Everyone’s music taste is completely different. One of my closest friends listens to artists like Nicki Minaj and Harry Styles on a daily basis, while one of my other friends is a pure metalhead who likes bands such as Kreator and Trivium. How’d they get to be fans of those genres? It always starts with a handful of songs. This list is for that handful of songs; the songs that helped shape my taste in music to what it is today. This isn’t my top ten favorite songs, just some of the most influential. It’s a pretty weird group of songs from multiple genres, and while it was hard to limit myself to ten choices, here are the ten songs that shaped my taste in music in the order I experienced them chronologically. Also, if you haven’t heard of any of these songs (most you have, I’m sure) there’s a link at the end of each segment to give the song a try!
“Be Prepared” – Jeremy Irons (Lion King Soundtrack)
Honestly there were a lot of Disney songs I considered to put on this list (a future list maybe?), but I decided to go with my favorite song from the first Disney film I ever saw. “Be Prepared” I think pulled me in at first just because of how cool I thought Scar was. The way he sung it, the comical interlude with the hyenas, and the imagery all only enhanced the song. People always say that Jeremy Irons can’t sing, but when your character is that cool who cares? Then the music itself is so ominous sounding it always stuck with me after the first time I saw the film. This was what made me addicted to not only Disney songs, but musicals in general. The thought of people spontaneously breaking out into song has always brought me joy and I can basically trace the reason all the way back to when I first started watching Disney movies. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkU23m6yX04
“Mambo #5” – Lou Bega
This was my absolute favorite song as a little kid. This was the first song I was genuinely addicted to. Looking back on it now it’s pretty hilarious considering what the song is actually about. First grade me didn’t know ALL the lyrics and had no idea it was actually about a guy partying it up with multiple women at once. First grade me just thought the song was really catchy and was fun to dance to. There are a lot of great party/dance songs these days, but none still make me go nuts quite like Mambo #5. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EK_LN3XEcnw
“Amish Paradise” – Weird Al Yankovic
Weird Al was the first artist I got really into. Before Weird Al I only knew individual songs by different singers/bands, but “Bad Hair Day” changed everything. When I first heard Amish Paradise and the rest of “Bad Hair Day,” I got my parents to buy me the CD. It was the first CD I ever bought and it started my obsession with buying CDs. Amish Paradise is hilarious turning Gangsta’s Paradise into a song about how “great” the Amish life is. It was the song that taught me what a parody was and was the first time I had a favorite artist. I owe a lot to Weird Al and I’d kill to see him live! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lOfZLb33uCg
“In The End” – Linkin Park
So for years all I listened to was Weird Al, and I was pretty content with that. Then, I started noticing the bands my older brother was into. The first band he bought multiple albums from was this band I never heard of called Linkin Park. The one song you couldn’t seem to escape was “In The End.” It was this weird hybrid (ha) of rock and rap and I couldn’t get enough of it. I’d probably attribute this song to my love for strange combos of music. The Pop Goes Punk albums are something I look forward to every year because there’s nothing quite like hearing a Katy Perry song get turned into metalcore. Many bands have tried to copy Linkin Park’s mix of sound but none ever come close. That hasn’t stopped me though from searching for other bands with great combinations of genres (another is referenced a little later!) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eVTXPUF4Oz4
Behind Closed Doors – Rise Against
Eventually my brother grew out of his Linkin Park phase (I never did), and eventually his taste in music became very apparent: he liked whatever his girlfriend at the time liked. And by liked I mean he acted like he enjoyed them. When I was in 8th grade my brother would drive us to school and he’d listen to this mix CD his girlfriend made and it was pretty much the CD that helped establish what my favorite genre was. Hilariously though whenever I first heard “Behind Closed Doors” I asked my brother what band that was and he had no clue whatsoever. So I googled some of the lyrics to find the band. I went to the CD store and eventually bought the album Sufferer and the Witness and I will never forget that experience. The store clerk took one look at the album then said “This is an awesome album.” Good Lord was he right. It to this day is still my favorite album and the one I’ve listened to the most from start to finish. I gotta find my brother’s old girlfriend and thank her for making that Mix CD. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rkPCb-uEjaI
