My Teen Angst Playlist

My Teen Angst Playlist

Or the songs that got me through it

By James Allen

Lancaster, California. The 1980’s. The 1970’s had just rolled out, but by the time I got to the age where I was really listening to music, the 80’s were well underway and Punk Rock had already seen its heyday. Post-Punk and Goth were taking hold and New Wave and Heavy Metal were still duking it out with Motown and “Rhythm and Blues” for the most attention. That meant that bands like Duran Duran were often seen on MTV, right along with Poison and Michael Jackson in-between the endlessly overplayed stuff like Hall and Oates, Phil Collins and Bette Midler. In that mess, I was a young, angsty teen from nowhere, trying to figure myself out. Here are some of the songs that helped me do just that:

10. Ministry Every Day is Halloween

Al Jourgensen sounds VASTLY different now than when he started out. Some of his fans say he “sold out” to make his record company happy and sell records for the first few years and only started letting his “real self” out as his career became more stable. I suppose that’s as good an explanation as any. Either way, his earlier stuff, to me, was much more approachable. Having been born in the 70’s, I was looking for something new. The 1980’s introduced synth bands and that appealed to me because well, synths were new! Don’t get me wrong-I appreciate Rock as much as the next guy and can lay down a solo air guitar riff that could rival Wayne and Garth together on their best day! But I’ve always had a little boogie in my butt and I like to dance! Disco just sucked me in as a kid. What can I say? I liked Abba as much as I liked KISS. There. I said it and I’m not taking it back. As a teenager, however, I got dark and Ministry was the perfect combination of danceable rhythm, synthesizers and dark lyrics. For a “Goth” kid living in a small town outside of L.A., where nobody understood the “creepy kid” who always wore black and hung out by himself, THIS was my “theme song” for quite a while:

https://www.youtube.com/h?v=KFPwatcI9b9N6CQ

09. Tears for Fears Shout

I know: not exactly the sort of group or song anyone would likely expect on a list like this, but yeah. As a ten-year-old, I remember the words really getting me. I had a fairly unhappy home life and I related the lyrics to my situation (as people will often do). The excerpt that especially hit me was the end of the first verse:

“Those one-track minds that took you for a working boy

Kiss them goodbye

You shouldn’t have to jump for joy

You shouldn’t have to shout for joy”

And then the song goes back into the chorus, which, to me, was very cathartic at the time.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ye7FKc1JQe4

08. The Smiths How Soon is Now?

OK. Here is where I will likely share a song with every single other person who is entering this challenge and is within five to ten years of me, as far as their age goes. It’s the “ultimate angst rant” against whomever Morrissey is addressing (you, the listener? His mother? His best friend?)

“You say it’s going to happen now

What exactly do you mean?

See, I’ve already waited too long

And all my hope is gone”

His exasperation is absolutely palpable in this song and I can absolutely relate to every word in it! I think everyone who listened and took the time to hear the words related, as well and were instant die-hard Smiths fans because they felt as though Morrissey was writing that song for them. I know that’s true of me. Of course, Morrissey and Marr had already won me over before I’d heard this song, but yeah. Definitely one of my favorites and one I can air-drum to perfection to this day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hnpILIIo9ek

07. Depeche Mode Blasphemous Rumours

As a 12-year-old boy in Lancaster, California, I was struggling with a lot of things, as I’ve already mentioned. One such struggle was that of religion. I was beginning to realize that things weren’t necessarily as conveniently organized as they had been explained to me to this point. Sometimes, bad things just… well, they just happen and there isn’t anything anyone can do about it. Right about the time I was thinking that God might actually have a sick sense of humor, these four guys from Basildon, England put out a song that said exactly the same thing! They already had my attention, but now I had both eyes on them! Thirty-seven years later, and I’m still wearing their T-shirts nearly every day!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3EAzf5fDpY

06. Depeche Mode People Are People

I mentioned that this group had gotten my attention, well this is the song that got my attention. It was the first song to get any attention at all in the U.S., for that matter, but for me, It was a song with a social statement and that meant something! It started with this terrific “BING BANG BONG! Boom boom boom BOOM boom, repeat-very militaristic/industrial-sounding and then they sampled in some various sounds before the Chorus begins in almost a chant:

“People are People, so why should it be?

You and I should get along so awfully?”

