30 Day Music Challenge: Day Three

Well I'm racing through these aren't I?! Day three already... Today's question is particularly appropriate at the moment because despite grief, illness and the fact that it still isn't spring I am actually very happy at the moment.

Day Three: A Song That Makes You Happy
In light of my simmering euphoria it's difficult to find a song that doesn't make me happy. However there are a few things which are guaranteed to put a smile on my face and the song I've chosen manages to combine both of them! Firstly, as anyone who has ever had the misfortune to be dragged to Reflex by me will know, I have a very soft spot for cheesy 80's music. Spandau Ballet, Wham!, Europe, Journey - just name the song and I can guarantee I'll have screamed and dragged an innocent victim onto the dancefloor as soon as it came on. In fact one of the reasons I love Glee so much is that cover of Don't Stop Believing...

The other genre of music that makes me bounce up and down with joy however is Ska. I knew next to nothing about ska until I went to uni, I think the only ska band I'd ever heard of was Madness and I didn't even know they were a ska band. However, Durham SU used to put on an alternative club night every term which was pretty much the only time you were likely to hear any kind of rock music in a club in Durham. The first time I went I was desperately trying to look cool and was sort of shuffling away to the music trying to work out if I'd put enough eyeliner on when my friend Katie started bouncing up and down to a song I'd never heard before. I think it was Kicking Pigeons by [spunge] but I couldn't swear to that. Anyway that was when I discovered ska and also when I realised that having fun was far more important than looking cool.

Fast-forward seven years (really??) and, whilst I have learnt that not all ska is happy smily music - I live in Coventry these days and so appreciate the grim industrial wasteland invoked by Ghost Town - I still adore a bit of ska-based silliness. I saw Reel Big Fish last Sunday and it was such a fantastic gig - Kerry and I danced like mad things all night! On the basis of that alone I could probably pick any RBF song and go to my happy place but this was their last encore, it was brilliant and, as I said, I'm a true child of the 80's. So here you go - Take on Me by Reel Big Fish! Happy, happy, happy!

"We're talking away
I don't know what
I'm to say I'll say it anyway
Today's another day to find you
Shying away
I'll be coming for your love, OK?

Take on me, take me on"