I am a lover of pop culture, there is no doubt.  However, I am the first to admit that when it comes to music, I am a bit unschooled.  I’ve heard countless times, after the reference of a specific lyric, song or artist, “I know you’ve heard it” or “I know you know their song;” but, unless it was played in a movie or television show, I usually can’t make the connection right away.

As you can probably figure by now, I am a very visual learner and certainly more captured by the video part of audio visual.  I sometimes blame that for a few things.

First off, I don’t really like to read because if it’s a good enough story, they will make it a movie and I can see it rather than just read it.

Secondly, I suffer from what I call ADTV (Attention Deficit TeleVision disorder).  I am compelled to stare at any TV if it is in my line of sight.  Doesn’t have to have anything appealing on, it just has to be on.  In fact, it can be totally silent, even without subtitles, and I’ll still want to watch it.

And, finally, I can’t seem to cultivate my ability to fully appreciate a lot of the music that is out there.  My iTunes can attest to the fact that the majority of the music I have added to my library has been featured in a movie or television show at some point.  I even have television theme songs in my top playlists.  And, music doesn’t usually move me emotionally because of the melody or the lyrics; but, play me a movie score and tears well up in my eyes because I can envision the exact scene that the music accompanied.  And, here’s one for you (for some reason I don’t mind cataloging all my embarrassing qualities and actions), when the Alisha song, “Do You Dream About Me?” from Mannequin plays on my iPod, even when I am working at my desk, I will freeze like I’m looking at my watch just like Kim Cattrall did in the movie.  From the outside, I agree, I am a total 80s movie nerd, but on the inside, I’m full of smiles!

There’s just not much better amusement than melding music with movies/shows and bringing back all that joy or sadness in just three notes or less.

And, that is why I absolutely adore it when actors try their hand at singing or singers decide they want to act.  It’s like pieces of the pop culture pie overlapping.  In my mind, I envision it as those color wheels from primary school that helped us understand how blue and yellow would make green.  And, green is awesome.  It’s Donny Osmond, Donnie Wahlberg and Don Johnson! (interesting, right?)

Certainly there are more than just the “Dons” that have taken the step from one side of the entertainment world to the other; and, I applaud every one – even Corey Feldman.

It must have started with Rick Springfield who gave me both “Jessie’s Girl” and Dr. Noah Drake; but, I have quite a few favorites:  Bruce Willis (“Respect Yourself” and David Addison), Shaun Cassidy (“Da Doo Ron Ron” and Joe Hardy) and Jack Wagner (“All I Need” and Peter Burns).  And, I actually decided many years ago, to have a wall of fame with albums framed from these magnificent few that made the leap to/from movies to music which also includes the albums of Don Johnson (“Heartbeat” and Sonny Crockett), Rex Smith (“You Take My Breath Away” and Michael Skye) and Scott Baio* (“What Was in that Kiss” and Chachi Arcola) – if anyone has a Leif Garrett album they’d like to sell, give me a call!

So, in honor of those amazing teen heartthrobs (and those who just needed to be included because, they did), I created a matching game – if only just to remind myself how many of these great entertainment transitions I’ve witnessed in my lifetime.  On behalf of my crazy obsession, enjoy!

#50WeeksTo50

*I have no idea why Scott Baio happened to appear in the last two posts.  For the record, I was never really a Chachi fan, but for some reason, I seem to equate him with many of the things I loved as a pre-teen?  I don’t have an answer.