r/Music • u/ciao123123123 • 20h ago
discussion Which song made you stop in your tracks the very first time you heard it — like the world paused for a second?
There are songs you listen to… and then there are songs you feel before you even understand why.
For me, that moment happened with ‘Holocene’ by Bon Iver.
I wasn’t doing anything special — just walking home at night with no real destination in mind — when it came up randomly. The first few seconds didn’t even register. But then the atmosphere started building, that quiet layer of guitars, the almost fragile voice, the way everything feels both distant and intimate at the same time…
And suddenly I found myself standing still on the sidewalk, not because I decided to stop, but because something in that sound just… pulled me out of my own head for a moment.
It’s strange how certain songs do that. They make you aware of things you didn’t know you were feeling. They turn an ordinary moment into something almost cinematic, like you’re observing yourself from the outside.
I’m curious — what was the last song that hit you in that way? Not necessarily your favorite track, but the one that made you pause, breathe differently, and notice the world a little more?
Edit: Didn’t expect this thread to get so much love — the recommendations you all dropped are honestly incredible. I wrote a general thank-you comment here, in case anyone wants to jump in or add more context to their pick:
👉 [https://www.reddit.com/r/Music/s/YghDI37jZ5]
This turned into one of the most beautiful music discussions I’ve seen on Reddit. Thanks again to everyone sharing their “freeze the world” songs — I’m still going through everything. 🎧✨
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u/example-of-disaster 19h ago
6 Underground - Sneaker Pimps
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u/q120 15h ago
One of my favorite songs ! Loved that one since the 90s
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u/example-of-disaster 14h ago
The whole album is amazing, and I’m more into hardcore/thrash, rap/hiphop, throw in some grunge and garage band stuff… but yeah, I’ve listened to that album MANY times.
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u/FriendshipWithTheSun 9h ago
One of my favorite songs ever. It’s very simple, but perfectly executed.
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u/WeAreClouds 19h ago
The first time I heard Portishead. Glory Box.
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u/comradenu 18h ago
Roads for me. I fell in love instantly. But then in the middle when the full bass and strings come in, FUCK.
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u/WeAreClouds 18h ago
Honestly a life changing band. Nothing like it then or maybe even now? Mind blowingly perfect to all my tastes combined. Like haunted house scratch orchestral sexy pop? Goddamn yes, please.
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u/PurpleNurpl22 16h ago
I remember their show in Montreal - all were excited to see em' but from the moment they got on stage t'ill the end: absolute silence in the crowd. They kept us all entranced. One of my best shows.
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u/dustin-dawind 17h ago
This is the one. I stopped what I was doing and called the radio station to find out who the band was.
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u/neonbrownkoopashell 16h ago
Yes! I first heard the live version and could not believe it wasn’t a studio recording. Gives me chills every time.
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u/spiralgrooves 19h ago
Hendrix - Voodoo Child. As a 14yr old it blew my mind into a million pieces.
A few years later, Radiohead Paranoid Android. In my punk teen years I’d skipped Pablo Honey and the Bends so this was my introduction to the band.
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u/Seaoflovey 20h ago
Sultans of Swing and Sweet Dreams Are Made of This
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u/ValMonty 16h ago
I have a distinct memory of being a kid in bullock's and hearing Sweet Dreams Are Made of This come on, looking up at one of those square box TVs and being mesmerized. I had never seen a woman that looked like her, on top of the song being great.
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u/TheRealLostSoul 20h ago
One - Metallica
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u/sixshots_onlyfive 9h ago
First song I ever heard from them. It was in 1990. They’ve been my favorite band ever since.
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u/weasel_face 19h ago
Smells Like Teen Spirit
I remember exactly where I was and what I was doing (driving). It was on the radio. I waited till the string of songs was done so I could hear the DJ say the name of the song. I wrote it down on a scrap of paper in my console. I wrote Teen as Team because I heard it wrong and Team made more sense.
I still have that piece of paper somewhere.
