They say the bands/music you love in your early teenage years are the ones that you never forget. Holding onto them forever as they have a special place in your heart and very recently it’s a statement that I have found out to be more than true especially for me and the bands I loved in my early teens.

As I’ve got older, my music taste has broadened and I listen to a variety of different artists and genres on a daily basis which I’m sure is the same for anyone else reading this over the age of 20. When I was in my teens if you would have asked me to name my favourite band I could have done that easily, chronologically it went Busted, McFly, Nirvana, blink-182, Green Day, Fall Out Boy and then I went through a bit of an Avenged Sevenfold phase.

But now if you asked me that same question I’d name at least 10 acts and all from a different cross section of music. I think it’s something partly to do with the amount of music available to us these days via the internet and partly to do with, what I mentioned earlier, that as my age creeps up, I’m becoming more open to other genres that I would never have listened to before. Years ago, I would never have listened to dance music, writing it off as repetitive chart fodder but now after digging further into the genre it’s one of my favourite styles of music.

This progression is all well and good but those bands I loved still have the biggest hold over me. The bands I mentioned above were acts I constantly listened too; I had their albums on repeat for hours [I did go through a phase of only listening to blink albums on repeat for over 6 months], I watched all their YouTube videos, watched and read all their interviews and bought any magazines they were featured in cutting out interviews and pictures to keep forever. I’m sure you all have your band/artist that you did the same with in you teenage years too, whether an emo band, pop star or country music icon.

I thought all that was over when hit my twenties, that I’d outgrown those bands and that they were pretty much well and truly behind me. That was until I saw Green Day last year for the first time, an experience that blew my mind, bringing back so many memories and good times in my life and reminding me just how much those songs mean to me.

Then there was Fall Out Boy who I saw a couple of months ago. I’ve loved them for 8 years and I thought I’d not enjoy the show now as much as I would have aged 16, I was wrong. I experienced such a huge amount of excitement that only certain bands can provoke. Throughout the show I was fixated on the four guys from Chicago in front of me and after me and my friend dissected every single part of the show from beginning to end. I wasn’t a big fan of latest album, ‘Save Rock and Roll’ when it came out but hearing the songs live and seeing where the band are now compared to where they came from when they burst onto the scene years ago, it made me love the new album and my love for Fall Out Boy that I thought I’d long since suppressed was back with a vengeance.

That same feeling occurred just a couple of weeks ago too when I saw McBusted, being right in front of the stage so close to the very first bands I ever loved saw my inner 12 year old finally fulfilling her wish to sing Busted songs twice as loud back to that stage and I’m not going to lie it really was one of the best nights of my life.

Whether you want to relive your younger self on purpose or by the happy accident of finally catching one of your favourite bands live, it’s nice to know that music really does to take a massive place in our hearts, making up a big part of who we once were and who we are now. The music I loved, the excitement listening to it brings, the slight obsessions and the youthful feeling of turning back time to previous part of my life is something I will gladly hold on to for a very long time and thanks to the power of music that is something I can do.

Now go and dig out the album your 13 year old self loved, listen to it and see just how long it takes you to regress back to that excited obsessive you once were.