It’s happened many a times, but i haven’t written about it before. Today though, was time to break free from that loop (Lord alone knows why, though). A random tweet, doesn’t matter who’s sent it, ends up leading to a nice, fun conversation. Just like that.

Twitter, you see, is many things to many people. To me, it is the ideal playground for randomness. You can talk anything & everything under the sun & chances are, you won’t be alone in it.

Something similar happened today. It all started with an innocent tweet from Sid

where he spoke about waking up to a playlist of 90’s Hindi Pop thanks to his better half. He also mentioned (jokingly, i hope, for his sake) on disconnecting the internet.

And Boom! that was the spark the morning needed. Richa the superwoman soon popped in professing her love for 90’s Music and the conversation pretty much erupted from there. From Sonu Nigam to the Backstreet Boys, we’ve loved them all for the music.

The 90’s were a great time for pop music in general. Hindi/English & Hinglish, all were welcome. The cable TV revolution had just begun to flourish, there were singers coming out from all corners of the county & beyond. MTV & Channel V were viewed upon as a blessing & the VJ’s that hosted popular shows were considered to be nothing less than demi-Gods.

While aapro Sid wasn’t quite convinced, there were enough folks who firmly believed in the power of 90’s as a musical force to be reckoned with. Jaibala Rao too got in on this, when she mentioned that the 90’s were great for IndiPop.

Sid did try to say that all this was irrelevant on a Saturday morning in 2016 ! But i suspect that he knew already that he was fighting a losing battle by then. Plus, Richa made it official & the victory flag was unfurled!

Sid wanted to make peace & how. He asked us to make a list of 10 Songs from the 90’s, across languages. Boom! It was just the reason we needed…Furious activity ensued, as we all got busy compiling our lists. Here’s the songs that came out of them. First up is Richa’s List (partial one):

 

 

Of these, Krishna by the Colonial Cousins is such a mellow tune, it just soothes you down. Yet, the message behind the song is powerful enough & the video, while artistically shot, also reinforces the message.

Alisha Chinai on the other hand, is all in-your-face, Bollywood Kitsch, but it has a peppy tune that somehow works. Plus, it spoke about ‘Made in India’ long before it got hijacked as a political slogan 😀

Then we had A Band of Boys crooning Gori, thanks to Jaibala Rao, which turned back the clock to the time when Boy Bands were all the rage.

 

There was Dr. Palash Sen & Euphoria who sent us on a trip with their songs. Here’s Maaeri

 

Besides, there was Adnaan Sami too… Now who can honestly claim to not be moved by his hits, like Tera Chehra, for example,  feat. Rani Mukherjee, uff…

 

As for me, well the list of 90’s favourites is near endless. I’ll put in my 3 examples below as a teaser, before you all get bored of scrolling :p

First up for me is Pretty Child, by Indus Creed – a surreal black & white ode by a band that was growing up from a Rock Machine, to something beyond local college appeal. That they won a viewer’s choice award is just icing on the cake for me.

 

Then there’s Stereo Nation with their hit ‘Don’t Break My Heart’ which just bought a bit of hinglish rap with it

By now the conversation was making waves, as more & more people began to get in on the fun. So, a playlist has been commissioned, one that’ll be put up here, once it’s been compiled. So everyone can soak in a bit of the 90’s Musical Magic.

But one last song, before i go, and that’d have to be the gorgeous ‘Ho Gayi Hai Mohabbat, Tumse…’ by Aslam & Shibani, coz’ well, we love the 90’s & especially for its music…

 

Big Cheers to all those who chimed in on the conversation. More power to all you 90’s fans 🙂

 

Note 1: I am taking my Alexa rank to the next level with Blogchatter – more dope on it when you hit the link.

Note 2: We all love YouTube for the easy way in which we can search & link up to music & other videos. But there’s no denying the fact that it was far more satisfying, if a little time consuming, to hunt down songs & pay the neighbourhood music store guy anywhere between 2-20 Rupees, for recording our favourite tracks onto specially compiled tapes. As they say, ‘Digital is Convenient, but Analog was Warmer’.