I'm a pop music fan. Maybe it's because Neil Diamond and Billy Joel were the first two artists I listened to more than anyone else. Maybe it's because I watched a good amount of MTV as a kid, who played only pop music in its early days. Maybe it's because my favorite radio station growing up was Pittsburgh's B-94. It's probably a combination of all of this.
Last week, a friend shared a tweet with the Cash Box top 40 singles from November 21, 1992. Even though I just shared that I'm a pop music fan, there's a lot more not good on this list than good, and I'm probably being generous.
Let's start with the good. If Jump Around, Rump Shaker, and to a lesser extent, Rhythm Is a Dancer, doesn't get you pumped up, you have no pulse. There are also some really strong songs by female artists here with Free Your Mind by En Vogue, Walking on Broken Glass by Annie Lennox (an underrated song in my opinion), and Real Love by Mary J. Blige. Two TLC songs are a nice bonus. This may hurt my street cred here, but I like If I Ever Fall In Love by Shai.
Now to the others. The slow version of Layla is fine, but not nearly as good as the original (though I get bored by the instrumental part at the end of the original very quickly). End of the Road was played at the end of every dance and graduation event from 1992-1995. It got tiresome after the first 20 or 5000 events. Prince and Madonna both had much, much better songs. I'll also take My Prerogative, Don't Be Cruel, and the Ghostbusters 2 songs over the two Bobby Brown songs here. How Do You Talk To An Angel is an awful song. Maybe this gets me some street cred back. There are a lot of songs here I don't even recognize. Wayne Newton had a top #25 song in 1992? What is a Mad Cobra? Just so much meh here.
Share your thoughts about this list in the comments section below.
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