The story of Jack & Diane, two American kids growing up in the heartland, resonated with more than just the folks in the middle of the country. If it didn’t, there’s no way it would’ve become as huge as it did. Nearly thirty years later, it remains John Mellencamp’s magnum opus.
While to a 6-year old, it’s just a song that’s easy to sing along with and clap along to, lines like “oh yeah, life goes on…long after the thrill of living is gone” and “Hold on to 16 as long as you can, changes come around real soon make us women and men: hit extremely hard when you’re looking at 33. Much like it’s cousin “The Boys of Summer”, it’s equal parts romantic and wistful.
The slow trickle of new music releases has sped up slightly, with a handful of big name releases scheduled to hit stores (and your local online retailer) right before Valentine’s Day. Here’s what you’ll find in the new release bins this week:
As a blond bombshell and a culture vulture (I say that in the nicest way possible), Deborah Harry directly set the tone for artists like Madonna and Gwen Stefani, who borrowed (and still borrow) from every subculture possible and transformed them into their own unique stew. Blondie, the band Harry fronted, was a new-wave band at heart, but the band’s hits ranged from four-on-the-floor disco (“Heart of Glass”) to reggae (“The Tide is High”). With 1980’s “Rapture”, however, Blondie became the first mainstream band to dip a pinky-toe in the burgeoning hip-hop phenomenon. With a shout out to a then-unknown party promoter named Fab Five Freddie and some endearingly clunky rhyming by Harry, “Rapture” bridged the gap between the downtown new wavers and the utpown B-girls and B-boys to become the very definition of a successful crossover. Nearly thirty years later, few songs have merged genres so respectfully and effectively.