She’s back, folks!
Not only do I figure she’s ticking the box for ELA assignments, this has to score points for Music Appreciation class, too.
Belle loves music. It’s in her bones (just like it’s in mine). If she’s not listening to music, she’s singing or humming.
We have a Spotify Premium account and, for our family, it’s worth every penny. As a parent I really appreciate that we can set it so no explicit content comes through; it’s also easy to search for clean versions of just about any song/album.
That’s enough from me. Enjoy Belle’s take on music!
If you’re trying to get a good idea on what most teens like to listen to, then you’re at the wrong place. My music taste is generally very old (my Spotify Wrapped listing age was something like 61), but I also enjoy newer music.
I have some current favourites and some all-time favourites that no matter how many times I listen to them I never get tired of.
So without further ado, here are some my lists of favourite songs!
Some of my current favourites:
- Sultans of Swing (by: Dire Straits)
- Those Eyes (by: New West)
- Larger Than Life (by: The Backstreet Boys)
- Halo (by: Beyonce)
- Perfect Illusion (by: Lady Gaga)
- California Dreamin’ (by The Mamas & The Papas)
- the last great american dynasty (by: Taylor Swift)
- Toxic (by: Britney Spears)
- Die With A Smile (by: Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars)
- Where Did Everybody Go? (by: Vistavision)
Some of my all-time favourites:
- Don’t Blame Me (by: Taylor Swift)
- Applause (by: Lady Gaga)
- House of the Rising Sun (by: The Animals) [I have heard this song a truly insane number of times. Thank goodness it’s good.]
- Hey Ya! (by: OutKast)
- Livin’ On A Prayer (by: Bon Jovi)
- Always Remember Us This Way (by: Lady Gaga)
- Ain’t No Mountain High Enough (by: Marvin Gaye and Tammi Terrell) [So good.]
- exile (by: Taylor Swift)
- willow (by: Taylor Swift)
- You Give Love A Bad Name (by: Bon Jovi)
Some of my favourite artists/bands:
- Lady Gaga
- Adele
- Taylor Swift
- Bon Jovi
- ABBA [I’ve heard Gimme! Gimme! Gimme!… a lot of times.]
- Josiah Queen
- Billy Joel [I have also heard Vienna and Piano Man dozens and dozens of times.]
- Rihanna
- Beyonce
- The Backstreet Boys
I also love Disney soundtracks. (This is more of a list-style post I’m realizing!)
Here are my favourite Disney songs:
- When Will My Life Begin? (from: Tangled)
- Love Is an Open Door (from: Frozen)
- You’re Welcome (from: Moana)
- Beauty and the Beast (from: Beauty and the Beast)
(FUN FACT: This is the song I want my first dance to be to in my wedding)
- Part of Your World (from: The Little Mermaid)
- Belle (from: Beauty and the Beast)
- What Else Can I Do? (from: Encanto)
- Evermore (from: Beauty and the Beast [Live Action])
- Get’cha Head in the Game (from: High School Musical)
- Some Things Never Change (from: Frozen 2)
I love so many more songs from Disney, but I could only pick a few for this list!
Here are my top favourite Christian worship songs:
(Note that a lot of these songs have many different versions and the artist I listed might not be the composer or original singer.)
- Run to the Father (Matt Maher)
- Goodness of God (Rhett Walker and Essential Worship) [LOVE!]
- Holy Forever (Chris Tomlin)
- All Sufficient Merit (Shayne & Shayne)
- Oceans (Where Feet May Fail)(Hillsong UNITED)
- Garden in Manhattan (Josiah Queen) [LOVE! I catch myself singing this all the time.]
- Growing Up and Growing Old (Matthew West)
- Fishes and Loaves (Josiah Queen)
- Build Your Kingdom Here (Rend Collective) [Love!]
- Rest On Us (Maverick City Music, UPPERROOM, and Brandon Lake) [Do I know this one??]
I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE music. It’s one of my favourite ways to pass time. I really like talking about it and so I’m going to go through every album of the following artist (one of my favourites of all time) and rank my favourite 3 songs from each album.
Drumroll! It’s..
TAYLOR SWIFT.
A LOT of people really like Taylor Swift, myself included.
The first thing I am going to say is I especially like her folklore album. It’s my favourite.
My other opinion is about her newest album: The Life of a Showgirl. I don’t think it should be getting as much hate as I’ve heard about. I think that there are quite a few good songs from that album, especially CANCELLED! and Elizabeth Taylor and The Fate of Ophelia. [I think it’s my favourite album! As Travis Kelce would say, it’s full of bangers!]
