Most people would agree that developing your personal music taste takes a while. It’s common to hit a bump in the road, or veer off course at any given moment, and end up $100 short with the nagging question of “how the hell did I spend my entire summer listening to the Stars discography, and how does this girl think that that was the best concert of her life and why won‰’t she call me back?‰” And while you may have gotten a lousy band t-shirt that you‰’ll never wear and some bad memories out of it, its a journey that may leave you with some interesting stories and a whole lot of self-discovery along the way.

So here is my playlist, at the request of those who know just how “fun” my own personal music exploration was (And is! You‰’re never done, man!). This particular set of songs is a snapshot of what I was listening to at many people‰’s most important, albeit laughable, moment: 8th grade. One year into “seriously listening to music,” I had a whole lot of questionable music choices. Some are certainly a lot worse than others. I cannot actually believe that I at one point owned an album by Cute Is What We Aim For, and for those of you who have never heard of this band, they sound exactly like what you think they sound like.

But some, as is the case with my Death Cab For Cutie choice, are actually more relevant now than they were at the time when I first obsessed over them – We Have the Facts and We‰’re Voting Yes could fit in seamlessly with any band on Captured Tracks, and the first Taking Back Sunday record sounds more like Cloud Nothings than most people would probably care to admit.

I hope you all enjoy this brutally honest collection of songs compiled for laughs, nostalgia, and anyone who can claim that they know the entire intro to My Chem‰’s “I‰’m Not Okay (Trust Me)‰” music video. Because discovering music is a joy, and rediscovering it is, well, definitely a mixed bag.

Teenaged in 2005 from wvau on 8tracks.

By Maxwell Tani