Traditionally, the best and most important songs are those that win awards, feature in box-sets, or push toward a movement that illuminates how we view the world and everyone in it. Tracks like David Bowie's "Heroes," Billie Holiday's "Strange Fruit," or The Sex Pistols' "God Save the Queen" spring to mind. But if we're to see ourselves as a vessel that's slowly being filled with our own experiences until the ticker in our brain turns itself off, there's another type of song that's as important to existence as anything Rolling Stone have put in their 500 Greatest Songs of All Time list.
These significant, crucial compositions are the tracks that carry us through life. They're as infused in our childhood memories of riding in hot cars as they are in collapsing to our knees in a karaoke bar, somewhere around the age of 25, feeling like we're teetering on the edge of an existential crisis. Of course, there's no reason these songs can't be in the vein of Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" or Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind". But more often than not, the ones that make the most impact are those you were forced into listening to, through domestic legislation, as a child. They're The Pale Fountains' "Jean's Not Happening." Or they're The New Radicals with their enchanting hit single and 1990s totem "You Get What You Give."
In my case, it is both of these songs. For the sake of argument though (and to keep in line with anyone born after 1990), forget The Pale Fountains. Instead, let's remember The New Radicals. Like most formative memories, my first experience with the band took place as I was sliding across a village hall floor, calypso cup in hand, reaching for my own version of heaven or Las Vegas. At that age, you don't really think about what happens next. In your unformed mind, you imagine you'll be skidding across dusty, recreational floors for the rest of your life. As someone who's leaning into adulthood though, I've found myself thinking a lot about "You Get What You Give," what it means to me, and perhaps more pertinently, to the way in which we navigate the future.
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