Now I’m going to pick my top 3 favourite songs from each album so let’s get started! [Noting, once again, through Spotify it’s easy to access clean versions of all the albums/songs, because Taytay does throw in some occasional unsavoury language!]
Taylor Swift (Debut)
To be totally honest I have not listened to every one of her songs from this album and don’t know many of them well…
- Our Song [Well, she sure knows this one. I’ve heard it… a lot.]
- Picture To Burn
- Tim McGraw
Fearless (Taylor’s Version)
- Love Story
- You Belong With Me
- Fifteen
Speak Now (Taylor’s Version)
- Mine
- Speak Now
- I Can See You
Red (Taylor’s Version)
- I Knew You Were Trouble
- Red
- 22
1989 (Taylor’s Version)
- Wonderland
- Wildest Dreams
- All You Had To Do Was Stay
Runners up: Welcome To New York, I Know Places, and Style
Reputation
- Don’t Blame Me (This is maybe my all time favourite song)
- …Ready For It?
- I Did Something Bad
Runners up: End Game, Look What You Made Me Do, and Dancing With Our Hands Tied
Lover
(Sorry, I’ve heard Cruel Summer wayyy to much)
- The Man
- Miss Americana & The Heartbreak Prince
- It’s Nice To Have A Friend
Runners up: You Need To Calm Down, The Archer
folklore (deluxe version)
(I love almost every song in this album)
- exile (feat. Bon Iver)
- the last great american dynasty
- cardigan
I wish I could put all of them but I can’t.
Runners up: the 1, the lakes – bonus track, betty
evermore (deluxe version)
- willow
- no body, no crime (feat. HAIM)
- ivy
Midnights (3am Edition)
- Lavender Haze
- Bigger Than the Whole Sky
- Snow on the Beach
THE TORTURED POETS DEPARTMENT: ANTHOLOGY
- Who’s Afraid of Little Old Me?
- The Smallest Man Who Ever Lived
- Clara Bow
To be honest, I don’t LOVE a lot of the songs from this album but I do LIKE quite a few.
Runners up: I Look in People’s Windows, The Manuscript, Cassandra, The Albatross, So Long, London, Florida!!!
The Life of a Showgirl
- CANCELLED!
- Elizabeth Taylor
- The Life of a Showgirl (feat. Sabrina Carpenter)
Runners up: Opalite, The Fate of Ophelia, Actually Romantic, Wood, Wi$h Li$t.
This post has gotten to be quite long, but it was super fun to be able to talk about the music I like!
Thanks, Belle!
Your turn:
- If you have Spotify, what’s your “listening age”?
- Favourite current artist/album/song?
- If you happen to like Taylor Swift, let Belle know your thoughts on best songs/albums!
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House of the Rising Sun is my dad’s favourite song, so I always think of him when I hear it. Nothing makes me think of dear old Dad like a song about a gambling addiction! Lol. It IS a good song.
(my dad does not have a gambling addiction, just to be clear)
(he does like the craps tables though)
I can’t remember what my Spotify age is but it’s significantly older than I am. All the yacht rock, disco, and 70s funk elevate it (it might be 75 or something like that)
All the laughing emojis over your dad not having a gambling addiction.
Also, that’s your 75+ on Spotify. I love this!
Since Belle’s Spotify age is very close to my actual age, I know SOME of the songs she’s talking about! I’ve been listening to a lot of JS Bach on Spotify lately- does that make my Spotify age 250?
Nice post, and I think it should definitely count as ELA and Music Appreciation!
Hahaha. I listen to classical playlists on Spotify AlL THE TIME and I feel like they don’t really factor that into the age. When my Wrapped came out, it was dominated by Indy’s clean rap and I think it assigned me an age in my mid-20s, despite all the classical music listening.
Can Bach ever go out of style?
Love this post! I love that Belle has such wide ranging tastes – just goes to show that good music trancends age and time!
I’m being exposed to some “old” classics through her! I tend to like OLD (classical) or NEW (pop), so she’s expanding my horizons 🙂
Well, Belle likes a lot of the music from my youth, but I don’t listen to that stuff anymore. However, Beauty and the Beast is an awesome Disney song ( though Gaston is my favorite- I was singing it and dancing in the parking lot on my way out of the theater when I first saw the movie!).
Thanks for sharing, Belle!
The entire Beauty and the Beast soundtrack is just… *chef’s kiss*
I love this! Belle has such a great range of music on her list. I know (and love) a bunch of them, and there are some others that I plan to look up when I’m done reading. Does Belle sing or play any instruments?
Belle has a lovely singing voice, though prefers to sing at home without an audience. She plays the drums at school, but hasn’t had formal lessons. I can actually really see her loving guitar…!
