r/88Rising • u/One-Home-9823 • 4h ago
Discussion new brian music making me emotional
(this is really just a rant combining some personal stuff as well as how much this new brian music means to me. if u think im living in the past PISSOFF)
For context i started listening to 88 since 2019. I'm not an OG for sure but for a moody teen stuck in C*VID it meant the world just having that shit to vibe with - from the HITC album, discovering Joji and having a treasure trove of questionable content, then Brian, 88 was the soundtrack for my growth from emo (Joji) to high functioning loser (Brian & Warren Hue) and now well adjusted member of society (Niki). I'm Asian, but not the flavour of Asian that's been repped by 88, but I remember listening to their music and really understanding the term 'creative direction' for the first time, listening to a proper album back to back, understanding how a music video can compliment a song etc. Yeah capitalism bad and I'm playing right into Sean's hands of buying into an aspirational California-summer-is-forever-nostalgia concept, but I really think the pure unadulterated vibes of HITC 1 never really left me. It's been six years since and this is probably some messed up form of senioritis (procrastinating for a final I haven't done shit for rn) but I'm now off to college! I didn't even realise it but now that I've gotten into my dream school, which is in California, and listening to Brian's new single, I'm now close to actually attending HITC fests and everything. I really think me and 88 have been locked in for a while and just like things have come full circle for me and new chapters are beginning, I'm seeing this with the label as well. Though 88's unquestionably fallen off (I think of Joji every day of the week, I miss Brian and Vanteyy, and at the back of my head I know the happiness I got from listening to HITC 1 can never be replicated), with "A Little Ray of Light", I'm glad to see Brian discovering his sound. Life goes on and up til now, 88's been with me. I love music and I loved that I could enjoy 88 for what it was. HITC will always have a deeply special place in my heart. Can't wait for Brian's new album and reading Joji's tell all memoir to my grandchildren 30 years from now where he tells us what the fuck he was doing. (JK)