'A Childhood Gone By'

This is more of a personal post.

Now I've finally reached 18, and realised my childhood has ran past me quicker than I could notice it was getting away, I knew this playlist had to finally happen (after years of promising myself that I would one day compile it.)

Growing up in the 2000s/noughties, or whatever you want to name it to make it sound vaguely influential, sounds a lot less trendy to me than those who can say they grew up in the 70s, or 80s, or even the 90s. Let's take a moment to remember that some disgustingly bad projects supposedly named 'music' did manage to somehow happen within those years, and I'm sure everyone reading this has a few names in mind, but at the same time, I was so lucky to grow up with my two parents who were brilliantly educated, self-educated even, in music, and had, frankly, fantastic music tastes.

So alongside being introduced to the wonders of the Talking Heads, Bowie, Joy Division/New Order and Hendrix over the years, they also kept up with modern alternative music. Therefore, I also got to discover the Strokes, Basement Jaxx, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, the Foos, Arcade Fire, Midlake and the Libertines along with them. Whilst the 2000s lent us some truly awful formula-produced tracks, it also birthed some absolute gold that will be remembered in the years to come, with a spattering of one-hit wonder odd tracks here and there that still have memories attached. Who remembers 'Long Time Coming' by the Delays and 'Being Followed' by Rocket Science? Does anyone have the same extensive bank of memories attached to 'Bandages' by Hot Hot Heat, or remember their parents making their toys 'sing' to 'Can't Stand Me Now' by the Libertines?

And going back to the whole 'Music and Making Memories' thing I was on a while ago, it comes back to the same principle that if you listen to the same song consistently for a while, (and in the case of childhood songs this can reach 6 years or so), the memories attached can be really intensified. I find it mad to think how many memories I have attached to some of these tracks, and how certain albums, even from the past few years (Random Access Memories, for example), can really make you feel nostalgic.

I would definitely like to think that my tastes today are a result of the music that my parents played on car journeys up north to visit my mum's family, or down south to visit my dad's, or the albums they binge-played when driving on the freeway for 12 straight hours in Florida (that one's for you, 'By The Way'). And thanks to their 'vinyl mentality' of listening to an album through, rather than just the hits, I also hope I'm the sort of listener who gives all tracks on an album a chance before deciding on my favourites.

Finally, XFM was the station for my family until I was around 13. Then we swapped to BBC Radio 6, and honestly, we've never looked back. Radio X really has gone downhill, in my opinion.

Here's the playlist for anyone interested- it did take a few hours to put together, and I'm pretty pleased with it.

https://open.spotify.com/user/reindella/playlist/3GEpyfr63lXDGJFRwdkL4L

-Squirete