Pederson's Playlist: The First 25 Albums I Owned (My Musical Genesis)

My childhood was an odd one. That's not to say that I had a bad childhood. My parents did everything they could for me and more, and I will forever be grateful for the opportunities they afforded me. I just had a very sheltered one. To say that '90s Christianity was full of slightly difficult obstacles would be an understatement. Navigating that landscape was like walking through a field, covered in landmines. It wasn't a matter of if you were going to get your limbs blown off. It was a matter of when and which ones. You couldn't eat, sleep, or breathe without somebody judging you for it. We were in church every Sunday, small groups once a week, Awana, Pioneer Club, Worship Nights, Potlucks, and Youth Group. You name it, we were part of it. This culture that I grew up in put so much red-tape on every aspect of life outside of the church, that I missed out on a lot of alternative media until much later in my teenage years.

Looking back, I think of my mom's old friend group, who I always refer to as the Council of "Wise" Christian Women. Whenever they weren't boycotting Harry Potter or discussing how the Mortal Kombat games were developed at a studio somewhere in Hell, they were strongly critiquing anything their kids suddenly became interested in outside of Veggie Tales. My mom wouldn't even let me watch Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers until one of her friends found a biblical reason to let her own kids watch it. This is all incredibly ironic considering the fact that beloved Christian women's icon, Amy Grant had an affair with country star Vince Gill in the '90s, and they either pretended it didn't happen or praised her vulnerability while continuing to blast her Christmas album every December. I guess the point I'm trying to make is that it took me a little while to experience some of the great music that defined the decades I grew up in, and even when my mom finally realized she couldn't stop us from discovering and embracing some forms of alternative media, she was still making sure that we embraced Christian media, as well. It was sort of like having a balanced breakfast . . . I guess. Anyways, on the list below, you'll find that "balanced breakfast" made up of every album I owned and listened to before high school. My musical genesis is a tale of two cultures in opposition . . . though they didn't have to be.

1) Newsboys - Step Up to the Microphone

I remember being at the Lighthsouse Christian Bookstore in Long Beach, California, with my mom one day and we saw this EP for a band called The Newsboys. The EP was titled "Entertaining Angels" and it had a neat yellow and black design. I honestly had no idea what I liked back then because my musical tastes had always been shaped by my mom and the church culture I was raised in. My mom bought me that EP and we listened to it in the car, and it wasn't bad. It had some cool riffs. The musicians looked like grunge artists. It was "cool", or at least what I understood that word to mean at the time. We went back for their new album, "Step Up to the Microphone" a few weeks later. I was an avid Newsboys fan until I was twelve. Little did I know that they would be the band that defined corporate Christian music for several years to come, as they replaced members as frequently as Menudo.

2) Tim McGraw - Everywhere

Okay, so let's get vulnerable for a minute. I love this album. I still listen to this album today. When I was a kid, I would spend several weeks with my grandma in Woodland, this small town right outside of Sacramento. She was an avid country fan, with several country albums stored in a cabinet in her living room. She usually had several copies of them, because she would go to the store and not be able to recollect if she had already purchased them or not. She probably could have filled an entire CD wallet with Tim McGraw's "Everywhere". I'm a strong believer in the concept of memories attaching themselves to music. Otherwise, the soundtracks of our lives would be absolute chaos. This album is one that always takes me back to the small town where my grandma lived. Whenever I turn it on, I'm no longer driving down long, farm roads in Robinson, Texas, but instead I'm driving through the narrow streets of Woodland, California, beneath the shade of trees that changed with the seasons, and houses that looked like something out of a television show from years gone by. I miss those days, and this album helps me embrace my nostalgia.

3) Audio Adrenaline - Underdog

Before iPhones, we had to listen to this thing called the radio, and on this radio, they did this really annoying thing, where they would play the same songs over and over again. By the time this album had come out, I had officially been submerged into the waters of my church's youth group. You could tell that every kid who went there was subjected to this album, as they all seemed to look and dress like the band. If their moms were anything like mine, they probably didn't really have a choice. This was the album that Christian parents bought because, for some reason, they thought it was cool. It was a good, strong Christian alternative to what . . . nobody knows. We're all still trying to figure that out. I imagine it feels something like the Russian loyalty to Stalin before the Iron Curtain fell. So this happened . . . time to move on.