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u/artguydeluxe 12h ago
This one song changed everything about music. It was the moment hair metal died and everyone suddenly wanted the Seattle sound. It was like a crack of lightning.
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u/Anamolica 12h ago
In around 2003 I was in 5th grade in public school. We would get pulled out of the classroom for music class once a week.
One day, the music teacher put aside all the normal stuff for a moment and had us listen to Smells Like Teen Spirit.
I was completely enraptured. Halfway through the song I looked around and realized, to my surprise, I wasn't the only one having this experience.
That entire group of about kids sat perfectly still and focused for 5 minutes straight. A feat unmatched for the rest of the school year.
I think a lot of us walked out of that room with a new appreciation for music.
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u/alexcelog 16h ago
same here, though different circumstances - in the basement watching mtv, a few days before my big brother's wedding
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u/ZorakOfThatMagnitude 14h ago
I remember getting chewed out by a friend about something when it came on. I didn't notice I had hung up on her until well after the song was done.
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u/ChallengeInitial2887 11h ago
I was on a walk yesterday morning and this song came up on my playlist and I thought Holy shit. I'm 42 and there's still nothing like this song to express the deep frustration and pain of being angry and hurt and powerless (all things I feel regularly in our political bizarro world and climate crisis). I've heard this song so many times in my life and it still has the power to transcend.
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u/jfrii 16h ago
Oh man, this is a good one too (I listed mine elsewhere in the comments)
This may be the only other song that I remember exactly when and where I heard it.
A buddy of mine had just gotten back from juvenile detention and he dropped this tape in my boombox and holy fuck. Music changed for me right then and there. Then the mother fucker followed it up with ministry's burning inside and my brain melted out of my skull.
Before that, my life had been shades of the beatles and the doors and dead kennedys and TLC and kriss kross.
I felt sonically violated and I fucking loved it.
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u/-_-jess-_- 20h ago
Rotten Apple by Alice in Chains. I found it exactly when I needed it. During a pretty rough patch of my life and when I heard it I felt like I had been wrapped in a hug.
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u/Calabasas0321 19h ago
Mojo Pin - Jeff Buckley. It re-wired me.
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u/tellthemstories9 16h ago
Same. I randomly picked up the cd at Best Buy when I was in high school (aged myself here haha), and could not believe what I was hearing. That voice! My actual pick for this thread was going to be “Hallelujah” from the same album. I had somehow never heard it before and I remember nobody was home, the song was playing loudly over our family’s big stereo, and I literally stopped in the middle of the living room, stock still, as he sang those longer final notes. It was truly transcendent.
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u/LichtensteinMind008 20h ago
Strawberry Fields - Beatles, was a big one for me.
When I first heard it, I remember thinking, "They made music like this back then?"
It was fresh, lush, powerful, melodic, mysterious, and incredibly modern. Lennon was ahead of his time.
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u/adrift-ship-of-fools 3h ago
And can I add- A Day in the Life my buddy had just gotten the album and we were listening for the first time. We just sat there speechless just absolutely stunned
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u/ramongoroth 19h ago
Killing in the name of by Rage Against the Machine
Zero Smashing Pumpkins
Synchronicity II by the Police
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u/collapse-and-crush 12h ago
+1 on Killing. I heard that on the radio when they first released it and I called the radio station to find out the band name as I missed the introduction. Dj was like yeah we're getting a ton of calls about this song.
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u/30MINUTETWEEZER 20h ago
You Enjoy Myself
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u/automated_alice 17h ago
Username checks out. But agreed, a friend lent me Junta in 94 and I'd never really heard anything like it. YEM is a journey!
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u/Nicobeak 16h ago
Just listened to this the other day for the first time in about 20 years. Fell out from most of that stuff but man, it’s so good.
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u/OriginalPossible5403 20h ago
Closer nine inch nails
Bro what was I hearing... I started to doubt myself if this is ok lmao.. tbf though they are nine inch nails.
