I don’t think I’ve expressed it much, but I love the 1980’s. Being a child born of the 1990’s, I just missed that phenomenon, but I was still raised with the music and movies my family enjoyed in the 80’s, and then I discovered even more on my own when I started exploring this new obsession in middle school.  Most of my favorite movies at that point in my life had been from the 80’s, such as Return of the Jedi, Revenge of the Nerds, Pee Wee’s Big Adventure, Who Framed Roger Rabbit, Sixteen Candles, The Breakfast Club, Weird Science, etc.; it only made sense that I would find even more to love. I was probably the only middle-school girl you would have known in the 2000’s that dressed up like Madonna circa 1984 for Halloween like 3 years in a row. Duran Duran captured my heart and haven’t given it back since. I also got every 80’s hits compilation CD I could find and even some DVD’s of the best music videos. Ah, the music videos. Just this past week was the 35th anniversary of when MTV aired. Do you know the first music video that was?! It was Video Killed the Radio Star by the Buggles. I have DVD’s of Duran Duran and Madonna’s music videos and I watched them all the time, as if I were taking myself back to MTV’s prime. It’s not really a new revelation, but it’s no longer a “music television” channel; it’s mostly the host to crappy “reality” shows and other non-music related things. (That being said, I love 16 & Pregnant, Teen Mom, Awkward, and Faking It). If you’re up at like 5am, you might be lucky to see a music video on there.

So let’s take a trip, shall we? Let’s go back to the summer of 1981. You turn your TV to MTV at some point in the afternoon and the Go Go’s are on! Our Lips are Sealed. Not only is this a fun little song about not caring about what people say about you when they’re being petty gossips, but the music video is whimsical. It’s partly just the girls performing on stage, while the other party is them driving around town and such, but there’s such whimsy in the simplicity. My favorite part is towards the end, when they’re just frolicking, dancing, and singing in a water fountain. I’ve always wanted to do that ever since seeing this video. I imagine it would be just as freeing and exhilarating as running in the pouring rain. I’ve only experienced that once, but it was so oddly lovely; it was a summer day and my friend and I were shopping and perusing around our town’s little festival, when all of a sudden it started pouring. It was before we were driving so we couldn’t just flee and escape the rain, and we had something to drop off to another dear friend of ours who worked at the dry cleaners’ downtown anyway. Normally I can’t step out into the rain without an umbrella or a thick hoodie because of my hair; it’s naturally wavy, but I straighten it all the time. It’s just how I feel like myself. But on this day, I didn’t have an umbrella or a hoodie, and I just kinda rolled with it. After letting go of that vain worry, I was able to run in the rain happily. I don’t know why, it just felt so nice and it was so fun. My friend lived close to the downtown area so we walked back to her house, soaked but loving it. This music video always reminds me of that day I happily ran in the rain with my best girlfriend: