A meloman´s way

Mural art, Born to vibrate: Deih.xlf
Storytelling: Oana Maroti

…Then the 90`s

Like a jump from total prohibition.
Reaching the 90s to find out about the ’60´s, the ’70s, and the ’80s.
Freaking sad, but finally happening.
The exterior was present at once in our lives.

In the first years of the ”90s, the VCRs appeared in our town, and with it
new types of movies were available.
Children had only 1h of permission per week to watch repetitive Russian cartoons
during communism and now we wanted to see everything.

Some transformed their living room into mini-cinemas and would sell tickets to movies and concerts on video, in their house. The first movie I went to was ¨Alien¨. A child’s neighbor saw it and said it was scary. We went all intrigued and yes it was super scary. The character, the novelty of the images, the darkness of the music, even if we were used with dark orchestral. Next good business in the neighborhood was soundtracks. You liked a movie, you could buy a soundtrack with a nice cover made from paper patterns used for mathematics, a classic type of notebook.

Those in no pocket money situation could eventually make friends that had the soundtrack tape they liked and give them a blank tape to register. The quality was not the best but you cannot imagine how it was for me to have the soundtrack of ¨The Crow¨, movie I loved as a teenager.

Then television with lots of series B movies, science fiction series, and bunch of cartoons. They could have such different sounds. The constant discovery fascinated me and my brother. Together we discovered Beavis and Butt-Head on MTV which we believed were mega funny and from there MTV became a constant in our lives.

For me, it was especially important because I needed music for my sportive gymnastics representations. After attacking the diagonal of a gymnastic platform and doing the air flip-flops there were some more steps to reach the corner and that meant choreography.

Our father made us a precious present: a dual cassette player and now I could register more music, faster. The happiness started then. Unfortunately for my first representation using my chosen music, everything I was able to register and liked was bad registered. In the end I have jumped and flip-flapped 5 consecutive times, on diagonal line on Rednex: Cotton Eye Joe, finished the exercise and won the contest. A brisk pace would help propel my body without extra effort and ensure enough speed for smooth acrobatics.

Music made me feel more confident and in the type of sports I was into, hesitating was not recommended. Each movement was prepared in advance, with hours of exercise per day, each day to avoid a dangerous fall. I needed to fast coordinate and be strong and music made me feel strong.