Lena writes:
Growing up in the early 2000s was a rollercoaster of emotions and soundtracks. It was the era of skater shoes, side bangs, and lyrics that spoke to our teenage angst and dreams. This playlist captures that unique blend of rebellious pop-punk anthems from Green Day, blink-182, and Linkin Park that fueled our need to break free, alongside Disney ballads from stars like Demi Lovato and Miley Cyrus that reminded us to keep dreaming. It’s a nostalgic trip back to a time when our biggest worries were who we were becoming, and music was the only map we needed. Relive the days of shouting lyrics into your hairbrush one moment and singing your heart out to a Disney classic the next—this is the soundtrack of growing up 2000s style.
Michael writes:
The 2000s for me were a mix of finding who I was and what I wanted to be. From bullying to being bullied and bullying again? I think we were all just as bad as each other back then – thank goodness I moved. The games I played, the radio, TV and my parent’s CD collection went into shaping my taste back then. Little Big Planet, Burnout Paradise & Guitar Hero were some of the pivotal games for morphing my music taste. Little Big Planet opened up the gates to the sounds of indie music, the emo sackboys and shark survivals, while burnout paradise gave me a rush of adrenaline in finding the quickest route to the finish line while scoring a diabolical vertical takedown on my rival. More importantly, I think because I was an only child I got to navigate music in my own way. No older sibling told me what was cool or not, I liked what I liked and it made sense to me then. I look back fondly on those moments – the 2000s were cool.
Track Listing
- 21 Guns – Green Day
- Feeling This – blink-182
- In the End – Linkin Park
- Bring Me To Life – Evanescence
- Thnks fr th Mmrs – Fall Out Boy
- I’m Not Okay (I Promise) – My Chemical Romance
- I Write Sins Not Tragedies – Panic! At The Disco
- Lifestyles of the Rich & Famous – Good Charlotte
- Something’s Gotta Give – All Time Low
- Careful – Paramore
- Mountains – Biffy Clyro
- Go With The Flow – Queens of the Stone Age
- So perfekt (Single Version) – Casper
- Volver A Comenzar – Café Tacvba
- The Climb – Miley Cyrus
- Breaking Free – Troy
- This Is Me – Demi Lovato
- Gives You Hell – The All-American Rejects
- Angel With a Shotgun – The Cab
- The Adventure – Angels & Airwaves
- Stark (Long Version) – Ich + Ich
- Hero – Enrique Iglesias
Playlist image by Vince Fleming on Unsplash
About the Curators
Lena Goos
Music has been there for me my entire life and I absolutely love sharing new music I find by deep diving spotify multiple hours a day. Since all of my friends kinda do the same my music taste grew into this huge mix of all kinds of genres, bands and artists. I think music is the greatest tool to express your feelings to the world and creating playlists to give your daily life some kind of a soundtrack helps to deal or highlight with whatever is going on.
On my Instagram https://www.instagram.com/musikstreber/ I share basically everything music related in my life, like concert-posts or new songs I found shared in my story!
Michael Mchunu
Music is amazing. I love finding songs to create mood playlists on Spotify or YouTube Music.
I find mood playlists enhance and release the emotions I could be feeling in a moment. Each one I make serves a purpose; they are included in the soundtrack of “The Great Adventure of Life”.
While having a background in percussion groups and jazz bands, I like paying attention to the instruments involved in the songs. Hence, some of my playlists have little to no words involved; those are moments when emotions need to be respected fully.
For contrast: I’ve also experimented with creating my own music. Having understood the process of selecting the perfect beat and ensuring each word hits its mark allowed me to appreciate the verses in some of my favourite songs.
There’s a great poetic nature in how some songs are structured that will give them acclaim in my personal opinion.
Right now, I’m experimenting with variations of House music to create mixes that can be posted on YouTube. So far, I’ve released Soulful, Deep, Nostalgic and Alternate House music mixes.
I’m slowly navigating my way from house mixes, to other genres like Hiphop, RnB, Indie, Rock and Pop.