Self-Indulgent Music Rant

I've been ruminating about my favorite music a lot lately. Some songs have been like life support nudging me through the remainder of the semester.  Music is instrumental in creating my screenplays and I've actually written an entire story based on my passion for one song. I could focus this rant on favorites but I don't want to make any songs jealous--I love them all it just depends on my mood and the context. Instead I want to talk about transformative artists and songs--music that alters your life and leaves a lingering impression. In the late eighties, a ho-hum John Cryer movie came out called "Hiding Out." It's about this stockbroker being stalked by the mob who hides out in high school and falls in love with a high school senior (Annabeth Gish).  The movie's a little cliched and very dated but it featured the Roy Orbison remake of "Crying" with k.d. lang. I'm a fan of both artists and this was my first introduction to both of them.  I'd heard Orbison on the radio before but never realized who he was. Anyhow, that song was perfectly synchronized with the movie and now I can't separate the two. I hear the song and I remember the overwhelming emotion I felt as a young teenager when I first heard it. Jagged Little Pill was released when I was about 20 years old. That album was the "Fatal Attraction" of the 90's. I've never seen so many men terrified of one woman which is a little "ironic" since Alanis now looks as threatening as a soccer mom.  Jagged was a huge influence on  angry, disenfranchised Generation X women. She reflected our rage and frustration and gave us a "Tapestry" or "Blue" for our time. When cable was in its infancy, I snuck downstairs one night and watched "Footloose." I loved that movie and have probably seen it half a dozen times.  I hear the title song and I remember dancing and jumping on the couch with my brother. Forget a sugar high, all you had to do to rile us up was turn on that song and pray that the house didn't burn down. My love affair with Ella Fitzgerald began on a cold winter morning. My ex and I were snuggling and very reluctant to get out of bed. A local station was playing torch music and "Fascinating Rhythm" came on. She might have singed my ears off that morning; it was literally the most beautiful human voice I'd ever heard. Don't laugh at this next song! When I was 6, Olivia Newton John's "Physical" was a big hit. It freaked my mother out that her first grader was singing "let's get animal, animal. I want to get animal." Her attempts to keep me from listening to it or watching it on Friday night videos (MTV wasn't yet in our area or it may not have been on the air) proved futile. Olivia looked so gorgeous in that video dancing around in a leotard and leg warmers. It was probably my first twinge of same-sex attraction. Of course, I also was into Linda Carter (Wonder Woman) and Lindsay Wagner (Bionic Woman)....but, that's a rant for another day. :)