Childhood
Two Out Of Three Ain't Bad - Meatloaf
This seems like a really strange choice for a childhood song but I distinctly remember having a CD called "Hits of the 70s" or something like that and I remember that this was one of my favourite songs on the album. I just really liked the way that the song started and ended on the same lyric "Baby we can talk all night", as I thought it was really nice and cyclical (I was a philosophical toddler) and I also really liked the chorus and tried to memorise all the words. I used to listen to the CD on my Disc/Walkman and my parents always got annoyed because I sang along really loudly. I remember losing the CD and completely forgetting about the song until a few years ago when I Shazam-ed the song and rediscovered it. Since then it has been one of my favourites and it's also influenced me to listen to a wider range of music genres, as I quite like the Bat Out Of Hell album (the album this song features on).
Early Teens
Defying Gravity - Wicked
The first time I heard this song was in 2007 in the Ugly Betty episode "Something Wicked This Way Comes" where Betty goes to see Wicked on Broadway. Despite the fact that they only showed a small snippet of the performance, I was hooked straight away. For months I begged my parents to let me go and see the musical and in December of 2008 (I think), one of my Christmas presents was a pair of tickets to the show. After seeing it I fell in love with the entire soundtrack and my (albeit short-lived) lifelong dream became to play Elphaba on the big stage. I listened to the songs on my Nokia brick phone all day long and I even choreographed routines to some of the songs. In about 3 months I had memorised all the songs and even some of the dialogue, and it distracted me from (what I thought was) the stress of school and friendships. To this day, I still have the soundtrack on my iTunes library and I listen to it when I feel like losing myself in that fantasy world.
Today
Weightless - All Time Low
I don't remember when I first heard this song, but I remember it was on a music channel and they were doing an "Alternative/Rock Music Top 100 Countdown". I was flicking through the channels when this song had just started playing and I was intrigued (I thought the lead singer was cute) so I listened to the whole song. Not only was the music video quirky and different to all the other Top 20 music I usually listened to, it was also quite techy and I loved the use of graphics to make it seem contemporary but also to mock and satirise some aspects of society. Through this song I discovered the band All Time Low which rapidly became my favourite band, and then they led me to a lot of my other favourite artists; Hey Monday, We Are The In Crowd and The Summer Set had all previously toured with ATL and when I checked those bands out, I immediately found that I was drawn to pop-punky music. I still listen to their songs often, despite being a fan for well over two years and having heard those songs quite a few times already. I just really like their sound because it's fun, their lyrics are witty and all four guys are really talented and just great personalities overall. Sadly I haven't been to an ATL concert yet, as they sell out really fast and/or no-one wants to go with me :(
