On Episode 7 (Season 2) of the Real Talk Podcast, Kara suggested an experiment – put together a playlist of the 10 most influential songs of your life. We gave it a shot, and you can find our individual playlists and explanations below. We want to see your “Musical Life” playlist as well! Create your own and share it with us on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter, or e-mail onair [at] realfm.online.
ANSEN’S MUSICAL LIFE
1) Yoda – Weird Al Yankovic (1985) Hilariously, this is the first song I can consciously remember listening to. I was probably about five years old, and my parents (for some reason) had a vinyl copy of Weird Al’s 1985 album, “Dare to Be Stupid.” I wasn’t allowed to listen to all of the songs on the album because they “weren’t appropriate,” but “Yoda” was and I loved it. This kicked off my affinity for Weird Al that continues to this day (much to my wife’s chagrin).
2) Jesus Freak – DC Talk (1995) One of the only songs in my life where I can remember exactly where I was the first time I heard it (at a sleepover with friends from Cub Scouts when I was 8). It was subsequently the first album I purchased with my own money. My parents listened to bands like Petra that had an 80’s-ish rock vibe, and I enjoyed that at the time… but Jesus Freak was a revolutionary new sound I’d never encountered before. I wore this CD out by playing it on repeat on the boombox in my room FOR YEARS.
3) Slide – The Goo Goo Dolls (1998) The album “Dizzy Up the Girl” by The Goo Goo Dolls was the first time I really got into a non-Christian band. I still love every song on this album sung by Johnny Rzeznik (but the Robby Takec led songs suck, haha). “Slide” in particular was the song that motivated me to teach myself how to play the guitar. I had to learn how to play that riff!
4) Love, Liberty Disco – Newsboys (1999) The Newsboys were my favorite band of my young childhood. This song stands out because I bought the CD the day my family left for a ski trip in Colorado. I listened to the album on repeat in my portable CD player the entire 12 hour drive. As a result, I have a weird Pavlovian response to disco music where it makes me want to go skiing.
5) All The Small Things – Blink 182 (1999) This was the first song I ever loved that I tried to keep secret from my parents. It said the word “sucks” in it (THE HORROR)! It racked me with guilt, but this was just the start of my love for pop punk that carried me through much of my junior high and high school years.
6) Hurt – Johnny Cash (2002) My grandpa loved Johnny Cash, and I knew of his popular songs, but he wasn’t exactly a personal favorite. Then I saw the music video for this song, and it had an impact on me like almost nothing I’d ever seen. Most songs I had heard were about being young and enjoying life, and here was a song from a former star at the end of his life, pondering the meaninglessness of it all. It’s hauntingly beautiful.
7) Forward Motion – Relient K (2004) Relient K quickly become my favorite band in my high school years. I probably would have been happy with nothing but Relient K songs on my brand new iPod. Their music was infectious, the lyrics were incredibly creative, and I got to see them in concert several times, some of the first big concerts I attended.
8) Such Great Heights – The Postal Service (2003) Technically this album came out in 2003, but I didn’t really find it until 2005. This was my go-to soundtrack for late night paper writing sessions during my freshman year at JBU. I also started dating Dri around this time, and she loved it as well, so it was the first music we really got to enjoy together.
9) Love Like Rockets – Angels & Airwaves (2007) Everyone said Angels & Airwaves was just a “more produced,” “less-real” knock-off of Blink 182, but I loved them even more than Blink. Dri loved them too, and the album I-Empire came out the year we got married. We played the snot out of it in the car on road trips and in our home. If The Postal Service was the music we listened to as we formed or relationship, Angels & Airwaves is the music we listened to as we formed our marriage. Love Like Rockets always made me think of her.
10) Shut Up and Dance – Walk the Moon (2014) I like this song a lot, but it probably wouldn’t make my list of personal all-time favorites. But it IS an all-time favorite for my daughters, because it’s basically their life anthem. They love having dance parties in the living room, and this song was the cornerstone for that practice. To this day they both tell me to “Shut Up and Dance” with them.
