I remember very vividly less than two years ago reading in a Rolling Stone magazine about the trends in music from 2000-2010, and how they talked specifically about the rise and fall of certain genres of rock music (specifically emo and screamo) in this decade. It really shocked me because, having sought to be a rock star for most of my junior high and high school years, the majority of the music I listened to fell in this range of bands. These were the guys I wanted to be like, and whose sound I still really enjoy.
Fast forward to New Year’s Eve and I am hanging out with a friend, waiting to party the night away, and I begin playing through some of these fantastic rock tracks. And, like all music, the powerful thing it can do is transport you to the time you first heard it, how you felt, what you were like, what you wanted to do with your life. These songs in this supposedly ‘dead’ genre deserve a bit more credit for being really awesome when I was growing up. I imagine people will scoff at my musical taste, but it was cool back then to wear chick pants, lots of black, eyeliner, and randomly placed sweatbands.
So as a New Year’s salute and a shout-out to a friend’s request for this playlist, I give you my “High School Rock Star Wannabe” playlist. Enjoy.
1. Car Underwater by Armor for Sleep
2. Honestly by Cartel (first song I ever bought on iTunes)
3. Ohio Is For Lovers by Hawthorne Heights (emo stereotyped)
4. Anthem of Our Dying Day by Story of the Year (a band about two years too earlier with their sound to make it big)
5. Dance, Dance by Fall Out Boy (cliche? yes. catchy, most definitely)
6. Swing, Swing by the All American Rejects
7. Last Train Home by the Lost Prophets
8. Memory by Sugarcult
9. Vindicated by Dashboard Confessional
10. The Adventure by Angels & Airwaves
11. The Only Difference Between Martyrdom and Suicide is Press Coverage by Panic! At the Disco (an example of obnoxiously long titles popular at the time)
12. Helena by My Chemical Romance
13. Face Down by Red Jumpsuit Apparatus
14. An Honest Mistake by the Bravery
15. Shimmy Shimmy Quarterturn by Hellogoodbye
16. Hair by the Early November
17. Pressure by Paramore (they made it into 2011, but have since floundered)
18. Four Kicks by Kings of Leon (this was the cool thing to do, “I knew them before they were popular.”
19. Paris in Flames by Thursday
20. I Caught Fire by the Used
21. Existentialism on Prom Night by Straylight Run
Now within this plethora of one hit wonder bands (for the most part) lay an equally as inspiring assortment of legitimate rockers who also happened to be Christian. Here are a few wonderful tracks from them…
1. Walls by Emery
2. Phoenix with a Heartache by Kids in the Way
3. Change the World by Anberlin
4. Reinventing Your Exit by Underoath
5. Down Here, We all Float by Sullivan
6. Oh! Emetophobia by Showbread
That is all for now. Hats off to you, you wonderful rockers who put out some great music regardless of how Rolling Stone wrote you off as a dead genre. You still inspire me.
greaterthanalexander 