Back to the old school

Yesterday, on my bus ride home, I was tuning into Class 95 hosted by Jean Danker. 1 of the sub-segment, back to the old school, where listeners would dedicate the song from their school days that they would like to hear again….

This brought me back to my school days, where cassettes tapes and CDs were the only enjoyment we had.

I was first exposed to the English pop by my beloved Kor. He was such a great fan of the rock and pop genre. Queen, Pet Shop Boys, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Bananarama, Belinda Carlisle, Earth Wind and Fire, Abba, Guns and Roses, Nirvana, Red Hot Chili Pepper, were few of his favorite.

Most of his pocket money was spend on CDs. CDs hor, that's a big deal when I was young.

Then when he was in secondary school, Daddy bought him a Kenwood hi-fi system which cost him a few thousand dollars. Oh-my-freaking heaven! A Kenwood hi-fi system that's even a big big deal! Boy! I was damn jealous!

Kenwood became his new best friends. The worse thing was I wasn't allowed to even go near his hi-fi system. Let me repeat GO NEAR!!!

So the only time I can lay my hands on them was when he was in school. We were in different session plus he is always detained in school. Whahaha~!~!~! Serve him right!

My favourite was without a doubt Guns and Roses and Nirvana! There were so many vulgarities in the lyrics and I thought the way they say fuck was damn cool! With attitude! Yep! (the uncensored, uncut and imported set)

I would full blast *ya! I wished* tune very LOUD and sing together with them. Actually I murmur at most of the lyrics only the FUCK I got it loud and clear.

Till now he has no idea I meddle with Kenwood coz I was a smart and intelligent thief! I clean my tracks!

Then I was exposed to Chinese Pop by my fellow primary school mates. I still remember every Saturday after our Saturday class, we would take school bus home and the bus driver, uncle dunno what will tuned in to 93.3 醉心频道龙虎傍.

There is when I got to know 四大天王 Jacky Cheung, Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau and Leon Lai. My favourite was of coz…. Aaron Kwok! Coz he can fucking dance!

He is the best-looking among the four. Jacky has a mo-pieng face, Leon got the gay gay look, and Andy got the hokkien beng look. Only Aaron is the charming one!!!

Kor's favourite was Jacky Cheung. Actually I also like him. He 歌神 leh! But when you watch him perform damn boring! No entertainment value.

Aaron on the other hand was different; the dance step was a hit especially the 对你爱不完. Ask anyone the breath the 90s air, they sure know the hand signal.

I was so madly in love with him that I bought every album of his (even till now), I've collected the YES! Card a.k.a.偶像卡, bought every of his CDs, kept every single newspaper cutting reporting him, had his poster all over in my room, Knew every single song of his. I was the 101% Aaron Kwok fan!

Daddy, ma and Kor was so disgusted with me coz I 开口闭口 is 郭富城

Because of 四大天王, I was then exposed to Cantopop. That's how I leant to speak Cantonese. Ok I know I very 失败. A Cantonese yet I can't speak the language at all. But that's because from young Daddy and ma converse with me in mandarin. The only time I spoke Cantonese was with grams and yeye.

In my sec days, I began to tune in to Perfect 10 where I was surrounded with the latest English pop. If I didn't mention, Daddy bought my first hi-fi. It was a JVC. Bloody hell how can I compare my JVC with Kenwood?!!!! Aarrruuugggghhhh.... But 好过没有啦

Mark Richmond and Bernard Lim were my favourite DJs. Perfect 10 were always there for me when I was doing my homework, doing my revision, during my burning-midnight-oils days during exams.

The songs played were juz fantastic.

Sadly, there was a time when Ma ban me from listening to the radio while studying for 6mths coz kor did badly for his Os and she conveniently link the bad result to listening to music while studying.

Her rational was how can one remember what he/she studied while listening to music? Its like you are trying to read & memorize the books while your ears are listening to music. No logic...

That literally pissed me off. Coz I'm a multi-task person. I can take my meal, watched TV, yak on the phone and flip through the magazine at the SAME time!

Although Kor and I came from the same factory but the parts used were different so we are not the same!!!

Later, I began to go tea dance with my school mates. The then happening was of coz Fire, Canto and Sparks where they would play techno.

Techno was no doubt link to bengs and lians. Techno = Beng

Songs like Infinity, Sunshine after the rain, Be my lover etc were the hottest. Ask any bengs, they definitely know the lyric and dance steps + hand movement.

Frankly speaking, some of the songs were acceptable and quite nice. But because techno is always associated with bengs hence the bad reputation.

Moving on to Poly, I frequent radio lesser and lesser instead mp3 was in trend. Everyone were seen downloading from the net, MIRC, Free download server were the hottest.

Most will download songs form the internet and burn them in CD which will accompany us throughout our bus journey to class. The competition was who has the most MP3.

Thanks to a Japanese Drama "God! Please give me more time" I began to appreciate new age. Kevin Kern, S.E.N.S were few of my favourite.

Now, I like groove and the online station which I tuned in to every morning at work is www.planetsoulnetwork.com they have nice beats

I guess I’m a rojak. I listen to whichever is pleasing to my ears. But trance is a big No NO.

Whenever I club, I still prefer they play retro. R&B and house is still acceptable.

So, what type of music were you exposed to???