Why Your High School Playlist Holds the Key to Reclaiming Your Creative Fire in Your 40s

I’ve heard from a probably reliable source, that the music you listen to in high school tends to shape your musical preferences and stay with you throughout your life.

  Perhaps it’s the emotional charge of adolescence, the intrinsic drive to create new social bonds, express individual identity, explore romantic relationships, get laid.  The pivotal years between childhood and becoming an adult set to a soundtrack that reflects who you want to be.

  Lately I’ve been playing covers of some of the music that shaped my late high school years. Covers from bands like Millencolin, Goldfinger and MxPx.  The message in this music is clear;  There’s an authority class in society that tries to draw the line for everyone else to toe.  They want to tell you how to dress, how to act and what to do.  

  Punk music says, “Fuck you, I won’t do what you tell me.”- (even if Rage said it best).  But for many of us, the years roll by, the responsibilities pile up and we find ourselves inching closer and closer to that line we so passionately swore we’d never cross.

At 40, with the pivotal midlife crisis years knocking at the door, the punk rock energy of our youth has a resounding truth.  Midlife can be just another resignation, settling for the comfort of the status quo. But if the lyrics ring true, Midlife can also be an opportunity. An opportunity to reclaim personal power, rekindle the fire within, get creative and reimagine the unfulfilled dreams of our youth.  I’m passionate about reclaiming that fire, that’s why I’ve signed up for an open mic, started writing songs and decided to share the journey online. If you’re with me;

Start the band.

Write the songs.

Go paint a wall

Make the thing.

With love, Mark