In an amazing feat of procrastination, I made the best love song playlist to satisfy anyone’s 80s and 90s nostalgia needs. Music is a portal to memory, a magic trick that brings us back to a moment, a person, a feeling we had during a certain period of our lives. In the past few months, every time I’ve turned on my computer to work on any number of the half-written essays and the few short stories I’ve been fiddling with for almost a year, I’ve been pulled to my constantly growing playlist on Amazon Prime.
This is not unusual behavior for me. It’s my adolescent mixtape-making tendencies in the form of newer technology. I used to make a mixtape to commemorate every possible milestone. Spring Break Mix ’91! Camp Mix ’92! Breakup Mix ’93! Graduation Mix ’95! You get the idea.
This playlist I’m obsessing over now seems to represent a taste of my old mixtapes, all of which are long gone. I’m sure I tossed them before we moved into this house thirteen years ago. I’m not a saver, which mostly serves me well in that I’m not bogged down by stuff, not physical things anyway. I do wish I’d shown some restraint before tossing the tapes though. Perhaps I’d be able to pry myself away from Amazon’s streaming toy if I could bring my old tapes to someone who could convert them to MP3s.
When my kids hear my music in the background, they want to know why my favorite songs are sad. I don’t think these songs are sad, though I admit that when Eva Cassidy or Sarah Mclachlan are playing there’s a melancholy quality to their sounds. I like songs that tell a story, and yes, sometimes those are sad stories, but not always.
I seem to be trying to capture memories, moments, and feelings with this old music. No matter the event, a good portion of my tapes fell back on the usual tropes of 80s love songs, which is why I’ve aptly called my newest Amazon playlist “Love Song Nostalgia Overload.” Most of what’s on there represents a certain period of my life from middle school through high school with the occasional college tune tossed in. Remember “Windmills” by Toad the Wet Sprocket mid-late 90s college people? What an odd name for a band.
I’d love to share my nostalgic list with you and hear what you’d put on yours. Maybe you can make one and share it with me! The link to mine is here, but I’m not sure you can listen to it unless you’re an Amazon Prime member. I’m going to include screen shots below so the list is visible either way. Note that not all songs ever made are available on Prime, which is why the song “And When She Danced” is missing. That song was on every single mixtape I made from 1989 all the way through when I burned songs onto CDs. Is that what we called it? Burning? I think we did. The lyrics to “And When She Danced” would have encapsulated this post perfectly. Anyway, here’s my long song playlist without it! Enjoy!
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22 Responses
Same here, I used to create a bunch of mixed tapes in my younger days. Now I do it all on my Itunes or Spotify. They really do serve as some portal to a specific space and time and the strange thing is that I think it’s caused my writing to be redirected. I find it interesting, quite refreshing trying to write about my distant past, pre-parenthood. The bad thing is, it’s awakened some unwanted angst as well, haha! I guess it doesn’t help that I’ve also been re-watching Felicity. God help me!
I love your list, Nina! I copied a bunch on my playlist. What a great idea.
Thanks for sharing.
Oh good! I’m so glad you found some to add to yours!
Great list Nina! Many of my memories were triggered just reading the song titles (especially The Promise and Love Will Come to You). A few others I would add are Love Song and Just Like Heaven by The Cure and — perhaps my ultimate memory-inducing and emotional trigger (in a good way) to my lovelorn teenage years — Somebody by Depeche Mode. Thanks for sharing your list and for the reminder to use Amazon Music.
Yes! Somebody was a major song during my first year of college.
Love this! I love coming across songs that I loved when I was younger. So many of those on here 🙂
It definitely brings back tons of memories. (Mostly good)
So many memories! I also had a lot of Billy Joel in mine, plus some musicals (though, inexplicably, I stopped paying attention to musical theater entirely by the time I got to college).
Madonna was a favorite of mine for karaoke, Like a Prayer and La Isla Bonita. So fun to sing!
Two Madonna classics. Love both!
I love this list! I was born in 1980, so…yeah!
I heard “Nothing’s Gonna Stop Us Now” in Walmart the other day. It reminded me of that great movie: Mannequin!
And I had a boy ask me out using that great journey song in college.
I loved that movie SO much. I probably say it 20 times, easily.
This playlist is SO good and I identify with so much of it (minus the Starship and Meatloaf–you know how everyone has THAT singer or band that they loathe? Those two are mine…but I like you so I can overlook this aberration in your awesomeness 😉 ha ha ). I think it’s a good use of time, honestly, to create lists like this. It’s the backbone of who we are! I need to think of what mine would be, but I bet you’d be surprised by the amount of heavy metal on it!
Kristen Ploetz recently posted..04.27.17
I enjoyed every second so no regrets. And now I get to listen to it!
Nina, this playlist is amazing! I’m currently listening to it – Yaz? Ah, the memories. I would add “Somebody” by Depeche Mode – Matt used to lip sync that to me when we started dating. And the original Endless Love – I crooned that many times during my high school years.
I LOVE LOVE LOVE “Somebody.” Huge song when I was in college.
The Indigo Girls at Eddie’s Attic! I’ve seen them play there. Good times. 🙂
I saw them live once in St. Louis in 1999 and never since. I’d love to again!
Love it! Sarah McLachlan was one of my faves. Thanks for taking me down nostalgia road, Nina.
I think we would have hung out in college listening to Sarah and writing in our journals. 🙂
These songs are great! They are a flashback to my youth! I may need to take a listen.
I’m sooooooo late in getting over here for this. But, what a goldmine! Oh my gosh, these songs bring back all the feels. One song brought me back to the roof of my family home where my sisters and I would climb up there and suntan with babyoil slathered all over us. Another brought me back to the window seat in my bedroom. Another brought me back to the beach with friends. Yeah, my kids would think these are so sappy, but we know they’re the best!!
Would you still respect me if I said the only song I can relate to on your list is by Yaz? I’m a generation older than you but I just can’t get into love songs. Give me 90’s rap or 70s to current indie stuff and I’m happy. I still have almost all my tapes from the last 25 years or so, and several were made for me. I can’t toss them yet.