Music Thru My Years

Written By Bailey Hartrich

Alright. My first blog post. …or rather, my first BaileyBlog post. How fun. Anyway, no need to kittyfoot around, let’s get this funky groove on the road.

So, way back in the year of our Lord 2017, I made a note on my phone titled “5 Favorite Songs,” and I would update that every few months until 2019, when I was apparently probed and brainwashed to stop doing that, which is a shame, but I’m going to do my best to determine what I liked in the years leading up to 2017 as well as 2020 and 2021.

2014 is when I first started really getting into music, and the first band I ever got into was Imagine Dragons. “But Bailey! They’re more annoying than Nickelback!” Oh? Is that so? I don’t give a damn, now let me listen to Night Visions for the hundredth time. Anyway, they only had one album out at the time, the previously mentioned Night Visions, and it was an absolute bop. Radioactive. Demons. These aren’t just scary words in the English language, my friend, these are hit songs by Imagine Dragons! I adored this album. I listened to it day and night, weekends, weekdays, whatever, I absolutely praised at the altar of Imagine Dragons like a good little somewhat Christian boy should.

That is, until their second album dropped later that same year. It was absolutely not like their first. It had ROCK songs. It had experimental songs. It was wild. At fist I hated it. I thought I was committing treason- heresy of the highest order for me not enjoying their latest release. That was… Until it started to grow on me. Now, it’s in my top five albums of all time. Kind of strange how that works out.

A year later, I discovered old music. Apparently I had not realized the world had not begun when I was born on that fateful day December 15, 2001. Anyway, my grandpa Ted had always liked Pink Floyd, as had my dad. So when I first gave “Money” a listen while procrastinating homework on the living room couch, I was floored by the strange sounds I had heard emanating from my phone’s crappy speaker. This isn’t modern pop-rock… By God, what is this?! Yeah, I pretty much fell in love instantly, and with an entire discography of music to choose from, I was not short on tunes by any means.

Ah, 2016… Gonna be honest… Don’t know what to put here. Don’t remember anything from this year, honestly. Next!

Finally! 2017. As of July 2, my top five favorite songs were:

  1. “1979” by Smashing Pumpkins

  2. “Such Great Heights” by Iron and Wine

  3. “Wish You Were Here” by Pink Floyd

  4. “3rd Planet” by Modest Mouse

  5. “Demons” by Imagine Dragons

2017… Again. But this is August 9!

  1. “Adam’s Song” by Blink-182

  2. “Mayonaise” by Smashing Pumpkins (and yes I spelled it correctly)

  3. “Part of Me Died” by Roger Waters

  4. “Say It Ain’t So” by Weezer

  5. “Dramamine” by Modest Mouse

Still 2017… December 17.

  1. “1979” by Smashing Pumpkins

  2. “Anthem Part Two” by Blink-182

  3. “Mayonaise” by Smashing Pumpkins

  4. “Hotcha Girls” by Ugly Casanova

  5. “The District Sleeps Alone Tonight” by The Postal Service

February 7, 2018!

  1. “1979” by Smashing Pumpkins

  2. “The Everlasting Gaze” by Smashing Pumpkins

Uh, that’s all I have for that one. I must have been with a girl or something. Or maybe I got yelled at. Not sure. My memory isn’t great, or else we wouldn’t be here. Anyway, next is March 30 of 2018!

  1. “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” by Paul Simon

  2. “Life’s a Happy Song” by The Muppets (DON’T JUDGE ME)

  3. “Blitzkrieg Bop” by The Ramones

  4. “(Fuck A) Silver Lining” by Panic! At the Disco

  5. “P.Y.T. (Pretty Young Thing)” by Michael Jackson

Big jump here. December 26, 2018.

  1. “The Bad List” by Z Berg feat. Ryan Ross

  2. “Don’t Stop Me Now” by Queen

  3. “Neon Gravestones” by Twenty One Pilots

  4. “Seek and You Shall Destroy” by Smashing Pumpkins

  5. “Sunflower” by Post Malone

…and now for the last top five I have, August 20, 2019.

  1. “Oh Comely” by Neutral Milk Hotel

  2. “Two-Headed Boy” by Neutral Milk Hotel

  3. “Two-Headed Boy Pt. II” by Neutral Milk Hotel

  4. “It’s Been a Long, Long Time” by Harry James

  5. “Holland, 1945” by Neutral Milk Hotel

Finally, here are my CURRENT top five songs.

Friday, September 9, 2022.

  1. “Heaven Is a Halfpipe (If I Die)” by OPM

  2. “Where Is My Mind?” by The Pixies

  3. “Superman” by Goldfinger

  4. “Hold On” by Jet

  5. “Cha-Ching (Till We Grow Older)” by Imagine Dragons

Bailey Hartrich
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