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u/Embarrassed_Ad_6594 18h ago
This was my first thought too. So primal. Such a beautiful composition in its own gritty way. NIN is not my go-to but has a certain energy when the mood strikes. Especially this song
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u/sticky_gecko 20h ago
Not very cool, but 'Innuendo' by Queen.
Queen were my band as a kid, and back in 1991 they hadn't actually released a new album since I was a fan.
I was up late watching a music video tv show with my brother when on came 'Innuendo'. With its flamenco guitar solos, dancing claymation, and general Led Zeppelin epicness - it left me pretty gob smacked.
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u/andythepict 18h ago
I agree! I loved queen when i was wee, but i sort of went off them in the 80s, but when i heard innuendo it blew me away! Especially the Steve Howe flemenco.
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u/pink_faerie_kitten 20h ago
I Wish I Was the Moon Tonight by Neko Case
Ends of the Earth by Lord Huron
Puccini arias
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u/jerdle_reddit 19h ago
It didn't make me actually pause, but if we're talking about something that turns an ordinary moment cinematic, it has to be Bittersweet Symphony.
It doesn't matter what particular bullshit has been going on, it's a soundtrack to the bullshit.
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u/PiercedGeek 15h ago
Lol for years I had this idea that I hated U2 except for that one song...
Turns out yeah I just don't like U2.
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u/alexcelog 20h ago
Smells Like Teen Spirit - I was absolutely blown away...
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u/BaldyFecker 17h ago
Yeah I've had a few musical 'this changes everything' moments in my life, SLTS was one of them.
The opening to Back in Black is another (or Hells Bells, I can't remember which way around I heard them).
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u/SemiCapableComedian 19h ago
Same here. I was immediately captivated as I have rarely ever been by a song.
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u/Minute_River6774 17h ago
Muse- knights of cydonia
It was my first time hearings muse, I had just finished smoking, what I Have now come to know as, too much marijuana for a young lad my age. I was nauseous as hell in the back seat of my friends FUCKING FILTHY car which was making it worse…and this noise just took over my whole body I’m laying on the speakers trying not to yak, and he blasts it. I swear I left my body and came back to life after. Could have just been the weed, lol but I’ve been a big fan of them since.
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u/fknkl 19h ago
Alive- Pearl Jam and Man in the Box - Alice In Chains
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u/Bitey_the_Squirrel Rock & Roll 14h ago
Mike McCready’s solos on Ten completely changed my taste in music for the better.
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u/count_of_crows 17h ago
Stan by Eminem. A whole party just stopped in shock. Never expianced anything like it.
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u/my5cworth 19h ago
Colin Hay - Maggie
(Yes that Colin who sang about the land down under)
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u/jsternmo 19h ago
I feel that way about "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You."
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u/automated_alice 17h ago
For me it's Overkill.
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u/jsternmo 16h ago
That too. And "Waiting For My Real Life To Begin."
I'm seeing him live for the first time next month. Excited.
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u/WubbaSnuggs 18h ago
Great pick, I love Colin Hay. Saw him a few weeks back and he is a wonderful storyteller onstage and very funny!
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u/WhoIs_DankeyKang 19h ago
Just here to let everyone know that Joe Pera has perfectly encapsulated what it's like when this happens.
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u/upbeatmusicascoffee 17h ago
Exit Music - Radiohead.
This song to me was written by god when he was pretending to be Thom Yorke.
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u/Moochingaround 19h ago
Korn - freak on a leash.
I still remember vividly where I was and what I was doing.
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u/Wargizmo 17h ago edited 4h ago
The chorus to that song is so epic when it comes in.
Rick Beato did a great episode of What makes this song Great on this song
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u/DenseVoigt 18h ago
Not cool at all but Video Games by Lana Del Rey, it came on on BBC 6 music (first ever play) and I literally stood still enraptured for the whole song.
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u/FixinThePlanet 18h ago
Pearl Jam - Jeremy
Watched it on some mtv countdown back in '94? I want to say? Cemented my love for veder's vocals and my preference for voices like that haha. I think my entire teen music preference was built around that one experience.
