Music feeds my soul. There are songs that make me smile, no matter what kind of mood or funk I'm in. It occurred to me driving down from the Bay to Arizona. I don't really listen to CDs much anymore with the iPhone/Pod and radios. My CD-making heyday naturally, then, was back in high school and college. So playing CDs to keep the drive going actually took me back to those glorious days.
In chronological order, here are the songs that represent periods of my life! Bare with me, it's long (that's what she said). If you want to watch any of the videos, click on the song titles, they're all links to YouTube.
Note: these are not necessarily my favorite songs, but ones that mean something to me, or take me back to specific people/places in my life. What I wouldn't give to relive it all over again! xx
MONIQUE'S SOUNDTRACK TO MY LIFE: THE EARLY YEARS
2001
"Zombie Nation" - Kernkraft 400
As a sophomore in a group of girls, most of our friends were senior guys. They expanded my horizons and I'm quite nervous to actually admit that I was into house/trance music. Yep, we were very impressionable. They even took us 16 year-olds to a RAVE in San Francisco. Oddly enough, I saw my driver's instruction trainer there!! He was like 21, it seemed inappropriate at the time and still does now. Either way, this represents my sophomore year of high school, dressed in brightly-colored tee-shirts with blue mascara and let's not forget about the "candy" bracelets and necklaces...
(Source)
No. Actually, let's forget about it RIGHT NOW.
This was actually one of the homecoming week spirit days, crazy clothes day. Except, this is something I would have worn there.... yikes.
2002
"Last Resort" - Papa Roach
Junior year. My best friend Laura and I played Papa Roach's Infest over and over again. I think we even burned like 15 copies of that CD. In fact, that might be one of the very first CDs I ever burned!
2003
"Ignition" - R. Kelly
Nothing, nothing, NOTHING says prom night to me like R. Kelley's Ignition, the remix version. Prom was one of the most fun nights I'd ever had! My high school rented out an abandoned military base on SF's Angel Island for the night and danced the night away. And away and away and away. Then a group of about 10 of us took joy rides around San Francisco and Marin Headlands. We crashed in two hotel rooms that night and explored the streets of SF the following day. And probably blasted Ignition about 1,349,948,387 times along the way.
Yeah check out the tiara ;) haha not like I'm bragging or anything....
Summer 2003
"Here's to the Night" - Eve 6
Even though we all know this song is about one-night stands, Eve 6's "Here's to the Night" instantly tore open the floodgates and waterworks. Hoping to cling to one last moment of childhood innocence, we all proudly crossed that stage, grabbed our high school diplomas and lived that summer like it was our last. In a sense, it was. Everything changed after high school. Not a single one of us ended up at the same college, so some major soul-searching and friend-making was right around the corner...
THE COLLEGE YEARS
Fall 2003
"Milkshake" - Kelis
Remember when MTV actually played music videos?? Like, before Laguna Beach and The Hills?? Yeah, I can barely remember myself. Anyways, freshman year in the dorms I feel like this song was ALWAYS on MTV. I would go to my neighbors' dorm room (Michelle and Lisa, SCHOLARS HALL FOREVER!) and we'd have dance parties in their room. Usually this song was on. I even remember once our RA came in to break it up, since it was after quiet hours, and everyone hid in the closet. Classic. We never did get written up though...
Spring 2004
"Bubble Toes" - Jack Johnson
During the spring quarter of my freshman year I became a tour guide at UC Santa Barbara. And you know what my FAVORITE piece of information to share was?!?! Seriously, I ALWAYS told people about this. It was a huge piece of Gaucho lore. JACK JOHNSON went to UCSB and he sings about it in his songs!!! This would be a sample of the information I'd provide when we neared the residence/dining halls along my tour route: "How many of you guys know who Jack Johnson is?! [Pause for a few raised hands] Well did you know he actually went here and sings about it in the song 'Bubble Toes'? [No one ever knew that]. Well, the line 'I was eating lunch at the DLG' refers to this building here [point to the left à la Vanna White]. De La Guerra dining commons! Now you can brag to your friends you ate at the same place as Jack Johnson!"
Yeah, I'm a huge geek, I know. But seriously, Jack Johnson, Bob Marley, Pepper, etc. all remind me of my days at UCSB: carefree, studying on the beach, watching the surfers in between classes and kicking back in the California sun.
2005
"Get Low" - Lil' Jon and the East Side Boys
Anything with Lil Jon takes me back to sophomore year living in our own apartment! There was never a shortage of parties to find on the beach street in Santa Barbara on any given weekend. Being underage and looking for a place to dance, we'd wander the street (total walking campus and college city) in search of the loudest music. Since bars weren't an option for our weekend amusement, we'd walk into the parties like we owned the place and danced on tables until the early morning hours. And then we'd go to Freebird's and get a burrito/nachos at 3 a.m. Those were the days. I apologize to anyone who's table we might have broken trying to pile 6-10 girls on!!
