Memories Are Over Nine-Thousand: Ratpick's Music Taste In Memoriam

Since I haven't updated in quite a while I might as well make my comeback with a bang.

Is it possible to be exposed to simply too much awesome? I think it is.

Some months ago I was exposed to a japanese song called "Omoide Wa Okkusenman!" (literal translation: Memories Are 110 Million) through no other place than Youtube. The song's short history is as follows: sometime less than one hundred years ago a japanese fellow set lyrics to the tune of the Mega Man 2 song from the Wily's Castle level. The lyrics concerned nostalgia, loss of innocence and how adulthood isn't what it's made out to be. Two videos, the first with the lyrics transcribed to romanji and the second with english subtitles, follow:

My initial reaction to the song was somewhere along the lines of "This is pure concentrated awesome!" I then started doing a bit of research on the internet and discovered that "Omoide Wa Okkusenman!" is something of a hit in Japan and that making new versions of it is sort of a national pastime. The song has been done as a happy hardcore song, a death metal song, a fully orchestrated song and a number of other versions as well, but the one that really stood out to me was this one:

Yes, apparently a pair of japanese guys had made a version of the song to make it sound approximately what it would sound like if X Japan were to perform it live. They then cut footage from X Japan's final concert to make the above quite convincing video. For a while I thought this was by far the best version of Okkusenman possible, until I heard japanese supergroup JAM Project's version of it:

That song was simply too awesome for my feeble taste in music to take. Honestly, I've been listening to that song on repeat for most of the week. It's simply breathtakingly glorious. However, exposure to this song has had an unforeseen side effect: it's broken my taste in music.

Yes, I can no longer enjoy all the music I used to listen to before. Songs which evoked a huge emotional response from me, such as E for Explosion's "Behind Every Breath", Entertainment's "Flesh!", The Prids' "Infection" and Bell Hollow's "Jamais Vu" now seem dull and flat to me. At the same time I've experienced the loss of appreciation for camp classics such as Dead or Alive's "You Spin Me Round (Like A Record)", Rick Astley's "Never Gonna Give You Up" and even Cheap Trick's "Mighty Wings." (And don't make me say it: there's absolutely nothing gay about the song! It just happened to be on Top Gun's soundtrack!)

I have, however, taken measures towards recovery. By exposing myself to some of the most god-awful music in existence (such as all the inane pop music they play at my work at McDonald's) I've slowly found myself appreciating the subtle nuances of the bands I used to love, but whether my recovery will be final is still uncertain.

Therefore I'd like to raise a glass to all the bands whose music I've enjoyed during the past year: here's to you, Adoration, Bell Hollow, Butterfly Explosion, The Chameleons, The Church, Crystal Castles, The Cure, The Dead Milkmen, Echo & the Bunnymen, E for Explosion, Entertainment, Feeding Fingers, KASMs, Kent, Kitchens of Distinction, Leisur Hive, Magenta Skycode, The Prids, A Spectre Is Haunting Europe, Suruaika, Varjo and White Rose Movement. Your efforts to educate me about good music have not been in vain!