Behind the Blog #15; Music of My Life

Behind the Blog is a meme to help bloggers connect their life and interests to the content showcased on their blog. The co-hosts, Faye, Kathe, and Melissa will provide a different topic, idea, or question every week that bloggers can relate to themselves and the books, films, or other media they find interesting!

Have you ever wondered what the soundtrack to your life would be? Which artists would play for the major events? Would certain artists/tracks be reserved for particular emotions?
In relation to books; Have you ever read a book that had an accompanying soundtrack? If you could pick a theme song for your favorite book what would it be and why?

---

Throughout my life music has actually played a rather large part in things. I find it incredibly difficult to sit in silence (on my own) for a long time and so generally have music on in the background – even when I’m reading! – and so for many of the bigger events in my life, I already had music playing or I played music recently after that somehow fit the mood. In this post I’ll be letting you know which songs touched me, when and why. It’s not a full list of every major event in my life but a fairly good one, I think.

When I was in secondary school (highschool), I started to get annoyed with pop songs, so while my childhood was spent listening to them – bands like Spice Girls, S Club 7 and Steps were my favourites – I soon found myself wanting a change of scenery. This was when I first hit my indie phase and if we’re being truly honest, that phase still hasn’t left me.

So, when I was fifteen years old and one of my best friends told me that her parents were selling their house and moving to a town 300 miles away, I was very upset. We both were. And, sitting on the bus one day after sharing the news, we happened to be listening to my MP3 player together when Incubus – I Miss You started playing. Not all the lyrics worked but the meaning behind how the song was heard and how we felt will never leave me. Every single time I hear this song, I think of her and I’m so glad that we’re still in contact but I still miss her so much.

The second major event in my life – that I remember had a song with it – was when I had my heart broken for the first time. This wasn’t a relationship break up like most people. This was just the end of an extremely long friendship that literally ripped my heart apart, a heart that has never been the same again. That very night, my playlist was on shuffle, as it always is, when The Fray – How to Save a Life started playing. I couldn’t help hearing “Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend / Somewhere along in the bitterness / And I would have stayed up with you all night.” I ended up listening to that song over and over again and to this day it still reminds me of everything I had lost that night.

On a lighter note, supposedly every couple has their song and the story behind this track is a little like that. On the day  that one of my ex-boyfriends became my boyfriend, I was elated and his dad offered me a lift home because it was raining and I accepted, my boyfriend telling me he’d ride with me. In the car, Christina Aguilera – Beautiful came on the radio and I couldn’t help smiling because for the first time in my life, I really understood the words of that song. I looked across at my boy and he was just looking at me smiling and just felt so alive. Now I find it hard to listen to this song without crying due to how wrong it all ended, but at the time – it took my breath away.

In my first year at university, I made many new friends and in one I found someone who liked the same bands as I did. I introduced her to All Time Low and We the Kings and she introduced me to You Me At Six and Forever the Sickest Kids and with how much we loved them, we went to see them all live together and every gig was brilliant. One song that makes me think of her is All Time Low – Weightless because I was listening to it in the new year and together we decided that it was going to be our year for a change. The last six months of my first year were really great and I was just so glad that she was there to celebrate them with me – and we certainly made it our year.

In my third year there are many songs that got not just on my nerves but on the nerves of my housemates too and it would be odd not to include them here too. Instead of putting them all down however, I have chosen the one that truly makes me think of them all. I truly hate the song and the one line that always gets in my head but I also love it. I love that it reminds me of that moment, of the way I could just say four words and make everyone groan. It is a truly hypocritical song. Sak Noel – Loca People ; all day, all night.

I wasn’t sure what song to add in here next, I could have placed in some of my favourites in my last year of uni like Christina Perri’s Jar of Hearts but I have decided that the last song in my soundtrack has to be Yellowcard – Here I am Alive. Ironically, I have only just listened to it. I was youtubing all of the other songs above when this came up in the sidebar. I love Yellowcard but I hadn’t heard this song yet and I have fallen into instant love and it has just spoken to me. “They say you don’t grow up, you just grow old. It’s safe to say I haven’t done both.” – I love the lyrics, I love the tune, I love the song. And let’s face it; Here I am Alive.

My Soundtrack
– Incubus – I Miss You
– The Fray – How to Save a Life
– Christina Aguilera – Beautiful
– All Time Low – Weightless
– Sak Noel – Loca People
– Yellowcard – Here I am Alive

Bonus Features
– Christina Perri – Jar of Hearts
– Lil Red Riding Hood – Bowling for Soup
– Worlds Apart – Thieves and Villains
– The Captain – Biffy Clyro
– Crash Land – Twin Atlantic

That was extremely hard to come up with, and I’m sure I’ve missed a whole pile of brilliant songs, ones which keep popping into my head, like any by Imogen Heap which remind me of college and Avril Lavigne and Blue October and He is We and Nickleback. But I have to stop myself or I’ll be here all night.

This is also a hard task – relating music to books. I also listen to music when I read but I usually manage to separate the two. One book I have read lately however, that had songs mentioned all over the place was;

• Saving June by Hannah Harrington
  – And it is a marvellous book too! Some of the songs I didn’t know but the ones I did, I could totally see how they worked.

As for songs that remind me of books? I don’t really know. I should probably do some research and you know, think a bit, but I just find it difficult to put the two together. I’m much more of a mood-music listener. I like listening to songs because I’m in the mood for that kind of song, and such. Maybe one day I’ll do this task! But what books can you link to songs?

We’d love to have you join us for Behind the Blog!

If you’re choosing to join us for Behind the Blog don’t forget to link up your post by using the Linky list below!

Are you joining us? Here are our rules:

• The hosts’ Behind the Blog posts go live at midnight on Friday, GMT+0:00. Feel free to post before that, just link up on Friday!
• Feel free to make use of the button shown above, or if it clashes with your blog colours e-mail us or make your own.
• Read, write, and connect! The Linky is there for you. Make use of it!
• Last but not least, have fun!