I was getting into other kinds of music, gradually leaving the world of hair metal and teen pop behind. I remember having this compilation on cassette called Cutting Edge, part of a series called Rock the Planet. It had R.E.M., Erasure, 10,000 Maniacs, Laurie Anderson, Jesus & Mary Chain, Faith No More, The Replacements, Tanita Tikarim's wonderful "Twist in my sobriety" and my favorite, "Strangelove" by Depeche Mode.
I had probably heard "Strangelove" before, since it was originally from DM's 1987 album, Music for the Masses, and they were certainly on my radar by then because Violator had come out that spring. During that summer, my last before I was a senior in high school, I spent about a month in Central Florida, spending half the time with my mom's mom, my Granny, and half the time with my mom's dad & his wife. It was a pretty laid back summer, but I remember having fun.
One clear memory I have about the summer was picking up this special issue of NEWSWEEK called "The New Teens." It was sort of a field guide to the day's teenagers, or Generation X as we had been recently dubbed. There was one group, I can't remember what they called them, but it was basically your thrift shop clothes/Doc Martens wearing, Twin Peaks watching, alternative music listening kids. I was like, "Oh, that's me, then." Despite the fact that I wouldn't shop at a thrift store for another 6 months, wouldn't own a pair of Docs for another year or two and was just starting to get into alternative music. I had obsessively watched the first season of Twin Peaks when it aired that spring. Regardless, it was kind of a revelation to me because frankly, there WERE no kids like that in the Miami I was growing up in. At least nowhere I could see. And there I was, starting to like things that were outside of the popular AND coming to terms with being a gay teen. It was nice to think that I could fit in with some sort of group and maybe that article is what made me so open to befriending the people I would get to know later that year.
I played that Cutting Edge tape out and eventually my copy of Violator as well. I'm not a huge Depeche Mode fan, but "Strangelove" will always be a favorite. I present to you the MP3s of the songs from this amazing compilation, that I think shaped my musical tastes more than I realized until looking at it again:
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