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February 2008
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By globalistgirl, on February 23rd, 2008

Music Distant Proximities

While watching an episode of Battlestar Galactica that had originally aired on Australian television, I recognized the song they used in the trailer for the next episode. I couldn’t remember who sang it, but I remembered the name of the song – Spaceman. A little YouTubing later, I remembered it was by Babylon Zoo and was all over the radio in Europe one summer. Very catchy speeded up bit in it.

My boyfriend, however, remembered nothing at all, because he’d never heard it before. Never. Not once. A quick look at the comments under the clip shows I’m not the only one going “Ohhh.. it’s THAT song! I remember that from when I was a teenager!” It seems I’ve uncovered another song that never made it Stateside. Like No Limit by 2 Unlimited.

I loved 2 Unlimited, and like most people (in Europe), the first song of theirs that I heard on the radio was No Limit. Even after buying all of their other albums, that was still my favorite song. Again, judging by the comments on YouTube below the clip, I’m not alone.

Example comments:

thorinho1 (8 hours ago)

How do you know you are getting old.

When songs from your teenage years are categorized as an oldie :P

BTW, had a major crush on the female half of 2 Unlimited.

Akaitsuki85 (1 day ago)
haha a good oldie! I remember loving this song so much when I was younger :) well nostalgy is a beautiful feeling!
On the other hand, often a song will come on the radio, and he’ll turn it up and say “This is such a good song” and I’ve never heard it before.

savke87 (1 day ago)
This is one of the best songs ever. Hello from Serbia

vegunited06 (2 days ago)
all i can picture in my head now is school discos i had in the 90s

smartXtart (3 days ago)
ahhhgg brings back soo many memories, this song was huge in its time!

These old Europop songs are remembered by people across Europe and probably Australia. Even in Serbia, with everything that was going on there at the time. They’re shared culture, really. Global culture. Another one I’m quite sure never made it across the pond is Blümchen’s Heut’ Ist Mein Tag.

Not even Hey Boy! Hey Girl! (Chemical Brothers) made it over.

The summer that that song was big, I was on IRC a lot. One day when I was listening to the song, an Israeli guy said “Hey girl” when I came into the IRC channel. To which I of course replied “Hey boy”, he said “Superstar DJs” and I finished it off with “Here we go!” I’d bet 50 Euro that would never happen with an American.

Sometimes I feel so alone, knowing that no one who’s actually here recognizes these songs. They’re a distant proximity to me, and they’re just weird songs to the people around me. Sometimes it feels like they’re not real because they’re not real to the people around me like they’re real to me. It makes you wonder if maybe you’re wrong, even when no one’s saying that you’re making it up. (However, I have been accused of making up car brands, like Pontiac.) But perhaps what makes me feel the loneliest isn’t that no one around me knows these songs in particular, but that virtually no one knows what a distant proximity feels like in the first place. Very few people around me can feel like something right across the world is down the street, and that really makes me feel lonely sometimes.

February 23rd, 2008 | Tags: , , , | Category: Cultural Marginalization, Distant Proximities, Europe, US | 499 comments

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