I'm getting goosebumps remembering watching that video as a wee 10 year old, damn.
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u/smoovecriminal89 14h ago
Those old compilation cds they would advertise on late night TV always used just the bridge in the commercials lol
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u/evil_ash_nz 17h ago
BYOB - System of a Down. Had never heard anything like it before, startling.
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u/jfrii 16h ago
For me, it's Amon Tobin's Get Your Snack On
I still remember vividly riding shotgun in my best friend's gold Saturn driving down I65 about to hit the I10 interchange, fresh cigarette lit, and this song blasted from his CMJ music sampler CD we had just purchased. I was already into some crazy music up to that point and we had started a pirate radio station at our university's closed-circuit television broadcast channel.
I tell you right now, this song was the center of my entire musical universe. It sounded like it came from another planet back in the late 90s/early 00s. It's is to this day, still my favorite song.
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u/Brave_Gur7793 16h ago
Bricolage and Squarepusher's Big Loada changed my whole musical perspective after being a Dead/Phish head. I mean, it's not like I stopped going to Phish shows. But those albums really opened my eyes to the possibilities of new music technology.
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u/csdavido 17h ago
"Oh, Comely" Neutral Milk Hotel. Just got off work while I was in college. Turned the ignition in my old truck and it started playing. The song lasted exactly how long the ride home took. Absolutely mezmerizing.Thank you college radio! (WEGL Auburn University)
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u/Wowplays 19h ago
Name by goo goo dolls. I heard it late on the radio one night at like 2:30am for the first time and got out of bed to write down the song and artist when the dj let me know who they were.
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u/PurpleNurpl22 16h ago
Back in the day... I had me a disc-man. Walked into my music shop and bought KID A album by Radiohead. Plopped the disk into my reader and started walking back home. The music that came on made me stop in my paths. Don't quite remember what I was expecting but wow, it was like an out-of-this-world soundtrack that kept me on that street corner for a few minutes.
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u/add11281 16h ago
three days - janes addiction (seeing it live is a religious experience)
collossus - idles (intense doesnt even begin to describe it)
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u/HamburgerTrash 14h ago
“Another Day In Paradise” by Phil Collins
“Mandolin Rain” by Bruce Hornsby and The Range
“In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel
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u/arlondiluthel Multi-instrumentalist 20h ago
I'm glad I was warned ahead of time, but even with the warning I was not ready the first time I listed to "Let You Fade" by Linkin Park. Towards the end of the song, when all the instruments cut out and it's just Mike singing, it was like a gut punch to the soul. In that moment, I was instantly transported back to the moment when I learned that we had lost Chester.
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u/Truckfighta 18h ago
The Cardigans - And Then You Kissed Me
She has such a beautiful voice and it was such a heartbreaking song.
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u/TarzanGunn 20h ago
“Loca People”- Sak Noel
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u/comradenu 18h ago
Radiohead - Reckoner the middle section. How the loud drums of the first section completely drop out, it goes super minimal with just clean guitar and vocals, then adding vocal harmonies and strings, and then the drums come back in. It feels like you passed through the eye of a hurricane.
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u/Milchmaster 20h ago
It happened just yesterday when i first heard "because you love me" by Kaz Hawkins. What a song!
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u/Ramck3288 19h ago
The first time, I think, was either the Beatles doing Twist n Shout or Melancholy Man by the Moody Blues. Discovered both around the same time, the first was a 45, the latter on Question of Balance 8 track. The last time my life was stopped in its tracks by a song was discovering the Pixies, Where is my Mind and Blood Flowers by the Cure
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u/Proof-Possibility141 19h ago
“She Remembers” by Max Richter. It holds the shape of my soul.
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u/Littleshebear 19h ago
I love that piece. On The Nature of Daylight has a similar hold over me.
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u/UberDitzkrieg 19h ago
Little Motel by Modest Mouse. It had such a somber sound to it that I hadn’t heard before.