KARA’S MUSICAL LIFE
1) Dream a Little Dream Of Me – The Mamas & The Papas. Some of the earliest music I remember was favorites of my parents from the 60’s. Like this one. She used to sit and listen to this album in grade-school and writes stories with ALL THE FEELINGS… surprise.
2) MMMBop – Hanson. This song marks the beginning of the boy band phase! I had a video of them on tour I used to watch over and over. But also, I kind of think this song still holds up. I remember listening to this CD on my Discman in the backseat on a road trip with my parents to Texas.
3) What If I Stumble? – DC Talk. I remember being captivated by this song. It’s one of the first times I remember really being drawn in by the authenticity of a Christian song. It felt unique to me that someone was actually singing about the struggle. I identified so strongly with it… I played this song to death. But also, it’s kind of interesting how this song created it’s own pressure to do everything right, to NOT stumble and fall. I remember playing this for my dad, and he actually said at the time, “It seems like they’re whispering what they should be shouting.” An interesting observation.
4) Irene – TobyMac. THIS SONG. This was the Mission Trip Jam. We would play it every night and have a little middle school (youth group approved) dance party. We thought we were SO COOL. Well… some of us. Others hated it, but I definitely loved it.
5) The Parting Glass – The Wailin’ Jennys. Take a hard right into my college years, when I began to explore NEW MUSIC via the world of Pandora. I began to fall in love with what Spotify has since dubbed indiecoustica I think? This one doesn’t really feel like that, but I distinctly remember listening to a LOT of this Pandora Chanel at that time, in my little cinder block duplex. My roommate was a vocal performance major, and she sang this song for her recital. It’s actually kind of a sad song, but we would occasionally randomly sing it together, in harmony, which was kind of cool.
6) Something Beautiful – Newsboys. In my days as a radio broadcasting student, I would sometimes play this before I did a shift to get in the zone. Back when the Newsboys were actually cool (kind of). I really loved this song.
7) Times – Tenth Avenue North. Annnnd time for another sad song. I was working a tough job, living in the middle of nowhere, and really struggling with depression. I literally listened to this song almost every night before bed during a really tough season. It kept me breathing. Kept me believing God wasn’t going to give up on me. “My love is over, it’s underneath, it’s inside, it’s in between, the times you doubt me, when you can’t feel. The times that you question is this for real?”
8) One Black Sheep – Mat Kearney. This song all by itself pretty much feels like the story of my life. I’m an Enneagram 4- and one of our chief characteristics is that we feel like we don’t belong. “Won’t somebody tell me what’s wrong with me?” Like something essential is missing from inside of us. I remember listening to this song on a bus in Ecuador. I was on a sort of mission trip with a bunch of people I didn’t know. The bus full of extroverts was SO EXCITED about everything that was happening, and I was a little overwhelmed and just feeling completely out of place. I stuck those ear buds in and listened to this song over and over, and was then able to turn around and be a human for a little while longer.
9) Fight Song – Rachel Platten. I spent a lot of time listening to this song on the elliptical machine, getting over a breakup, working on healing and becoming more whole as a person. I remember my therapist at the time told me, “exercise is medicine,” and something clicked in me. Of course, I can’t exercise without music, so this was one that was on repeat for me for a while.
10) Covers You – Future of Forestry. I remember listening to this song on a road trip back to Nebraska. I couldn’t turn it up loud enough… I just kept hitting repeat. Over and over. It’s everything I love in a song. It’s got a beautiful, haunting, building, orchestral, slightly melancholic, but still hopeful melody. And it’s all about how God’s love literally covers all the moments of my life, which is something I’ve slowly been coming to believe more and more on this journey of healing I’ve been on the last 5 years. “From moments past and gone, to hopes and dreams before you… with colors dark and light, death and life, alike. Close now, hear whispers from a love that covers you tonight. His love it covers you tonight.” If I ever get married, this song is definitely on the list of possible “walk the aisle” songs.
