A Is for Angst
A Thread Playlist
It’s been quite a year. The kind of year that makes you want to go back to a time before you knew this much about life. When the drama was sky-high, but the stakes were not. Music can be that time machine. Back when we were 14, these tracks got us through bad haircuts, a mouthful of orthodontia and big, big feelings. It was a quieter time. Except the music. The music was loud.
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Audge
“Glory of Love,” Peter Cetera
This song will ring zero bells for everyone except the 5.6 million 52-year-olds like Audrey who can belt out the chorus whilst blindfolded and dumped in a well: “I am a man who will fight for your honor, I'll be the hero that you're dreaming of.” It was the theme song to The Karate Kid Part II, which about sums up its merits.
Epcot
“On With the Show,” Mötley Crüe
Judge not, lest ye be judged. Hair bands hadn’t yet been invented when Brian first heard this song. Mötley Crüe had just pioneered the genre, and it was a shock to the system. The lipstick! The aggressively wailing guitars! The leather codpieces!
Brogan
“A-Punk,” Vampire Weekend
At age 14, young Brogan began the delicate transition from hardcore and screamo to indie. A-Punk followed him from the Oregon City High School battle of the bands to commercials for HP printers, a metaphor for life if there ever was one.
Connor
“Cryin’,” Aerosmith
Connor fell in love with Alicia Silverstone freshman year thanks to a steady after-school diet of this iconic Aerosmith music video. It had it all: young love, heartbreak, grungy flannels, purse-snatching, suicide contemplation, and a middle finger at the very end that MTV blurred out, natch.
Waags
“Rock the Casbah,” The Clash
Dave was one of nine American 14-year-olds who read the newspaper in 1982. In it, he learned about the conflict in the Middle East, then rode his bike for who-knows-how-long, channeling his young outrage straight into the earphones of his Sony Walkman.
Deedee
“Black Coffee in Bed,” Squeeze
If there’s an MTV Top 20 Video Countdown 14-year-old Deedee didn’t watch, we don’t know what it is. In addition to becoming a Prince backup dancer, Deedee also thought she would for sure meet Glenn Tilbrook someday, maybe on a class trip to London or if she won one of those MTV contests.
Dylan
“1979,” Smashing Pumpkins
At age 14, Dylan was feeling nostalgic for an adolescence they had yet to experience. Sneaking out? First kisses? Heartbreak? They could give or take any of it. It was the longingly looking back after it’s over with they couldn’t wait for.
Lizard
“No One Is to Blame,” Howard Jones
If self-pity were a song, it would be this one. Taped off the radio with the DJ yammering all the way through the intro to the opening vocals, listened to while lying on the floor of her bedroom feeling all the passive-aggressive feels: pay no attention to the crying girl. It’s no one’s fault! Really!
Emmers
“Roots Radicals,” Rancid
The camera pans to Emily, freshman year. Just a kid dressed all in black, chains on her pants, spikes on her jacket, stupid saying on her shirt. Her black mood is interrupted only by her hair (orange or purple) and the stars coming out of her bass clarinet during Wind Ensemble. Anarchy 🤘
Erik
“Rudie Can’t Fail,” The Clash
With a chest full of angst and a head full of Knox gelatin (for stiff spikes), young Erik and “Rudie Can’t Fail” made a blistering musical jab at capitalism and conformity. Punk as hell but still considered listenable by the ’rents, it got a lot of play on the family stereo.
Jen
“Purple Rain,” Prince
When Jen first heard Prince, feelings were had. "Touch if you will, my stomach …" Whaaaaat? The day before she turned 15, her mom took her and three of her best friends, draped in purple and rhinestones, to see Prince and the Revolution in Buffalo, NY. Prince closed the show, and Jen’s childhood, with an extended lighter-ablaze-in-the-air version of this song.
Jesika
“24,900 miles per hour,” 7 Year Bitch
The skies were grey, the shirts were flannel, the Sony Dream Machine tuned permanently to KNRK. A 14-year-old Jesika had. to. have. this. single. Too intimidated by the papered-over windows at Ozone Records, she bought it at Fred Meyer, along with Wet n’ Wild nail polish and a Dr. Pepper.
