My Teenage Angsty Rollercoaster

I have to give a big shout out to Silverchair as a group. When they started their band the lead singer, who wrote his own songs, was only 13 years old. When they released their first song lead singer Daniel Johns was only 15 years old. "Freak by Silverchair" was our theme song as a group of misfits, freaks, losers and whatever the cool crowd wanted to call us for the week. They settled on Loser for the most part, but deep down all of us felt like freaks except for when we were together.

Most people think of Loser in a derogatory sense of the word, but my friends and I were able to change that in school for all of junior high and high school. We used to be taunted by the cool crowd as we walked down the hallway just about everyday. They used to start cat calling us to who ever was also in the hallway. "Oh look everyone, its the Loser's". "How's it goin Losers?" "You off to Loserville, Loser's?" You know the good old kids will be kids stuff. We all decided that we had had enough and we took the word loser away from them. The next time we met in the hall we started to cat call first. "Oh look everyone its the Winners" "How's it going Winners?" "You off to Winnersville, Winners?"

"Ironic by Alanis Morissette" seemed Like a fitting next entry in this story. This was the perfect song for all of the things that we had to go through on a daily basis. When you are a teenager things are rarely going the right way. You don't have all of the awkward things of teenage life happen at home. It feels like life is always out to get you and make a mess of your life in particular. All of the awkward things, ironically, seem to happen in a public area full of people.

The only time that the whole school came together was in a time of great loss. We lost one of the musical icons of the world in 1994. The whole a school seemed pretty somber for while after the news broke. After his death a lot of rumors flew about the nature of his death. Everyone believed it was murder, not suicide and it was one of the only time the different social classes in school agreed. The mutual sadness lasted about a week.

"Come As You Are by Nirvana" was release in 1992. It was the bands second and last American top 40 hit. I think it was the song that appealed to group the most. It was also the song we listened to in honor of Kurt Cobain when he committed suicide on April 4th, 1994.

Outside of the sad and awkward things that were happening for most of my teenage years, there were times where I felt awesome. During the times where I was feeling pretty confident I had one song that I listened to over and over again. It was also the only song that my sister and I, being on different social levels, listened to together. That is where "Informer by Snow" enters the picture.

Informer was released in 1993. Snow was one of the many creators of the time period that everyone new and liked. He wrote the song while he was in prison being falsely accused of attempted murder. The song was very catchy and although most people could not understand the words was very popular.

From here we move onto one of the things that caused the most angst for teens and I would imagine still does. LOVE. That part of our lives where the world will end if the person we like does not return our feelings. The feeling that causes you to get up early to get ready for school, sign up for extra curricular activities you normally wouldn't partake in, and the all encompassing change in everything we do. There was one major song in my teenage years that people listened to when the were yearning for the affection of someone.

"Killing me Softly by The Fugees" was the ultimate in songs of yearning. The Fugees were not the original writers or singers of this song, but they made into something that hit the teenagers of the 90's right in the feels.

Another song that hit you in the feels for that time in my teenage life was for when you broke up with your high school love. You went through so many thing during that time that you just had to deal with because you were not allowed to stay in bed and not go to school. You had to deal with heartbreak face to face. Then after school in your room you would blast your heartbreak song and cry.

"Un-Break my heart by Toni Braxton" was written by Diane Warren, released and performed in 1996 by Toni Braxton. It was the song that I blasted when my boyfriend in high school broke up with me. It was never going to work forever anyway (he was gay), but I did not know that then, all I knew was that my world was ending. He has been with the same guy ever since and I have gotten over it. It was a different time when you were a teenager. Everything seemed to be a choice between life and death. When I look back now I laugh about the things that seemed so extreme that I eventually got over completely.

Now, after you were finally over the heartbreak of lost love, there would have been a, whatever, I'm over it song. A lot of times it was the song you used to get over a heartbreak. Mine comes to us from a huge group of the 90's, that still has a member who is still creating popular music now.

"Bye Bye Bye by NSYNC" released in 2000 was a big I'm over it song. The song was in reference to the end of a romantic relationship, but was also rumored to reference them splitting from their manager and record label. I am sure that you recognize Justin Timberlake, but in my day he was not on his own. In the 90's boy bands were all the rage and these guys were one of the biggest.

I called this my Teenage Angsty Rollercoaster because of the dramatic miss placed emotions that came with being a teenager. While I could go on with this article, probably indefinitely, and no doubt will leave out a lot of great songs, I will leave you with the list of video's from some of the most famous musicians of my teenage years. I hope that all of you revisit your Teenage Playlists on a regular basis because those were very defining moments in everyone's lives and music remains a very healing, nostalgic thing that a lot of us can't live without.

Thank-you for reading my article. I hope you enjoyed the throwback.