Monday, April 14, 2014

Like A Prayer By Madonna, Life Is A Highway by Tom Cochrane

This is the only letter for which I just couldn't choose only one song. Both of these songs are significant to me and genuinely fun tunes!

                                                  Life A Prayer by Madonna

Like A Prayer came out in early 1989 so I would have been 10. I had the cassette single, which I rewound and listened to so much I'm surprised I never wore it out. I was a Madonna fan before this point, but this song had a unique sound that affected me in a different way than her other music had. I wasn't raised in a religious household and although I had heard that the song and video were raising a ruckus, I didn't really get it. I remember watching the controversial video with my friend Tina at her house, knowing it was significant even though I wasn't fully grasping it at the time. It was my first view of Madonna as a brunette and a totally different image for her than that of her "Material Girl" years that I had seen as a younger girl. At first I wondered if it was even her, I was so blown away by the idea that someone could change themselves so much.

As a woman who grew up in the 80s and 90s, I hold Madonna in high regard. Many of her songs are significant to me but she's important to me for other reasons too. While I like all of her music, this is hands down my favorite song and I still find it to be pretty powerful. It still has such an awesome strong sound to it and I love the changes in style and tempo. When you watch the video, pay attention to how she's dancing around the four minute mark. Every time I hear this song, no matter what I'm doing, in my head I'm dancing like this the entire time. If I'm at home alone then I am totally dancing the whole time. Even though the video is heavy, I still think of this as a feel good song. It lifts me up, gets me moving and feeling something. It's an awesome song for singing along, for dancing and moving to. Because of the age I was when it came out and I saw the video and of how significant Madonna's music has been in my life, I do consider this song a pretty significant building block in my path as a woman.




Life is a Highway by Tom Cochrane

Hands down best driving song ever! 

I don't know when I first discovered this song but it was some time in the early 90s while I was still in high school! It's been on any list of favorites I've ever made, any mix tape (or later CD burned) for a friend. It's a song I listen to when I want to get fired up and feel encouraged, or when I'm just feeling good about life and want to keep it up. I like it so much because it's positive, fast paced, simple and straight forward. It's about love and life and it never goes negative. I've always considered it a great anthem for life in general. I've heard a remake of this song and didn't like it as well because it didn't have the right energy and just wasn't quite right.  



                                   

4 comments:

  1. AWESOME choices!! I can see why it was hard to pick. Love these both!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Great post, and great songs.

    ReplyDelete
  3. My sister had a Tom Cochrane album and listened to it a lot!

    ReplyDelete
  4. i remember watching the video for 'like a prayer' with my aunt. we were both amazed at what we were seeing.. ours was a very religious, bi-racial family, so we weren't sure how much trouble we'd get into of caught watching this lol
    madonna is def the queen of transforming herself, and i totally imagine that i dance like her, too.. also love 'like a virgin'

    ReplyDelete