And the words in the verse are just extraordinary! They still hold up today! In fact, I’m really not quite sure why we aren’t hearing a resurgence of that song now, with all the racial strife and the BLM movement, right now. I’m really surprised nobody’s remade it or at least Depeche Mode hasn’t remixed and re-released it. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if it doesn’t have something to do with Alan Wilder-the member who left the band back in 2006 and who the fans have been desperately begging for to rejoin. The band just really isn’t the same without him, sadly. With Alan’s genius, this song, or any of the others that came after would not have sounded half as good as they did.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MzGnX-MbYE4

05. Depeche Mode New Dress

OK. Last one by Depeche Mode, I promise. But I did say that songs with a social statement meant something to me. Well, get ready to listen to the mother of all “social statement” songs:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsQ0kT75fRU

It’s basically a list of horrible things being reported on the television news program before it cuts away to “Princess Di is wearing a new dress…” For anyone who didn’t grow up in the 80’s, let me tell you: it was OBNOXIOUS, the way the news covered Prince Charles and Dianna! We couldn’t get away from it! Every T.V. show had some reference to it, it seemed, and when the news wasn’t showing something about them, their impending wedding, their wedding, their honeymoon or something about their life together, there was a commercial doing it, instead! THAT was not the most important thing for anyone to be paying attention too, clearly! People were sick and/or dying and needed help! Wrongs needed to be righted! The only way they were going to be righted is if we got our heads on straight and went to the polls and voted! Because of this song, I have participated in every single election for the past thirty years and will until I am no-longer able.

04. Nitzer Ebb Join In The Chant

This one basically takes elements from every song I’ve listed so far, rolls them into one and amps them up to a new level.

Synthesizers? Check. Social commentary? Check. Militaristic/Industrial drumbeat? Check. Feels like it’s talking to me, personally? Check. By the time I’d hit sixteen, I’d found what was to be my favorite activity for the next two decades: DANCING! Night clubs became my stomping ground, thanks to certain venues which opened their doors to the under-21 crowd one night per week. Thankfully, the clubs that did this also seemed to cater to the “goth” crowd, so the music was agreeable, as well. For the $5.00 cover-charge, I could spend hours, immersed in cold, dark shadows, listening to my favorite tunes or I could be on the dance floor, stomping my feet and sweating my aggression and angst out. THIS song came in handy for that brand of therapy QUITE often!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AGHMS_zh0zM

03. Pet Shop Boys It's a Sin

Now to slow it down a bit. I loved my grandmother. Still do. My relationship with my mother was well, complicated. They were both deeply religious. So was I, up until around 30 years ago. Then I just started “spelling God with two o’s left it at that”. Then, after some more research and introspection, I went Secular, but neither of them were alive to see that, so it doesn’t really matter. What does matter for the sake of this article is how close to home this song hit for me and still does, every time I hear it. As a bonus, it’s a song by a group that gets play on the radio! That means that there’s a chance that when I go to a party, I might get a chance to hear it!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dRHetRTOD1Q

02. The Police Every Breath You Take

I know-it’s not exactly original; my No. 1 probably won’t be, either. But no “Teen angst” music list is going to be complete without “The Stalker Song”. When Sting breaks into

“Since you’ve gone, I’ve been lost without a trace

I dream at night; I can only see your face

I look around, but it’s you I can’t replace

I feel so cold and I long for your embrace

I keep calling baby, baby please”

You can really feel how badly he just wants to see his lover again. I’ve felt that ache in my heart; I think we all have. Well, most of us have. It really hurts to be dumped; to be told by someone you thought loved you that they don’t love you anymore. This song really captures that-more in Sting’s voice than in the words, but the words are pretty good, too. This band are icons for a reason.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMOGaugKpzs

Honorable Mention: The Cure: Pictures of You

As if I would get through this list without listing this group OR this song! HA! That would be like a list of the top ten superheroes without Superman, or better yet, a list of top ten DC superheroes without Batman! But then, listing either one of them as Number One wouldn't exactly be very "creative", would it? This is THE angst song by THE angst group-the godfathers of Emo and it's absolutely dripping with self-pity! Yes, I cried with this song playing in the background, I've dedicated to girls who dumped me on the radio and I've played it over the phone and sent it on mixtapes. It's still one of their best, though.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X8UR2TFUp8w

01. Dramarama Anything, Anything

And now for a complete break from style. These guys sound nothing like anyone else that anyone would think I listen to, (but then they might not have heard The Jesus and Mary Chain). When you’re tired of being sad about it and you just need to get on with things but FIRST you need to be a little angry, this is the song for you!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yFhx6FLxGxQ

So there’s my list. I’d say that I’ve tried to stay away from putting too many songs on here that everyone is too familiar with, but honestly, I just listed the first that came to mind-the ones that I truly listened to when I was angsty. Maybe my definition of “angst” is broader than yours, though; a lot of people think that that’s only how a teen feels when he or she goes through a break-up. I think of angst as a general feeling of disappointment: the process of becoming a cynical adult. That’s why the reasons for my angst are outlined and are more far-reaching than just romantic in nature. Whatever the case, I hope you enjoy the list and the music. Let me know what you think!