Bunch of thoughts here:
1. I don’t use Spotify; I listen to my CDs and the radio. Yes, the RADIO IN MY CAR and the one at our cabin (burning through batteries because we don’t have electricity there) How funny that a person’s age can be (semi) determined by one’s music.
2. Did you know that you can sing the words of Amazing Grace to House of the Rising Sun? (Do you even know what that song is about? My parents were HORRIFIED when they heard Amazing Grace to that tune!)
3. Don’t you just love the harmonies by the Mamas and the Papas? So tight, so true. . . can people even harmonize like that any more?
4. In 2010, I did a long organized walk (21-miles) along the coast of Calif. When we crossed the Bixby Bridge (look it up—so beautiful), there was a grand piano on the bridge with enormous speakers and the pianist was playing Piano Man. Makes me choke up to even type about it here.
5. I get Rhett Walker mixed up with Zach Williams. Love both of their voices and style of “country/Christian”.
6. Do you ever listen to Casting Crowns or Mercy Me? They dominate my CD collection along with. . .
7. . . . Fernando Ortega, who is mostly piano, singing old hymns using new rhythms and chords
8. Do you have an opinion about the best singer who ever lived, Karen Carpenter? (Completely unbiased here, obviously)
9. I have NEVER NOT ONCE listened to Taylor Swift. Wouldn’t know her if I bumped into her in a grocery store. Perhaps this is age related.
1. I grew up listening to a radio with batteries in the summer when we visited our off-grid cabin. Fun memories of that.
2. I didn’t know it and you bet I have been humming/singing it ever since. (My parents would also be HORRIFIED.)
4. That’s an epic walk!! A grand piano on the bridge! Someone playing Piano Man. What a moment.
6. Both! I love, love, love many songs by Mercy Me (especially Even If).
8. I adore the Carpenter’s Christmas album, though her death is just tragic and makes me so, so sad.
9. I have a feeling you wouldn’t be particularly impressed by her music 🙂
I absolutely love this list and Belle’s retro taste in music! I mean the Taylor is current but lot of old stuff there – I mean, Toxic? SUCH A GOOD SONG!
Belle, Mean didn’t make your debut top 3?! Love the ‘last great american dynasty’ appreciation, i love that one too.
I know she has a kindred spirit in you for All Things Taylor 🙂
Had to look up the lyrics/video for “Die With a Smile” – nice country costumes, and lyrics. My comment is that the only songs to which I know all the words are the ones I listened to (on a full-size LP! that I had to buy) as a high school student in the 1970s. Maybe it’s the time of our lives when we’re figuring out who we are, and the music provides the helpful soundtrack to that figuring…
I think you’re on to something. I remember lyrics to Britney Spears songs decades later. I suppose at 10 (was that how old I was when her first album came out?) I had the time and inclination to listen to the same songs over and over at that age and they have deep memories attached because I was a tween and so much happens at that stage of life making the music highly memorable from that stage.
Wondering if Belle knows the history of “House of the Rising Sun”? That song, and many versions of it, goes all the way back to Victorian England and probably before that. The Animals were very much latecomers to that song.
I didn’t know that (so I’m assuming she didn’t either). There is so much more to that song than I ever knew! (And thanks for sharing more info!)
Oh, Dire Straits is amazing. My favorite is Romeo and Juliet, but they have so many amazing songs. We’ve seen them in concert a few times.
We’re Taylor Swift fans here too. ‘Bigger than the whole sky’ makes me cry SO HARD. (I think of it with my sweet dog, who died 3 years ago. SIGH.) I used to sing ‘Look what you made me do’ to him (still talking about my dog) when he made me do something. Tripping me, or whatever.
I LOVE Look What You Made Me Do.
She has a lot of ear worms!
Well, Belle overlaps a lot with this millennial kale mom right here! Bon Jovi, Billy Joel and the Backstreet Boys? Sign me up!
This was a fun read!
I don’t have Spotify, but I wish I did, so it would tell me my listening age. If I had to guess, it would be about 60 as well. 🤣
Every time I hear an Outkast song, I wish they’d make another album!!
What a great, diverse choice of songs and artists. It’s clear Belle has an appreciate for the artistry of music, and quality lyrics.
One of my favourite things ever is that my son really appreciates music as well. I like to joke it’s because when I was pregnant I had my own office at work so I would play music constantly. The first time I felt him moving in my tummy was to Purple Rain by Prince! As he grows older he still loves putting spotify on the alexa, and last night we even had an impromptu dance party in the bedroom. He loves old and new, and funnily enough during Eurovision, I walked in to find him blasting ABBA – Waterloo in his bedroom! Proud mama indeed haha