Pump up the volume

Pump up the volume by MARRS was a popular song in the late 80s, specifically, 1987. I heard it this morning on my drive into work and I had not heard this song in forever. It was a 1 hit wonder for MARRS and for me, it was a pretty memorable song.

Now you have to contextualize the time period. During that time, music in North America was pretty Western and did not have any international influences. Growing up, because of my South Asian and Caribbean heritage, we always had music playing from India and Trinidad. South Asian music was a mix of Indian, Calypso, Arabic, Russian; influences from around the world and this shaped my musical palette. There was a song that my Dad used to song, which was a Russian melody with Hindi or Bengali lyrics. Growing up, I learned that Hindi movies were popular worldwide, and especially in Arabic countries and Russia. It was not until this century, that South Asian music became more universally accepted in North America.

However, in the 80, there was Pump up the Volume. It was a dance song, which definitely attracted the ear of this middle schooler. But on top of this, it had this really cool break with an Arabic singer, which was innovative. Although kids at my school could not tell the difference between cultures and often asked me to translate what was being said, I honestly did not take offence; I was just happy to hear something different, yet familiar, in a song.

Now we take for granted the fusion we hear in music, but in the late 80s, this track stood out. On top of that, it was a well produced song, with a strong drum rhythm and listening to it this morning, I was still moving and grooving.

I love that today, our music has become more global. I love all of the influences and particularly enjoy the Afro Beats and Latin influences. To the embarrassment of my kids, I love K Pop and my fave song during the Holiday break was APT, about a Korean drinking game.

I hope that acceptance of global music can transcend in other ways…..

But that’s just one Diva’s view.