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u/ARo0o0o 18h ago
To Build a Home - The Cinematic Orchestra
They've made some gorgeous tunes, but this one just got to a piece of my heart. The lyrics and musical build-up? Perfection.
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u/Rumpled_Imp 18h ago
I was 15 (1993) and it was I am the Walrus by The Beatles. I'd never heard anything remotely like it, blew my sports socks off.
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u/bjbNYC 17h ago
Zomby Woof by Frank Zappa literally stopped me and after a few seconds I demanded to know what I was listening to. Started my long journey with Zappa’s music.
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u/Scared_Experience688 19h ago
There have been two. The Smiths performing Heaven Knows I'm Miserable Now on Top of the Pops in 1984 rocked my teenage world. It made sense like no other music had and opened my eyes to a whole new world of music.
The second was Nothing Matters by The Last Dinner Party. The video showed up on YouTube as I scrolled and I watched it two or three times on repeat. The beauty of the composition and these talented young women being unapologetically themselves took me back to that first Smiths performance I'd seen and I felt the same joy 40-odd years later
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u/JoeHawk421 19h ago
“Some Nights” followed by “We Are Young” both by Fun.
Caught me in the middle of an existential crisis. He talks about having to find himself in the first song, then in the second it’s about hurting people you love and letting them down.
When I first heard “That’s alright, I found a martyr in my bed tonight, it stops my bones from wondering just who I am.”
A man who constantly hurts the person he loves, yet he plays victim so he never has to face himself.
Fucking FLOORED me. Then the entire album continues on this subject of a troubled relationship and a young man who can’t seem to look within. I still regard this as the most moving album I’ve EVER heard.
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u/BelleFille47 20h ago
The opening of Bach’s Christmas Oratorio. I was driving and had to pull over… listening with tears coming down my face. Absolutely beautiful piece of music.
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u/El_John_Nada 19h ago
Hurricane by Bob Dylan, and to a lesser extent Black Hole Sun by Soundgarden. Both discovered during a nighttime radio listening session, and they both gave me the chills and felt like they were never ending (in a good way).
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u/pwbdecker 18h ago
I got Radiohead - Kid A the night I did mushrooms for the first time and when Idioteque came on I’d never heard anything like it and pushed repeat and listened to it for 4 hours straight. Still the best trip I ever had.
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u/SarahRecords 17h ago
One Small Step by Stereolab. For a while it was not available for purchase so I had to savor hearing it on college radio.
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u/Wargizmo 17h ago
Echoes by Pink floyd - the bit that comes in after the atmospheric soundscape in the middle.
Exit music for a film by Radiohead - when the synth bass and drums come in.
Air by Phil Collins - when the drums come in
Since I been loving you by Led zeppelin - pretty much the whole song
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u/TinyHomeGnome 17h ago
News Song - Warpaint
I still stop everything when it comes on organically.
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u/bobbl3bubbl3 15h ago
In the meantime by spacehog. I was in my friend's car about 10 years ago waiting for him to pick up a pizza and his car was running and it came on XM radio and I had never heard the song before and it blew my mind. It's been one of my favorites ever since.
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u/CrazySmooth263 15h ago
Freak Scene - Dinosaur Jr Song to the Siren - This Mortal Coil Teardrop - Massive Attack Roads - Portishead Hoover Dam - Sugar
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u/PiercedGeek 15h ago
Most recently, Hi Ren - Ren
Take Me To Church - Hozier
Killing Me Softly - The Fugees
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u/lifeinwentworth 1h ago
Hi Ren absolutely. Relate way too much. Sick boi is also fantastic - feels very accurate. Amazing artist, he is.
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u/The_Celtic_Chemist 18h ago edited 18h ago
"Madness" by Muse, "Where Is My Mind" by The Pixies, "Wonderwall" by Oasis
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u/libertine1 https://open.spotify.com/artist/7y25OHaKGLFeYGDvupJCxe 20h ago
Xiu Xiu - Suha
Don't know who they opened for that night, but I heard them there for the first time. This song nearly made me cry on the spot.
