[Omega]

I thought i'd open a thread where we can all share Music Vids from the past decades that bring back memories. I'll start with 2 hits, one from 80s and a sleeper hit from the 90s that i really dug at the time....

[pourya]

Niceeeeeeeeeee thread Pedram jan!

my first contribution! I LOVE IT!!!

[pourya]

The ill-fated Milli Vanilli's fake but GREAT song!

[Omega]

lol pourya jan, it is a great song. What year is that from?



A 90s anthem and the feature of "Night At the Roxbury" film, an absolute classic that forged and embodied the 90s dance wave...

[pourya]

The MV song is from 88! Man chicks went crazy to this song!

Yes Haddaway, its interesting Pedram jan since I told you about Bad Boys Blue a while ago! Now Haddaway is the product of the same production team! However it manged to breakthrough internationally! The whole debut album is a classic, specially "Life"!
btw, have you heard Ebi's cover of "What is Love"? It was done live back in the 90's and arranged perfectly by Shaham Azar!

Here is another classic! the one man band, Enigma! This song brought New Age music mainstream and its drumloop and panpipes sound was copied by other acts an entire decade after!

[pourya]

Frank Farian who produced and faked both Boney M and Milli Vanilli also brought this HIT trio in late 90's! They are a suspected case as well, but never proved! I remember Iranians inside Iran used to go crazy for their CDs!





btw, "Night At the Roxbury" which you mentioned Pedram jan features some great nostalgic tracks!

[Omega]

Interesting pourya jan, if i remember right Haddaway did have a few more enticing tracks which weren't AS sucessful as "What is Love" but were equally infectious. I must check his album out, not just out of nostalgic curiosity but genuine interest. I haven't heard Ebis version, i checked youtube but can't find it either. Was it completely re-arranged and stripped down to bring out Ebis voice?

No Mercy What an absolute classic, this brings back some great memories of my High School days!! Do you also remember their follow-up "Please Don't Go"? Also a great song, albeit with a rather familiar lyrical theme lol.

Here is a great one-hit wonder from one of my favourite childhood films "Teen Wolf". It worked great in the scene and i still play it to this day to motivate myself for big football matches lol

[pourya]

The EBI version was much like the original, just with Ebi's Iranian accent!

No Mercy also featured a cover on Everything But The Girl's HIT on that album which I love even more than the original!

lol I remember wearing such see-thru shirts back then!



hehe, I too have such a motivation song its from ROCKY 4! I am not a fan of the series but we used to listen to the soundtrack when we were kids in gangs!
Ths song is still on my GYM playlist!

[Omega]

Hehe, i had never heard that cover before and i actually prefer it to the original aswell I wonder what those guys are doign now hehe.

Yea the Rocky films had some great soundtrack highlights. Not a great fan of the films either, but the 4th was the best.

During the 90s i was a HUGE fan of the British "bad-boy band" East17. This was one of my personal faves that was very lyrically riskay considering the social taboo regarding drugs at the time and also especially as they were predominantly marketed to the teenage market. It was never released as a single but i just love the beautiful refrain and Harveys voice is as great as ever

[pourya]

No mercy still release songs, however they no longer work with Farian and thats why no HIT!

haha! i remember East17! I was always amazed how ugly these guys were compared to other boy bands of the time!Lol
I remember their short height, baggy pants and huge head wears made me think of them as:



but they had some catchy songs!

[Omega]

loool, the baggy jeans and sock hats were their trademark attire. It captured the inner-London urban look of the early 90s. They were a refreshing alternative to the heartbreakers of that time (Take That, Boyzone, Backstreet Boys). A "boys boy band" if you will hehe.

[pourya]

I am not sure if you are familiar with a sub-genre to 80's electro-funk called (Latin) FREESTYLE which was built around the PLANET ROCK beat by second generation LATINs in USA and featured romantic lyrics in English! I was/am a huge fan and a member of the FREESTYLE NATION! The genre became mainstream back in late 80's in USA but went later undergound! one of the biggest HITS of the genre was Collage's "i'll be loving you"! Which was a reversed Milli Vanilli! like Prince the singer/producer Adam Marano was locked in by his record label but wanted to release independent music! so he came up with this project called Collage! he sang but brought a guy who pretended to sing the songs! SO the guy in the video is not the actual singer!



Marano later broke free and started to lead the project himself!

[pourya]

this genre also influenced Pet Shop Boys of the 80's!

the most mainstream FREESTYLE hit!

[Omega]

I cant say i've been privvy to this form of FREESTYLE pourya jan, but i like what i hear. Are there any more modern examples of this style?

[pourya]

In Iranian industry Ali Sanifar was a representative of that generation, he made "Cheshmaaye Naaz" for Andy which I consier being the only pure Persian Freestyle song! There is a certain formula which it uses completely!



This early Pet Shop Boys B-side was a pure Freestyle song!



listen to this cover! too bad the audio q is bad in this clip, otherwise its a nice cover!



another cover:




in early 90's it went underground but hundreds of various artists compilations were released! with 1000s of one-song artists! since it was easier/cheaper to release that way! actually today's Iranian undeground scene remids me very much of that time's freestyle underground scene! with new artists and songs popping up every day, of various quality! in recent decade I havent seen new compilations however in Canada, the last freestyle frontier, the music came to be hybridised with EURO DISCO and in recent years HOUSE music! So I cant really give you an example since the HOUSE has an overtone! what made Freestyle to what it was (and also its achilles heel) was the trademark break-beats which have no been toned down! however you can hear it in new remixes of current RnB hits!

here is a live underground club clip from 2007

[Omega]

I'm digging the sound pourya jan, and now i can see how it has impacted mainstream pop, particularly in the 90s. I can hear elements even in this East17 song...







Remember this classic ballad from the nineties?



Reminds me very much of an old flame hehe.

[pourya]

You nailed it Pedram jan! I recall the early east17 songs having that touch actually!

Yeah that "all my life" ballad is a classic one-ht-wonder by now! I recall a few ballads of the kind, amongst them this one:




around the same time this HUGE HIT was released!

[Omega]

lol i remember that All 4 One ballad very well, i think another boy-band covered it more recently? A true classic.

Many UK boy bands formed with a similar formula following the US 90s RnB scene. Damage, Another Level and even Blue hehe.

Pourya jan, did you ever follow/like this British 90s band..?

[pourya]

I never really came to like their stuff Pedram jan, even though it was quality music! it didnt affect me in any way!

[Omega]

Hehe, i used to love their uplifting and soothing sound back in the 90s.

A one hit wonder, i used to like....