Music Monday: Throwback Edition

The title says it all. I’m going to share with you a few songs that remind me of my younger days in chronological order, from age 9 or so when I got my first CD player to age 17 when my music taste actually started to develop to what it is today.

I first got a CD player when I was around nine years old from my friend Kristi and my dad would make me mix CDs with everything from classic rock to Broadway musicals. I would also buy other CDs like Disney soundtracks and Disney artists Hilary Duff. Here is what you would find on my CD player…

• “Stick to the Status Quo” by High School Musical Cast: This was the first CD I remember getting along with my CD player for my birthday one year as far as I can remember. I loved High School Musical and listened to it actively until I was in my late teens. Hell, I have nothing against it today, I still bop (to the top) from time to time.
• “Scar Tissue” by Red Hot Chili Peppers
• “High Flying Adored” by Evita Broadway Cast: When I got my CD player, my dad would make me mixes that included quite a few Broadway songs from Evita, Phantom of the Opera, Joseph and Cats. We have actually seen Evita live a few times together as well, one when I was quite young (twelve, maybe) and one right before I got hired at the theater I worked at for four years.
• “To the Moon & Back” by Savage Garden
• “The Trail We Blaze” by Elton John: If you can’t tell, I listened to a lot of soundtracks. This was from The Road to El Dorado.
• “No One” by Aly & AJ
• “Metamorphosis” by Hilary Duff
• “Behind These Hazel Eyes” by Kelly Clarkson
• “Dead Serious” by ZOEgirl: Weird Christian pop, don’t judge me too hard for this one.
• All sorts of Kidz Bop

After a while it became a faff to carry around all my CDs and the player itself, so my dad got me an MP3 player not unlike this one. When I wanted to get a song we didn’t own, my dad would check the lyrics (that means I didn’t get to listen to terribly mainstream music until high school) and buy the MP3 file from Walmart. Here is what you would find on thatMP3 player…

• “Boulevard of Broken Dreams” by Green Day: My generation’s first introduction to modern rock. That, or…
• “In the End” by Linkin Park: I vividly remember hearing this in the Hard Rock Cafe in Maui for the first time. R.I.P. Chester.
• “Complicated” by Avril Levigne
• “Bring Me to Life” by Evanescence: An emo classic.

The MP3 player and it’s whopping 1GB storage wasn’t around too long until my dad suggested that I think about getting a music device that would last. With that, 13-year-old me decided to save money to buy an iPod classic 80GB. Including the case, it cost me exactly $266 and I used it most every single day until 2015 at age 20 when I made things more simple and put my music on my phone. For the most part, I don’t listen to these artists regularly (or at all) anymore. There were a handful of other bands that I listened to a few songs regularly, but these bands were ones I listened to the most and in some cases saw live in high school. Here is what you would find on my iPod…

• “Deep Down” by Saosin: This was probably the first band I liked a lot, at least enough to buy a shirt!
• “Worth Dying For” by Rise Against: My longest lasting love, along with Senses Fail. My love for these two bands far transcend puberty and they are one of the few bands I still listen too regularly.
• “Ali for Cody” by Senses Fail
• “Miss Murder” by AFI: Like Rise Against and Senses Fail, and probably many others on this list, I got into AFI from Guitar Hero III. This song was the first “screamy” song I heard and that, too, opened a door to new genres and artists.
• “If I’m James Dean, You’re Audrey Hepburn” by Sleeping with Sirens: For some of these I can’t help but laugh and cringe at how bad the music is and how much I was obsessed with it.
• “Spellbound” by Lacuna Coil
• “Take Me to Infinity” by Breathe Carolina: I still bop to this album very regularly, but I’m not as obsessed as I used to be.
• “Mouths Like Sidewinder Missiles” by The Fall of Troy
• “Wasting Time” by Four Year Strong: They opened for Rise Against when I saw them the first time!
• “The New National Anthem” by Pierce the Veil: I saw them live more times than I care to admit…
• “Arms of Sorrow” by Killswitch Engage
• “Misery Business” by Paramore: I’m not a big fan of Paramore all around, but they have a handful of really good songs.

Did you bop to any of these?

Photo by Surya Urs.