4) Kutless - Kutless

This was another fun one. The band Creed had been tearing up the '90s and early '00s with their debut album, "My Own Prison" and the one that followed, "Human Clay". So, naturally, Christian media was like, "Oh we have a Creed, too! Listen to these guys. They sound just like them." This is how I ended up with five copies of the same Kutless album for Christmas that year. My mom bought me one, and so did all of my relatives. I had one for each day of the week. Why wouldn't I own that many albums? Look at the cover. The band looks like a mixture of Creed, Limp Bizkit, the Deftones, and Disturbed. Their last album came out in 2017 and it was titled "Alpha/Omega". I don't dislike this band. I honestly can't remember a single song they made now that I'm in the later part of my thirties, but hey . . . did I mention they sound like Creed? This was the selling point that many moms made for Christian bands back then, as alternative music was seemingly made only by Scott Stapp and his friends. In hindsight, I should have tried to sell my mom and her friends on new music by telling them that the artist sounded like Amy Grant.

5) Garth Brooks - No Fences

Look out, everybody. We all have those guilty pleasure albums, the ones that make us forget all sense of ourselves for the sometimes three minutes our favorite songs are playing. This was the guilty pleasure album of every Christian mom from this era. They were all about covering those ankles on Sunday, but the moment "Friends in Low Places" came on, those layers came off, and they sent the men stumbling. This is probably why my dad and his friends always had a pair of cowboy boots and a cowboy hat somewhere in their wardrobe. They'd go line dancing on Saturday and then they'd pray for forgiveness on Sunday.

6) DC Talk - Supernatural

This was another one of those albums I listened to because I wanted to fit in with my peers at Youth Group. My mom put it in my stocking one Christmas, and I remember it sounding like every other album I owned at the time. Then there was a weird boycotting of DC Talk, based on some comments the lead singer made about the LGBTQ scene, as it was back then, and then DC Talk sort of disappeared from Christian music charts. Years later, the lead singer would resurface as the lead singer of the Newsboys, and much like Amy Grant, all was apparently forgiven.

7) Steven Curtis Chapman - Speechless

"The River's deep, the river's wide, the river's water is alive. So sink or swim, I'm divin' in!" Every Christian kid who grew up in the '90s remembers these lyrics. Much like "Ohio is for Lovers" is the anthem for emo kids of the early '00s, so the song "Dive" is the anthem for church kids in the late '90s. If you were going to a church event, you could bet that this song would be played at least three times. I think I actually owned this one on a cassette tape. In all seriousness though, I did get to meet him one time, and he is a pretty cool person. I just can't remember the last time I intentionally listened to his music. On a side note, he is still going strong in the Christian music industry, and for that, he has my respect.

8) Matchbox Twenty - Mad Season

I remember when we got cable in middle school, and that was my gateway into the world of alternative music. Naturally, I gravitated towards MTV and VH1, especially on days they were playing their music video countdowns. One such song that graced those countdowns was "Bent" by Matchbox Twenty. I can still remember hearing this song for the first time, and seeing this music video, and thinking to myself. "I need to get my mom to stop cutting my hair like the guy from Audio Adrenaline . . . Rob Thomas looks way cooler." My mom chaperoned a youth group, summer camp trip, one summer. We stopped at a casino in Laughlin called The Flamingo. They had this album in one of those claw machines. I didn't win, but I still remember seeing it was there. Anyways, shortly after this, Rob Thomas did "Smooth" with Carlos Santana and became a household name for many years. In the later parts of my high school years, I went back and listened to their first album, "Yourself or Someone Like You" and even today, that album sits in my top ten greatest albums ever made.

9) Vertical Horizon - Everything You Want

Once upon a time, in a land far far away, there was a store called Virgin Records. Yes, this is a store owned by the same man who commercialized spaceflight in 2023. However, before he commercialized spaceflight, he opened these giant record stores in shopping centers all across the country. For me, our nearest Virgin Records store was located in the Block at Orange. I was in the 6th grade, and I can still remember what it was like to walk through those doors. It was the biggest media store I had ever stepped into. The front of the store was covered in aisles of movies and the back half of the store was filled with rows and rows of CDs and cassette tapes. Against the walls, they had listening stations where you could listen to all of the top selling albums. It was here that I discovered Vertical Horizon's 1999 album, "Everything You Want", an album that had the hit song "Everything You Want." I can't remember for sure, where I first heard them, but I was there and my mom was willing to buy it for me after careful consideration. I don't know why, but it felt good to have my mom actually approve of an album that I wanted. I still listen to this one today, and it takes me back to simpler times.

10) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication

I remember seeing the music video for "Californication" on VH1. It was done in a video game style, similar to Grand Theft Auto, which may have been the point. This was the first Red Hot Chili Peppers album that sort of ventured away from their traditional rock/funk sound, and Anthony Keidis actually used his voice to sing instead of making sometimes incomprehensible trumpet noises. I don't actually remember how I got this album. I do remember getting it at Virgin Records, but I don't remember who bought it for me. I think the fact that it didn't have a parental advisory on the cover was what made my mom think it might be okay. This album made fun of everything and everybody from California. I didn't understand a lot of it until I was older. That being said, this album is full of great songs like, "Around the World", "Scar Tissue", "Otherside" and so many more. If you slept on this one, it's definitely worth giving a listen to with modern ears.

11) Counting Crows - This Desert Life

A friend of mine used to argue about the concept of objective beauty. He would say that there are some things that are objectively beautiful. For example, you couldn't look at a sunset and think to yourself, "Wow, that's ugly." I feel that the same concept can be applied to Counting Crows. You can't listen to them and think to yourself, wow, this music is bad. If it's not objectively good, it's objectively okay. I remember my mom buying this album from Costco, back when Costco actually sold physical media. On a side note, Costco had amazing deals on CDs and DVDs. It's a real shame they purged all of that from their stores. Anyway, my mom bought this album after hearing the song "Hanginaround". This was one of the first alternative albums she ever owned. We would listen to it on repeat in the car, especially on road trips. However, whenever her friends would get in the car, she would warn them by saying, "Hey, this music isn't Christian, and we can turn it off if you get uncomfortable."

12) Robbie Williams - The Ego Has Landed

I think I came across Robbie Williams on an episode of MTV's Cribs. I was in the 6th grade and looking for anything to listen to that didn't come from a Christian bookstore. Robbie Williams was the cure to that phase I was going through. "The Ego Has Landed" blends the strange sense of humor of Robbie Williams with the current pop trends at the time. Though the lyrics were deep, Robbie Williams sang them in a way that was representative of who he is. My mom threw the CD away after hearing one of the songs that said, "Jesus in a camper van. He said sorry to leave you, but I've done all I can." In hindsight, I don't think that was as blasphemous as she made it seem, but that ended my Robbie Williams phase. I know he has a biopic coming out, that has a CG monkey playing him.

13) Crazy Town - The Gift of Game

Never has there been an album that describes people in Orange County as well as Crazy Town's "The Gift of Game". In fact, it was actually featured in the movie "Orange County" as well as a bunch of other teen movies that had come out at the time. A friend of mine gave me this album, and I remember listening to it from start to finish, hearing it with the curiosity of a child watching a train wreck in motion. With the exception of "Butterfly", nothing about it was good. It was like it was made for people who live in meth dens and marry their cousins. In fact, I'm pretty convinced that people listened to this album because it was a moment in time with social consequences . . . sort of like thinking it was funny to crash your bike into things and kick your buddies in the testicles because you saw it on Jackass.

14) Sugar Ray - 14:59

Bleached hair, Hawaiian shirts, silly hats, and big sunglasses . . . Sugar Ray is a band that defined late '90s and early '00s life, and whether they meant it or not, they had a huge cultural impact on kids and young adults. Oddly enough, both my mom and dad really liked this album. In fact, they liked it so much that they bought it as a birthday present for just about everybody we knew under the age of 30. I do actually look back fondly on this one. I don't listen to Sugar Ray anymore, not because I don't want to or because I dislike them. I guess they sort of just faded to the back of my memories. Maybe it's time to dust this one off and give it a listen.

15) Puddle of Mudd - Come Clean

When Puddle's of Mudd's "Come Clean" album came out, pretty much everybody in America and beyond had heard their hit single, "Blurry". Lead singer Wes Scantlin wrote a song about heartbreak and people resonated with it about as much as current Wes Scantlin resonates with alcohol consumption. When my mom finally started letting me listen to alternative music, she drew a hard line at albums with parental advisory notifications on the cover. For this reason, I had to go to Walmart to buy CDs because they were edited. Listening to an edited version of Puddle of Mudd wasn't ideal, but it certainly wasn't as bad as listening to an edited version of Limp Bizkit's "Chocolate Starfish and the Hotdog Flavored Water". Despite what this band has become, I still sing this song at the top of my lungs whenever I hear it.