Jessie
“Material Girl,” Madonna
The lyrics might be cynical, but Jessica embraced this song enthusiastically and un-ironically. She went to every dance after the Friday night football game wearing head-to-toe Esprit and many, many friendship bracelets. She danced until her legs were rubber and the soles of her feet hurt. Bless her heart.
Kate
“Such Great Heights,” The Postal Service
Hello, skinny jeans. Hello, thrift store. Hello, attempt at an alternative-girl haircut that the gal at the small-town hair salon totally misunderstood and came out looking more like the mom from “Jon and Kate Plus 8.” At 14, Kate was too nervous to talk to the cute boy wearing a Postal Service t-shirt, so she smiled at him from across the lunchroom. In June, he wrote in her yearbook: “Your smiles are creepy.”
Katie
“Girlfriend in a Coma,” The Smiths
All of Katie’s choices fell into the moody "dark pop" genre that defined her 8th-grade year. Big hair, braces, gold hoops, eyeliner. Playing records alone in her room — don't you dare talk to her!
Kar Bear
“Stop Draggin’ My Heart Around,” Stevie Nicks (with Tom Petty)
This song was the soundtrack to KO’s first lesson in love. She: completely smitten. He: Looking for more than she could give. He broke up with her to pursue someone else but continued to flirt with her whenever the new girlfriend wasn’t around. A total dick move, no matter how sexy Stevie made it sound.
Lex
“Dammit,” Blink 182
Up too late on a school night watching MTV’s “120 Minutes” with Matt Pinfield. A video of three guys in a white room singing about movie sneak previews changed Lex’s life. She had discovered something so deep and so personal about being on the verge of leaving middle school to head to high school. It was the beginning of the end of so much, including her eardrums.
Lily
“As You Turn to Go,” Momus
1999 was a banner year for pop: Mariah Carey, Britney Spears, Destiny's Child, Shania Twain. Fourteen-year-old Lily couldn't have turned her nose up harder at all of it. She only liked twee indie shit like this: a Stephin Merritt song performed by British avant-weirdo Momus. Her tastes have expanded since then, but he’s still her number-one bedroom fandom.
Liz H.
“Personal Jesus,” Depeche Mode
Played on a three-disc shuffle CD player along with Pink Floyd’s The Wall and The B-52s, this song was a little darker and a little more mysterious than what Liz was used to. It marked the beginning of her transition from pop girl to grunge girl by way of goth.
Liz G.
“You Don’t Know My Name,” Alicia Keys
As a certified yearner, Liz loved the longing of the lyrics and admired the nerve it took to dig through that fishbowl for his number and call him up. To this day, the piano part plays in her head whenever she witnesses something romantic in a swoony way.
Matt
“Our House,” Madness
Growing up in Phoenix, Matt wanted to be British so badly he could almost taste the soggy bacon and baked beans. The gloom of Margaret Thatcher’s Britain was so cool and so different from the gloom of Reagan’s America.
Mike
“Truly, Madly, Deeply,” Savage Garden
The truth can now be told: Mike bought the Savage Garden CD for his sister because he wanted to listen to it but it was "girl music" and he couldn't buy it for himself.
Molly
“Scars,” Papa Roach
Go fix yourself. 😘
Nachi
“Hide and Seek,” Imogen Heap
"Mmmm whatcha saaay" may be a famous internet meme, but back in 2006, it was a line in a song that Nachi listened to on repeat to mellow out on the way to the hospital to meet his baby brother. This song also taught him what acapella and autotune were. Educational!
Rain
“Moonage Daydream,” David Bowie
Who cares that this song came out in 1972 when Sarah was negative-sixteen years old? She listened to it with the windows down. On Texas highways. On repeat. Paging Richard Linklater.
These songs meant the world to us when we were 14. To hear them again or for the first time, click the link.