ISAAC’S MUSICAL LIFE
1) You Got It – Roy Orbison. This is actually my earliest memory of music. My dad is a big Roy Orbison fan, and I can remember him holding me and singing me (off key) Orbison songs. I have a way different interpretation for this song instead of the romantic context. For me, the “anything you need, you got it” line feels like a caring parent addressing their kid. Weird, I know. If I have kids, they’re definitely getting my take on this.
2) Bye Bye Bye – *NSYNC. Whew. Here we go. The first (and only) cassette I owned was NSYNC’s No Strings Attached. I was a product of the late 90’s and early 2000’s and I will still defend this song as a certified BANGER if I need to.
3) Hit or Miss – New Found Glory. Shortly after spiked hair and begging my mom to buy me blond hair dye, I got into pop punk music. The fact that I skateboarded every single day probably helped a little. This is just one of those catchy, bouncy bops that I was all about in the early 2000’s.
4) Look What Happened – Less Than Jake.We’re reaching 14-16 year-old Isaac’s jams. For better or worse, around then I went through a “growing up way too fast” segment of life. I relied heavily on music to get through some intense times and these escapist lyrics of “we’ll talk about leaving town” and the vibe of “staying up all night wanting to get out” really resonated heavily with me. This song has all of those feelings of escape/looking for escape that I really identified with at the time.
5) The Downfall of Us All – A Day to Remember. In 2009, a record called Homesick came out, and it was the single. biggest. deal. for anyone who liked heavier music and or hung outside of a Hot Topic or at the skate park. In Summer 2009 and 2010 this record had the jams. No question about it. I remember barking along with this intro in my friend’s absolute piece of trash Chevy and driving to the skate park. I even remember the smell. It wasn’t a good one.
6) Relentless Intolerance – Demon Hunter. I maintained a group of friends who were both Christians AND really loved metalcore/heavy music. They always recommended bands, and Demon Hunter was basically their jam. I got into them around the same time I was bumping ADTR (song #5), but DH had that element of faith that frankly, I didn’t have at the time. It was kind of cool how that music met me where I was and, looking back, actually ministered to me heavily even though I didn’t realize it.
7) Just Like Heaven – The Cure. We’re crossing into late-teens Isaac now. The skinny jeans have been replaced with ironically loose-fitting thrift store Dickies and terrible “grandma-esque” t-shirts that I paid $2 for in the St. Louis area Goodwills. Once I moved up to STL, I fell in with a few people who I’d say fit the exact definition of “hipster,” and I found a lot of music that I still love with them. Specifically The Cure. I’m including this song because this is actually the song that Bri walked down the aisle to at our wedding (our compromise was that we got the Vitamin String Orchestra version).
8) Good As New – Vacationer. If you’ll glance outside of your window, you’ll see that we’re passing “college Isaac” on our left here – note the baggy sweatshirts and the lack of sleep! College was all about combating stress and depression with light, lo-fi music. Like this. Still love this music.
9) Together, Burning Bright! – Take it Back! We’re now arriving at post-grad, “Lol, what am I doing and how do I adult?” Isaac. Take It Back! is actually a local NWA band that my friend and former band-mate was in. This is a time where I’m really focused on local music, and music with a more redemptive message. Still haven’t kicked my addiction to heavier music, either. “We could look fear in the face and say we never want to be this way again.”
10) Broken Hands – Paperweight. Is it conceited to have a song that you wrote on a list of important music to yourself? Oh well, here goes: this was the last song that I recorded with the band I was in. I wrote the opening verse and chorus to this song. “What can I fix with broken hands, busted knuckles flecked white from the walls of my home, I keep taking your calls talking you back off your ledge while I sit on my own.” This song is meant to address how I and so many other people deal with depression. Super compassionate to others that have it, but more than neglectful in treating/addressing it in ourselves. Before playing this song for the last time, I hopped on mic and got a chance to speak about it a little bit. After our set, a guy who followed our band a lot came up to me and told me how he lost his mom to depression recently, and we actually prayed together right there outside of a bar surrounded by a ton of people. I’ll never forget that.