16) Fuel - Something Like Human

Fuel is a band that has successfully transcended eras. While still holding tight to the grungy guitars and vocals of the '90s, they tore into the '00s rock scene, skimming the edges of the Nu-Metal genre, while not quite losing sight of who they are as a band. Lead singer, Brett Scallions, is a ridiculously talented man, who has not just fronted the band Fuel, but also sang for The Doors (Riders on the storm) from 2007 - 2010. Scallions eventually returned to Fuel, but I think they've since disbanded . . . again. It's actually a real shame, as I think the music scene needs a voice like his, especially as most hard rock musicians are either fading away or becoming electronic.

17) Nirvana - Unplugged in New York

I don't care who you are or what your critique is of Nirvana's sound is, this is hands down one of the greatest live pieces of music ever recorded. Kurt Cobain was an insanely talented musician with an incredibly messed up head, which is probably why he was so good at what he did. If you ever get a chance, make sure you check out the book, "Heavier Than Heaven" by Charles R. Cross. It will suddenly make all of Cobain's lyrics make sense. This album was the soundtrack to my 8th grade summer. My parents had pulled me out of public school and put me into a private school I had no desire to go to. I was angry and irrational. Nirvana's "Unplugged in New York" was a sounding board for that teenage angst. I even caught my mom listening to this album in the car, by herself, one day. That really speaks volumes about its greatness.

18) Limp Bizkit - Chocolate Starfish and the Hot Dog Flavored Water

It's okay mom, there are wieners on the cover, but they're not people wieners. There was no way my parents were ever going to let me buy, listen to, or even speak of this album. So I did what any rebellious teenager did. I had a friend make a copy for me. I thought I was so cool, having this album in my walk-man. I think it was the early '00s equivalent of watching Deadpool. The more parents said to stay away from it, the more enticing it became. The internet says that Fred Durst used the f-word 122 times in this album. As an adult it seems a bit gratuitous. As a twelve year old, I thought it was the pinnacle parental rebellion. To be fair, there were a few good songs here that weren't baiting you with swear words. Would I allow my kids anywhere near this one? Heck no.

On a side note, Limp Bizkit's last album was a masterpiece, as he was very aware of himself and how people don't think it's cool to listen to them anymore. I would actually venture to say that Limp Bizkit's musical journey has more depth than any of the nu-metal bands to be birthed by that time period.

19) Incubus - Make Yourself

I think Incubus's "Stellar" was the first time I realized that other people like music, too. Every Friday, my middle school would serve pizza and play music at lunch. The music, was of course, heavily vetted. Incubus's "Stellar" always made the cut, and people loved it. Up until then, I always, for some reason, thought that music was made specifically for me, as I was the only person hearing it through my headphones. When I first heard this one and heard my friends discussing how much they enjoyed it, I realized that music was a lot bigger than myself. This album was an absolute masterpiece. It's definitely one worth playing from start to finish.

20) P.O.D. - The Fundamental Elements of Southtown

First of all, who would have thought you could fit as many people into a bus as they did in the music video for "Rock the Party"? Also, my childhood was so sheltered that I had never actually seen anybody with dreadlocks until watching that video. Sadly, I didn't discover Bob Marley or KoRn until the following years. Also, imagine my surprise when I found this album at the Lighthouse Christian Book Store? If I was capable of logical thought back then, I would have realized that Payable on Death was, in fact, a Christian term for the transfer of your life to God upon death. This album had some bangers, but it was small fish compared to the masterpiece that is their 2001 album "Satellite".

21) KoRn - Follow the Leader

Speaking of KoRn, I did listen to their albums for a while. I don't anymore, as my musical tastes have drastically changed. That being said, whenever I hear "Mmmbop pa dew wa waomenya, let it go!" I do tend to scream it at the top of my lungs, while pretending I'm wearing an Adidas tracksuit, like Jonathan Davis. For real, though, KoRn was the band that every kid listened to, who wanted to anger their parents. The ones who wanted to anger their pastors listened to Slipknot.

22) Disturbed - The Sickness

Disturbed is the Meatloaf of Nu-Metal. Their music is what you would get if you merged an opera with hard rock and metal. I don't at all mean that as insult. I think Disturbed has a tremendous influence on the music scene, and their lead singer, David Draiman, is an incredibly nice human being, who cares very much for each and every one of his fans. I've honestly never seen a lead singer that's as human as he is. I remember when this album came out. All of my friends owned it, and I thought to myself, "Wow, how am I going to convince my mom to buy this one? This album cover is worse than the Limp Bizkit CD with all of the wieners on the cover." I'm actually still a pretty big fan on this band, and this album still holds up, even after all these years.

