems awfully expensive. I never really purchased many music CD's in my life.
Napster all the way for me!
love this series :D. Do something on your first date story