That one time I was really into a "different kind of music"

I am a redneck. I grew up a redneck and I will always be a redneck. I do not consider it to be a negative term and it is a title I wear with pride. I do not consider myself to be exceptionally smart and I don't think that very many rednecks do. We aren't necessarily stupid, but we just don't concern ourselves with the higher aspects of academe or as it is more commonly known in the redneck community, "book learnin'"

We also tend to gravitate towards certain types of music and the three most popular are likely country, rap, and metal.

When I was in high school and college I fell right into that aspect of things and I am still, for the most part, that way today. But every now and then a type of music snuck into my rotation that would be considered the antithesis of redneck music and I did face a bit of getting picked on for my love for this particular band.

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Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark or "OMD" as they are more commonly known, burst onto the USA scene, even in redneck communities is middle of nowhere North Carolina with a song called "If You Leave" that was I think a title track from a romantic and popular teen film called "Pretty in Pink."

I originally purchased the film soundtrack specifically for that one song in the early 90's but ended up liking quite a few other songs that were featured on it as well.

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I am not going to look up his name but the guy in the top right there was one of the people on "Two and a half men." I guess this film kind of springboarded his career as well and also, what the hell happened to Molly Ringwald? That girl was all the rage in the 80's and just kind of vanished?

OMD was one of those bands that I ended up kind of appreciating even though they were extremely different from basically everything else that was in my music catelogue and I recently hear that song come on TV for some reason and went digging in my CD collection and I still have it! No jewel case but it was contained in one of those CD flip books that all of us had in the 90's and perhaps early 2000's. I looked around my house and much like most people though, I no longer have anything that can play a CD. I should probably just go ahead and donate all of my CD's to the library or something but they probably don't want them.

Everyone knows that song, but I ended up buying their "greatest hits" at some point to see what else they were all about. "If You Leave" is definitely their best song and their other stuff has more of a kind of "sissy" way about it that probably would have gotten me picked on a lot and maybe smacked around a bit if it wasn't for the fact that I am a bit larger than most people and generally easy to get along with.

These songs are funny to me now because at the time of its release this was probably really cutting edge because electronic music wasn't something that just anyone could make on their computer. Keyboards were really expensive back then and it is just kind of funny to me how a lot of OMD's songs seem to be quite proud of the various sound effects that they were able to make with their keyboards. I had a keyboard around that time, just a cheap Casio one, but I remember doing something similar with them.

I would kind of describe OMD as being some sort of longing or unrequited love music. There lyrics are a bit funny and extremely serious like every single romantic encounter is a life or death sort of situation.

I would jam this CD when no one was around most likely and it certainly wouldn't be blasting in the high school parking lot as a method of showing everyone my personality.

It's just funny to me that this was likely one of the albums that I kept hidden away because I wouldn't have to explain it to my peers. It's a funny little thing isn't it, music?

I think that for the most part the "greatest hits" of OMD, at least in USA would consist of a single song because while they may have been really big in European charts, I think that most people in USA haven't ever really heard any songs of theirs other than "If You Leave." That's a pretty legendary song though, and it is one that I will forever cherish.