I sometimes wonder what my life would be like without music.
Lacking that most wonderful and expressive of mediums which has accompanied me through most of the important experiences in my life, I would surely not be the same person at all.
Music was there for me when I was down and lonely, when I was happy, angry, energetic, wallowing in self-pity or climbing the heights of personal freedom. Music set the pace, reflected my moods, made me stronger and, in other words, has always played a big part in my life.
I must be quite clear here, that when I think of ‘music’, I don’t just mean that during all the times mentioned above, I was actually listening to it physically – most of the time it was just playing in my head, or else, looking back, I often realised that certain songs were just perfect to represent certain moments. I also often wondered, if my life was a movie, what would the soundtracks to it be?
So here it is, my own personally chosen soundtracks (obviously for life up till now).
I’m sure you can relate to most of my personal landmarks and maybe even to some of the songs themselves.
Childhood Days: Tchaikovsky: Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairy (from ‘The Nutcracker’)
First crush: Jennifer Paige: Crush
The realisation that adults DO NOT know it all: Pink Floyd: Another brick in the Wall
Leaving childhood behind: Garbage: The World is Not Enough, Ozzy Osbourne: Dreamer
Partying, partying, and more partying: Twisted Sister: I Wanna Rock, Shinedown: The Sound of Madness
First sexual experience: HIM: Wicked Game (cover)
First time falling in love: Bon Jovi: Bed of Roses, Type O Negative: Love you to Death
First major break–up: Three Days Grace: I hate everything about you, Linkin Park: Crawling
Feeling broken-hearted: Sarah McLachlan: In the Arms of the Angel, Celine Dion: All by Myself
Hypocrites and Frenemies: Evanescence: Everybody’s Fool, Angelspit: Skinny Little Bitch
Graduation: The Rasmus: In my Life, Cyndi Lauper : Girls just wanna have Fun
Songs to dance to when drunk: Rammstein: Sonne, Alice Cooper: Poison
In Love again: Whitesnake: Is this Love?, Def Leppard: Love Bites
Feeling disenchanted: Depeche Mode: Tainted Love, The Verve: Bittersweet Symphony, Gary Jules: Mad World
Loneliness: Tarya Turunen: I Walk Alone, Cher: A Song for the Lonely
Feeling angry: Pink: You + Ur Hand, Avril Lavigne: What the Hell, Metallica: Seek and Destroy
Personal Independence: Marilyn Manson: This is the New Shit, Queen: Living on my Own
At peace: Enya: Watermark, Within Temptation: Mother Earth
Personal Theme Song: Rob Zombie: Living Dead Girl
Note: What I refer to as one’s ‘personal theme song’ is that song you unconsciously hear in your head every time you have that special bounce in your step.
Every time you are facing a challenge, or just every time you feel happy. It’s what you listen to before an interview, or a first date and what you hum after a tough day in order to wake up a bit.
As you can see, although I primarily like Hard Rock and Heavy Metal, my taste in music is pretty varied. Also, there are many more songs, I could have matched to many more experiences, it’s simply impossible to list them all here.
Can I suggest that you think about it for a moment?
Which soundtracks do you think would belong in your own personal ‘album’?
