Tommy Hayes Do you remember waiting for a record that seemed to take forever to arrive? In the mid-1970s, Stevie Wonder’s fans knew that feeling well. His previous albums had set an almost impossible standard, and word spread that his next record would be something bigger: a double album, years in the making, that would sum up … Read more
Do you remember the first time that riff came out of a radio and stopped you in your tracks? It was not a guitar. It was not a horn section. It was something sharper and funkier, a keyboard sound that seemed to strut across the room, followed by a drumbeat that made it impossible to … Read more
Do you remember the first time you saw a small black-and-white sticker on a record cover and wondered what it meant? It was the mid-1980s, and record stores were changing. Albums that teenagers had bought without a second thought suddenly carried a warning label, and parents and young listeners found themselves on opposite sides of … Read more
Close your eyes and imagine a city in winter. Snow on the sidewalks, cold air off the Mississippi, and inside a downtown club, a band playing music that sounds like summer in another country: drum machines snapping, synthesizers glittering, a guitar cutting through the beat like a knife. That contradiction — a cold Midwestern city … Read more
Do you remember the winter of 1982, when a new record arrived with a strange invitation: a party, but a party with an ending in sight? You might have heard it first at a friend’s house, on a stereo turned up too loud, or in a record store where the clerk had put the new … Read more
Do you remember the first time you heard it on the radio and something felt wrong — in the best possible way? It was the summer of 1984, and the song coming out of the car speakers sounded almost empty. There was a beat, there were keyboards, there was a voice, but the bottom of … Read more
Do you remember the summer of 1984, when the record store seemed to have only one colour in the window? You would walk past the displays on a Saturday afternoon, and there it was again: a purple cover, a motorcycle, a young man in a ruffled shirt staring back at you. On the radio, in … Read more
Do you remember your bedroom wall in the 1980s? If you were a Madonna fan, it probably changed every couple of years. First there were the posters from the debut album: lace gloves, layered bracelets, a street-smart grin. Then came the wedding dress, the pink gown, the whole Like a Virgin era. Then the shorter … Read more
Close your eyes and imagine New York at night in the late 1970s. The subway rumbles under the streets. Neon signs flicker over club doors. Inside, the music is loud, the dance floor is crowded, and a young woman from Michigan is somewhere in the middle of it all, dancing like her life depends on … Read more
Do you remember the summer of 1986, when a pop song started an argument that went far beyond pop music? It was playing everywhere: on car radios, in shopping malls, at school dances. The melody was bright and catchy, the kind you hummed without thinking. But the words were about something serious, and within weeks … Read more