Musical ghosts of a distant past.

Sometimes, I get teased about being born in the “wrong era”. My love for timeless, canonical novels (that you call “classics”), my passion for classical music, right down to watching black-and-white movies… Even the popular songs that I listen to. Sure, I was into the whole pop, contemporary, boy-band era in secondary school – I still enjoy and listen to them from time to time, I must admit. The last time I sat down and actually watched a good hour of MTV or Channel V was probably in form 2 or 3. After which (in my personal opinion), the contemporary music scene just went downhill. They just don’t write songs like those golden oldies, those classic pop hits of the long, bygone years, anymore. I don’t listen to any of the new stuff that’s playing on the radio or on MTV anymore. The popular music scene is now dominated by mostly R&B stuff, a genre of which I confess I do not particularly enjoy. There’s probably only a few odd songs from that genre that I like.

I don’t know why, but the song “Smoke Gets In Your Eyes” suddenly popped into my mind tonight, and I started reminiscing about my childhood, when my dad used to listen to all these oldies. I remember car rides, and Richard Clayderman would be playing from the car’s stereo speakers, mostly sad, romantic ballads, or just instrumental versions of all these songs. (Come to think of it, I think he likes listening to all his old Canto-pop songs as well.) I guess that’s partly why these old songs resonate so deeply with me, and I really love them. Wonderful songs like “Roses Are Red”, “Tennessee Waltz”, “Changing Partnerts”, “I Went To Your Wedding”, “The Great Pretender”, “Only You”, “Moon River”… (A quick search on YouTube will reveal tons of videos). Or maybe I’m just a sentimental, depressed, brooding person at heart. Hm.

They don’t write songs like those anymore – beautiful, perennial melodies that transcend all ages and time. Sigh.