Listening to mostly Eighties Music in the Philippines

After I began living in the Philippines, on a permanent basis in 2006, I noticed that most of the music played on the local Olongapo City radio stations randomly played American music hits – on a hit or miss basis – and sometimes, the music was from local artists doing a cover and sounding similar to the original artists. Since I prefer the originals, I'm lucky I have tons of music stashed away.

Eighties Music

Perhaps I'm biased considering the music I prefer to listen to. I started collecting music in 1980, while I was in the military (and still single). Compact discs (CDs) hadn't been invented yet, so I had a lot of my personal space eaten up by audio cassette tapes. That all changed in the 80s, along with other events in my life.

I got married in the 80s, and both of my sons were born in the 80s. I suppose I spent more time than I care to remember listening to 80s music in the 80s, but I've found that the eighties music has followed me into middle age. Instead of audio cassette tapes and CDs, I now collect MP3s. I can copy them to rewritable CDs and listen to them while riding in my car – the CD player recognizes them – or a couple of boom boxes people in my compound have in their possession.

I have music from the sixties through the present day, but the largest amount of MP3 files are all songs from the eighties. One thing I've learned from living in a compound with a lot of relatives on the wife's side of the family, is that a lot of Filipinos prefer the eighties music as well. In fact, very little of what they listen to is Filipino music – it's mostly American music.

The 80s Music Lineup

It should be obvious that Journey is one of my favorite rock bands of the eighties, but my list of bands and individual performing artists is incredibly long. Some of them started before the eighties and ended in the eighties, some of them started in the eighties and are still recording music, and some are one-hit wonders from the eighties. To give you an example, I'll present an abbreviated list:

1. AC/DC
2. Aerosmith
3. Bangles/Belinda Carlisle
4. Blondie
5. Culture Club
6. David Bowie
7. Devo
8. Eurythmics/Annie Lennox
9. Guns N' Roses
10. Joan Jett & The Blackhearts
11. Journey
12. Madonna
13. Michael Jackson
14. Pat Benatar
15. Prince
16. Queen
17. Rolling Stones
18. Styx/Dennis DeYoung
19. Tears For Fears
20. Wham/George Michaels
21. Whitney Houston

Of course, to say I only listen to 80s music and to say I only listen to rock would be a lie. I have a bit of country and bit of everything else mixed in, including stuff from the 60s and 70s and more recent stuff from Lada Gaga and Katy Perry.

Not an Eclectic Collection

My music collection wouldn't be as large as it is, while taking up very little space on an external hard drive enclosure, without the software invented to convert CDs and such to MP3s. In order to keep from losing what I've accumulated over the years, I keep my music on more than one external hard drive.

When I'm sitting at the computer, which is where I am most of the day, I don't even bother to listen to my own music. I'm glad I have a decent Internet connection because I listen to Internet radio unless I'm looking for something specific (I'll use YouTube if it isn't blocked in the Philippines for a particular title). One that I listen to now, and it might be blocked in the future, is NuTsie.

Perceived Conflicts

People who know I'm an ordained minister may think that listening to music from known homosexual recording artists is a conflict of some sort. My response to any kind of comment would simply be something like "hate the sin, not the sinner". Mine is not to judge and neither should it be yours. But please… call me RT, Richard or anything, but please don't call me "father" unless you're my son (and I doubt you are). RT likes music (this is where I'm doing my Bob Dole impression) and RT doesn't care about the origin as long as it's good music.

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