“I Write Sins Not Tragedies” – Panic! At the Disco
That magical mix CD consisted primarily of four artists: Rise Against, My Chemical Romance, Social Distortion, and Panic! At the Disco. For this part of the musical journey I was going to choose either My Chemical Romance’s “The Black Parade” or “I Write Sins Not Tragedies” by Panic! At the Disco. Both made albums that are some of my all time favorites, but I heard “I Write Sins” first so it gets the spot. I blame this band for me still liking “emo music,” and I have no shame admitting that! Panic! and MCR have written some incredibly catching songs over the years and I always enjoyed the emotion displayed in their tracks. Emo fans are still secretly hiding all over the world they just don’t like to come out and say it. I will wave the emo music fan flag proudly though! (I just saw Panic! last year and it was one of the best shows I’ve ever been to). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vy0mqXuBMY4
“Fight Fire With Fire” – Metallica
My brother eventually dumped that girl with the magical CD, and he eventually went back to actually deciding for himself what music he liked. I’ll never forget the one trip home where he put in this CD I never saw before. The opening song was this super mellow guitar and I thought “Oh God what is this going to be?!” Then out of nowhere it turned into this insanely heavy and fast metal song! I legit asked him if he switched songs and he said it was the same song with the slow guitar opening. That was the day I learned of Metallica and became a big metal fan. Nothing quite compares to the speed and intensity of metal. It always hits the spot whenever in a bad mood. Fight Fire With Fire is one my favorite metal songs to this day and I will never forget how blown away I was by it’s plot twist opener. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xeK1E1HaMdY
Tears Don’t Fall – Bullet For My Valentine
This was the last time my brother had an influence on my music choice. As he continued being the one that drove me to things my music education expanded. What I loved about “Tears Don’t Fall” is that it combined pretty much everything I had grown to like about music (with exception to Weird Al of course). First it had the incredible technical skill and solos of heavy metal, it had the mix of clean vocals and screams that Rise Against had, and it was some deep EMOtional shit like Panic! and MCR. They were the band that kind of solidified my opinion of screaming in songs. Before them I only enjoyed it in Rise Against, but BFMV changed my perspective. After hearing Tears Don’t Fall I got into other bands like Breaking Benjamin, Avenged Sevenfold, and System Of A Down. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XkEb1vj6ssY
Domination – Symphony X
This discovery came completely out of the blue. It was Christmas morning, I was 14 years old and I had gotten a ton of iTunes gift cards. I was on the music store searching for new music to buy when a name popped out to me in the “Suggested” section. “Symphony X” sounded like the coolest band name I ever heard so I selected the suggested song to give it a listen and it was like I had gotten one final extra Christmas gift! The combination of metal and orchestra was incredible, Domination (and the rest of the album) was simply epic. It sounded like the Final Boss music you’d hear in a video game but it had LYRICS! The singer is still to this day one of my all time favorites, and Symphony X never fails to let me down. Symphonic metal has since then become one of my favorite subgenres to listen to and has helped me to find other great bands like Kamelot, Epica, and Alestorm. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hayYZguCt_c
Holy Diver – Killswitch Engage
The final stop in my musical journey (for this list) is dedicated to what started my love for covers. I tend to be pretty picky about covers because a majority of the time they’re either boring, uninspired, or just flat out suck. Killswitch Engage’s cover of “Holy Diver” was the first song to show me that not all covers are bad. Sometimes they can even actually be better! Call it blasphemy but I think this version is infinitely better than the original. Ronnie James Dio would be proud of this cover for sure, it’s just exploding with energy and the vocals are a step above the original. And the added metal breakdowns just bring the whole thing over the top! Since then I’ve found plenty of other great covers (mainly in rock) from bands like Disturbed, We Came As Romans, and Bodycount, but I never would’ve really started looking if I hadn’t listened to this one in the first place. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NR7dG_m3MsI
There are tons of other great songs that helped shape my taste in music over the years but these ten have been the most influential. Music is such a huge part of my everyday lifestyle now I couldn’t imagine life without it. It’d be so boring!! To anyone reading this though, what’re some of the songs you remember being obsessed with over the years??
The Magical World of Dids 