Today, out of nowhere, I heard the old song “Voices Carry” by Til Tuesday. I had forgotten it, and the music video, which had such a huge impact on my childhood. Briefly, the song, and powerful music video, are about a young women who is a non-conformist rebel: she wears strange cloths, sings in a New Wave band, and sports spiky bleached hair. To a naive, confused, and alienated young boy – she was an anti-establishment hero. The greatest scene in the video: the lead singer stands up at Carnegie Hall, during an opera concert, after being forced to dress more conservatively by her controlling and uptight boyfriend, tears off her hat, screams out, and exposes the strange hair-style beneath. As a kid, I wanted to throw everything off. For, I found the 1980s stiflingly conformist: Izod shirts, penny-loafers, and Valley girls. I hated it all. So, I latched onto anything that offered a way out. Now, I am bemused at how something as banal as a music video could have such an enormous influence over me; but, my teenage years are long in the past; and that was a time of great searching, when I needed an idol. The lesson? Children must be given the right sort of guidance and inspiration from living souls who actually care about them; not a mindless and cold media.