23) Creed - Weathered

How do you say this album came out in the early 2000's without saying this album came out in the early 2000's? That's easy . . . you put the faces of the entire band on a tree. By the time this album had come out Creed had already made their mark on the world. They sold out arenas, had their music featured in films and other various types of media, and they had won awards for their endeavors. They had become a household name. While I did own both of their other albums, "My Own Prison" and "Human Clay", this is the album that sticks out to me the most. I didn't like Creed because they were a mainstream band. I liked them because their albums were like books. They told stories, and each song was like a chapter to that story. Weathered was the pinnacle of Scott Stapp and Mark Tremonti's writing abilities. They had done it all, but this album told the story of a band who was tired and the emotions that came with that. Unfortunately, this album wasn't nearly as popular as their other ones, but in my mind, it stands a titan of that era.

24) Finger Eleven - The Greyest of Blue Skies

First of all, of any album I've ever listened to, the cover art on Finger Eleven's "The Greyest of Blue Skies" sticks out to the most. Let's be honest, we've all felt like a puppet being pulled in every which way at some point in our lives. Finger Eleven was a band I first learned of while watching a Dragon Ball Z VHS at my grandma's house in the sixth grade. The movie was called "Lord Slug" and it was the first time a Dragon Ball Z movie had featured music with actual lyrics. It was pretty cool. Anyways, I went out and bought this album from a Best Buy (I think in Sacramento). It's unfortunate that Finger Elven didn't receive mainstream airplay until they released the song "Paralyzer" in 2007, which was a far departure from the dark and brooding sounds of "The Greyest of Blue Skies".

25) Blindside - About a Burning Fire

When I stumbled upon this one, while shopping at the Lighthouse Christian Bookstore, with my mom, I remember hearing it and knowing that my taste in music was going to change forever. What I didn't realize at the time is that most of the bands I would start to listen to after this, were inspired by this band. Without even knowing it, I had found myself connected a bigger music scene. Hearing the screams of lead singer, Christian Lindskog in the opening track opened my eyes to just how truly awesome music could be. "About a Burning Fire" was also one of the first Christian rock/post-hardcore albums to be nominated for a Grammy. I'm not sure what this band has been up to lately, but seeing how bands like Thrice and Underoath have made comebacks, Blindside would definitely be welcomed back into the scene.

Playlist Version:

1) Newsboys - Entertaining Angels

2) Tim McGraw - Where the Green Grass Grows

3) Audio Adrenaline - Underdog

4) Kutless - Run

5) Garth Brooks - Friends in Low Places

6) DC Talk - Supernatural

7) Steven Curtis Chapman - Dive

8) Matchbox Twenty - Bent

9) Vertical Horizon - Everything You Want

10) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Around the World

11) Counting Crows - Hanginaround

12) Robbie Williams - Angels

13) Crazy Town - Butterfly

14) Sugar Ray - Every Morning

15) Puddle of Mudd - Blurry

16) Fuel - Hemorrhage

17) Nirvana - Come As You Are

18) Limb Bizkit - Rollin'

19) Incubus - Stellar

20) P.O.D. - Rock the Party

21) KoRn - Freak on a Leash

22) Disturbed - Stupify

23) Creed - One Last Breath

24) Finger Eleven - First Time

25) Blindside - Eye of the Storm

26) Tim McGraw - One of these Days

27) Vertical Horizon - We Are

28) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Scar Tissue

29) Counting Crows - Mrs. Potter's Lullaby

30) Robbie Williams - Let Me Entertain You

31) Sugar Ray - Someday

32) Nirvana - Penny Royal Tea

33) Limb Bizkit - My Generation

34) Incubus - Make Yourself

35) Disturbed - Down With the Sickness

36) Creed - My Sacrifice

37) Finger Eleven - Drag You Down

38) Blindside - Follow You Down

39) Tim McGraw - Hard on the Ticker

40) Vertical Horizon - Send it Up

41) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Otherside

42) Counting Crows - Colorblind

43) Nirvana - Lake of Fire

44) Incubus - Drive

45) Blindside - All of Us

46) Red Hot Chili Peppers - Californication

47) Nirvana - Where Did You Sleep Last Night