Prompt 200-Favorite Band

Who was your favorite band or singer when you were young?

I guess we’ll kick off this week with the nostalgia train. I like this prompt because “when you were young” is just vague enough that I can think of distinct phases of my musical taste aging that I all consider “when I was young.” To piggy-back off of yesterday’s revelation, I’ll start with my adolescence, the pre-tween years and the boy bands of the 90s.

As a young girlchild of 8-10 years old in 1997, it was imperative that you chose a side in the boy band war. Were you all about JT and Nsync? How about 98 Degrees and Nick Lachey? Maybe the Hanson brothers were your thing. For me, it was all about the Backstreet Boys and the beautiful Nick Carter. Naturally, I would go to a concert one day, and our eyes would meet, and we would fall madly in love and live happily ever after, touring forever and traveling all over the world. Little 9 year old Sara had big dreams.

Dreams, by the way, which were not wholly foreign to her. You see, my mother was a singer, a bit of a local celebrity who performed throughout the region. True, it was mostly cocktail and lounge entertainment, almost entirely covers of other musicians, but her name was well known where I grew up. She used to dream of pulling us girls out of school and homeschooling us, getting a huge RV and taking us touring across the country with her music partner. It was the coolest idea my tiny little tween brain could imagine.

That never panned out. Life has a way of coming down hard on you sometimes. The whole thing with my dad, well, that’s a tale for another time. Still, the show must go on. There were other bands and collaborative groups later on, lots of traveling, cross-state if not cross-country. And my tastes shifted anyway.

As an angsty pre-teen and teenager, I discovered alternative rock. Evanescence and Linkin Park were the soundtrack artists of my high school life. Breaking Benjamin found their way in there too, and it was rare I listened to anyone else. Of all the various hard rock albums I listened to over the years, I still come back to those 3 bands often. They were my favorites then, and they’re my favorites now. I’ve seen all 3 in concert at least once (and Evanescence twice). And they’re all still making music. Or they were. Not sure what direction LP is going to go without Chester. Crap. Now I’m crying.

Shifting gears! Today was too beautiful a day to be having the sads now. The last phase of my musical tastes is less a phase and more a thread sewn throughout my life. I blame my mother for this, but classic rock has always been a staple of my musical appetite. Journey in particular has a special place in my heart.

Speaking of my mother and her vocal talents, I’d be remiss in this post if I did not admit that she is naturally my favorite singer of all time. Young me, current me, future me, will always put her on the highest pedestal. I didn’t ask her to sing to me at my wedding just because she could. (Hi mom! That was super fun, by the way!)

So who was your favorite band when you were young? Are you still young? Who’s your favorite band now? Do any of your characters share your interests? Get to writing! I’ll be back tomorrow with a new prompt! Have a great night!

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