By Tmothy Yap
Prime Cuts: The Land of Oohs and Aahs/Somewhere Over the Rainbow, Shepherd’s Song, Lady
Overall Grade: 5/5
The 70s was the decade where music was central to culture. It was an era where there were fewer competitors for one’s entertainment. Video game machines were as big as your refrigerators and they are only found in arcades. Television shows in most homes were still in black and white with only a small handful of channels. Thus, it was the epoch where vinyl records thrived. Recorded music on vinyls was what was hot. It was the aeon where people actually have to fork out money from their wallets to purchase music. This forces consumers to have to listen again and again to the vinyls they have had to spend with their hard-earned money on, rather than skip around Spotify for the next ear-worm. Therefore, in order for a consumer to part his or her own hard earned dole, the songs had to be good. All of this to say, it was much more stringent to score a record deal and it was even more insurmountable to score a big hit. In 1976, Reba Rambo did it. Her album “Lady” not only a big hit across musical genres, it was one that defied the hands of time.