Spring 2006
"Gold Digger" - Kanye West feat. Jamie Foxx
Ah, the beautiful year I turned 21. And in celebration of my 21st birthday my friends threw me a GOLD DIGGER themed party! We used to have theme parties like it was our jobbbb in Santa Barbara. We'd have black and white parties, EuroTrash, Dressed Up & Messed Up, PROM PARTY -- that was a good one, we all donned our prom dresses and my roomie Jess even painted a backdrop we all posed in front of!!! -- Rock Stars & Roadies and the obligatory Golf Pros and Tennis Hos. Anyways, this song was one of my favs to dance to junior year. And it celebrates my ascent to legal drinking, so that's pretty exciting.
Summer 2006
"Your Love" - The Outfield
This was a big summer for me. It's where I realized I HAD to work in sports. I worked for a semi-professional baseball team and hung out with the players/other interns on the weekends. One player's walk-out song was the Outfield's "Your Love." We'd play it at our weekend get-togethers and I ALWAYS heard it in the ballpark. That was one of the most fun/eventful summers of my life and I got to see my team make it all the way to the summer World Series and win it all!!!! Nothing else mattered that summer. I had my two loves, the beach and baseball. And my love affair with baseball grew more serious from then on out.
2007
"Prayer of the Refugee" - Rise Against
My boyfriend -- from that baseball team -- and I used to drive around in his truck, blasting über loud, screamy music. He was hardcore. Anyways, that year we'd go see movies, hit up the beach and eat ice cream, relishing our final year of college. Rise Against was one of his favorite bands and I'm always taken back to that year whenever I hear loud, hardcore music. This is one of the tamer songs and one I actually ended up liking! We had fun and went on to graduate from COLLEGE and foray into the supposed "real world." No, not like the show.
AND BEYOND
Fall 2007
"Love is Gone" - David Guetta
This song means a few things to me. First, it's French trash and I looove trashy, dance European music. After college I packed up everything I had into two (heavy) suitcases and hopped on a plane to the South of France. Unsure of anything in my life, I said my bittersweet goodbye to the bf and started to move on to adult life. Though, I'd hardly call it that. I made friends from all around the world, explored Europe, ate my way through the world and had a blast doing it. Oh yeah, I also taught English in elementary schools on the side ;) and improved my level of French to near-fluency. I heard some great music I'd never be caught dead listening to state side. I also learned a crazy new dance I hope NEVER catches on here. This is one of the many weird French songs I loved while living abroad, but also was symbolic of my newly-single status.
Summer 2008
"I Kissed a Girl" - Katy Perry
Back in the US and reverse culture-shocked out of my mind, I was jobless that summer and missed my UCSB friends like craaazy! So several trips were made to Santa Barbara that summer. I road tripped up and down the California coast and every time I stepped in the car/walked into clubs, Katy Perry's song was ALWAYS playing. My female friends and I would always joke about this song and the boys would love it. Then large dance parties ensued. It was like I hadn't even left college at all and picked up right where we left off. Bonus points: Katy Perry hails from Santa Barbara herself!
Fall 2008"Sex on Fire" - Kings of Leon
This is the year I discovered Kings of Leon. I loved that song so much, I probably played it out. And then did it some more. Then I watched the music video and drooled over the singer!!! I never got tired of this song. It would come on the radio and my chest would skip beats. That's how much I love the Kings of Leon. To this day, whenever I hear the song I turn it up on the radio. One of the baseball coaches and I used to bond over their album on the team's long road trips to and from Los Angeles.
2009
"Eye of the Tiger" - Survivor
I started working in the athletics department for University of the Pacific, a small private (NCAA Division I) school in Northern California in the summer of 2008. Our mascot was simply the Tigers. We had 16 sports and I worked most of the home games and traveled on the road with three of my sports. At first it didn't bother me that we played "Eye of the Tiger" in every pre-game warm-up mix. I kinda liked the song. Then winter sports rolled around and by basketball season, I was hearing the song at least four times a week. Imagine my disdain, then, when teams on the road would play this song in their warm-ups because most schools across the country use it, regardless of mascot. It got old, fast, and then I had to sit two more years through it!!!!! If I could sum Pacific up in one song, this would be it. And my blood would start to boil.
You can't see it that well, but check out the giant Tiger on the gym floor!
Spring 2010
"Lay Me Down" - Dirty Heads feat. Rome from Sublime
My boss at Pacific had access to a crazy amount of free CDs for some reason. I noticed one day he had the Dirty Heads CD on his desk, unopened. I freaked and started gushing like a little girl how I looooved that one song, "Lay Me Down." He told me the CD was as good as mine. And literally, up until we moved down to Arizona, I played that CD every morning/afternoon on my way to and from work. It was ALWAYS running in my car. It works in two ways, since this song really reminds me of my lazy beach days in Santa Barbara, but it's also THE song of Spring 2010.
Late spring (2010) in Santa Cruz!
Summer 2010
"1901" - Phoenix
Ready for some full circle action? I've become quite fond of the band Phoenix lately. I think you can understand how the band itself is rather symbolic since my move to the Phoenix area. But, wait for it, THE BAND IS FROM FRANCE!!!! We all know how much I dig anything French. Voilà, I've come full circle now. QED.
And that is the soundtrack to my life. I hope you enjoyed the musical journey through my past! (If you made it this far, that is. Congrats and thanks for stalking learning about me!!)
If you could have a soundtrack to your life, what would it be????
