A Trip to The Past

If you've been on the internet for quite some time, and you're an avid follower of the music side of YouTube, well, you've probably seen comments like...

"Today's music sucks!"

"Music was so much better back then!"

"God, please bring Kurt Cobain back and take Justin Bieber instead."

"Justin Bieber: God puts me on Earth to make music and for people to enjoy it.
(The artists' video): No I didn't."

forgot the rest, but you get my point.

Does music today really as sucky as they said? Or do people just have sentiments for what they found enjoyable in the past because they were better people in the past? I don't know, but sometimes I do wonder why today's music doesn't really... click to my soul? I mean, I do admit that I have huge sentiments for music I listen in the past. Listening back to those, I could recall the moments I spent with that song, no matter how absurd that would be.

For example, during my time along elementary to junior high, I obsessed completely over The Corrs, and I listen to their songs whenever I get the chance. Back then, listening to music wasn't that big of a deal, you know. We didn't have Spotify and not really relying on internet a lot. If I wanted to listen to music, I had to buy the disc / tape and put them in the stereo, so when there was no stereo, I didn't listen to music. Another way would be to... *ahem* download the songs, y know what I mean. That means I need the effort to search for the songs, wait for them to download which would take quite a while if you want the whole album, and then transfer it from my computer to my phone so I can listen to it during recess.

My first exposure to The Corrs would probably be the cassette tape. My mom had one, and I listened to it quite a lot. Their songs are very light and warm, like hot citrus tea... and I was completely obsessed. I didn't have my own laptop and internet access back then, and the only time I could access internet was when mom took me to her office. There, I searched for The Corrs lyrics and I.... printed..... them. *cringe* Look, I was young and obsessed, okay? I probably didn't know what YouTube was, and I spent most of my free time memorizing those lyrics. It probably was why my English was above average.


Back then, there was no Steam, no firesure way to know what game was booming, what was good, and all I could manage to buy were some weird pirated game CDs available in department store. So I had to make-do with what's there. The pirated game CDs always contain more than 5 games in it, totally like compilation, and that's when you know it's pirated. I played this game called Exile 2, an RPG game in which I had totally no idea what to do so I just winged it. I didn't even have a concept of what RPG game was. And during that, I listened to some Corrs, of course. The Corrs songs that I took time to search and download... also, remember WINAMP? Yeah, that was it.

It's an absurd concept, because I was listening to warm-hearting lyrics about wanting to runaway with your stupid lover.... while I recruited a monster in my team and escaping the lava.

All silliness aside, I still remember the moment vividly. Very vivid. Which was weird, because it's such a trivial thing to remember. I didn't even consider it out of normal back then.

My theory is that the memories are there because I took effort to make them, to make the memory. Today everything is accessible soooo easily that when you get something instantly, you can also easily dismiss them instantly. If I wanted to listen to music, I needed to search, download, wait, transfer, and then and only then I could get them. Now, when I want to listen to music, I just needed to go to Youtube and search for them.

They're nice things, but it doesn't really write the whole 'music experience' for me. Remember back then phone companies like Sony Ericsson (yes, with Ericsson) and Nokia made several phone models which specifications were focused around music? Take the Sony Ericsson Walkman series, or Nokia XpressMusic. I had a few of those, and I was really into Sony Ericsson's Walkman series. Or remember the Walkman, where you put music CDs in and listen to them through headphones? That thing is totally retro, man. Because having Walkman requires you to collect the CDs, it just showed
how much of an avid music listener you are. God, I miss the 00s.

had this beauty when I was in junior high

my friend had one of this and it was the bomb

I wouldn't say things like I was born in the wrong generation, because frankly things are great right now, and I'm grateful that I get to experience the transition from old-modem-sound on pentium computer to seamless streaming through wireless connection. But, it would be great to actually experience something as a whole again like I did back then, because right now every little thing seems to be meaningless.

See, I could talk hours and write paragraphs about silly things from my past like music, but if you ask me to narrate about my last 3 years in college, I couldn't remember the last time I was that... happy, or enthusiastic at all. *hello darkness my old friend plays*

They said the past always has a way to catch up to you, and this time, it does. It does, my friend, and I'm glad I had them.