Yet another music post. What can I say? Maybe its the singing classes or the 50-odd concerts I’ve attended this year. Music is, more than ever, a huge part of my life.
I’ve had this question in mind for years now. Such a silly question but also a fun conversation piece when getting to know new people (especially music fans): If you could only listen to 5 bands (or singers) for the rest of your lives, which ones would you choose?
I hear you saying: what a terrible prospect! And it is, but idea of having to choose 5 groups forces you to make tough choices and to think about the groups that hold the most importance in your life (or that you know you will never get sick of). I mean, you would have to listen to each and every song by these bands at least 100 times, if not more.
My top 5 has barely changed in years, the first four have never changed and number 5 varied a few times (Ana Tijoux and Rufus Wainwright were in the running). So here it is.
Being a teenager is weird. As the years go by, it gets harder and harder to remember how things felt and how thoughts were processed during that oh-so-moody and hormonal era. Music is one thing that brings me back to the mindset I had back then.
My view on the world was extremely limited and I, like most teens, went through a rough phase (I had to be home schooled for a year due to extreme anxiety). Yet listening to the tunes that rocked my world back then doesn’t make me sad, nor does it activate some sort of blinded nostalgia and feeling of longing for a simpler time (it sure wasn’t).
In many ways, my life is so much better than it was back then. Still, there’s something about going back to those years through the power of song,i f only for a few minutes. I wanted so bad to be a rebel back then. Unfortunately, I wasn’t very good at it: I once bought a Marilyn Manson cassette (the one where he is naked and has the body of an androgynous doll on the cover) and proceeded to throw it away after a few hours because it freaked me out too much. A true revolutionary I was…
Attending the Vans Warped Tour in 2002-2003 and wearing a Vulgaires Machins sweatshirt was probably as close as I came to being a punk (and that says a lot).
I graduated high school in 2004. This means that my teenage years occurred at the peak of boy bands, nu-metal, christian rock and pop-punk. Musically speaking, those were confusing times and although I’m glad some of the genres didn’t survive past the first half of the decade, I can still appreciate their small contribution to the history of music.
Although there are many duds, some really good music was being made. Therefore, as an ode to the track listings of north american alternative rock radios of the late nineties/early two thousands (99.9 THE BUZZ forever!), I prepared a playlist that showcases some of my favourite songs back then. I am not ashamed to say that I still enjoy each and every one of these songs, for many different reasons.
I have always listened to a broad variety of musical genres, including during my teenage years, but these are the songs that most remind me of my teenage years:
Cover photo credit: Flickr creative commons- Ted Van Pelt
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