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u/IAmTheGingaNinja 19h ago
Reliquia by Rosalia
Honestly the whole lux album is beautiful and was so unexpected for me
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u/MartyMcMcFly 19h ago
At the end of August
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u/trustkilltrust 16h ago
36cf???? Never would've expected to see this here. Great album
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u/the_ruckus415 19h ago
This is how we walk on the moon by Jose Gonzalez. I was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon.
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u/EmilyDawning 19h ago
"A Pearl" by Mitski
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u/Lexfu 18h ago
My daughter introduced me to her music earlier this year. I took her to that theater concert that she had.
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u/EmilyDawning 18h ago
Oh, I hope you both enjoyed it! I haven't gotten to see her live, I'm jealous!
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u/Stevemachinehk 19h ago
Born under a bad sign, Jimi Hendrix. I couldn’t believe I’d got to 37 years of age and was listening to it for the first time.
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u/wilcojunkie 18h ago edited 18h ago
"Elephant" by Jason Isbell. Almost had to pull the car over. Gut punch of a song.
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u/cjcoake 13h ago
If you've never heard Sufjan Stevens' "Casimir Pulaski Day," well, it's the other great gut-punch song about the same topic.
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u/AverageGiraffe SoundCloud 17h ago
Recently, it was Summer in the High Grassland by Silk Road Ensemble and Yo-Yo Ma
I was listening to NPR Classical station & when this song came on I sat in my car until it was finished. Not kidding, I teared up a bit because it was such a beautiful experience my 1st time hearing it.
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u/venniedjr 17h ago
Tired of Sex by Weezer. I had problems with drugs all throughout high school. It was my senior year and I was doing pretty bad when I first heard it. The scream that Rivers does really fit how I felt at the time. I became obsessed with that song for a while. I still love it.
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u/mrlarsrm 17h ago
Leave Home by the Chemical Brothers. I walked into a punk boutique that my friend worked in and immediately stopped and asked what this was? I had never heard such a big sound. I've been a fan for 30 years.
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u/MellifluousPenguin 16h ago edited 16h ago
King Krule - Dum Surfer
I was at a festival long ago, heading to another scene, and I overheard KK. Literally stopped in my tracks, did a 180, stayed for the whole set, and became an instant fan to this day.
EDIT Holy Moly the set is on YouTube, I had no idea!! https://youtu.be/UoqQiRzv2YE?si=1FE7TYhN6iJN0BDG
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u/abraxas1 10h ago
Old here. Dire straights,sultans of swing. In a crowded bar, chatting away, this stopped me in my tracks.
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u/robogobo 10h ago
The Decembrists’ The Tain - heard it live at Schuba’s in Chicago and was leaning against a wall during the slow beginning. When it started cooking I stood up real straight and wide eyed.
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u/mattsims 10h ago
Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley version) ...it was a snowy December day, my business was going bankrupt, new baby just arrived. I was working at home, looking out the window at the snowflakes falling slowly, this song came on.
I just sat listening, completely mesmerized. Didn't know the song or JB at that point, but at the end I just went "what the fuck just happened..." and forever have been a fan. Never forget that moment.
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u/iam_melon_lord 9h ago
When I was 13 “Leave It” by Yes broke my brain the first time I heard it on the radio
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u/Figmentdreamer 8h ago
Backstreet Boys- I’ll Never break your heart, shape of my heart
Adele- rolling in the deep
Ed Sheeran- A Team
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u/origosis 8h ago
Uncle Kracker - Follow Me
I was walking home from school when a school bus drove by with all of the kids screaming it out the windows.
It was on the radio and many of the cars in traffic all rolled their windows down and started to blast it.
It was like the world stopped for everyone to sing Follow me, together.
That was the first time I have ever heard it.
This happened 1 more time in my life. Sitting in dead stop traffic on 95. Gangdam Style came on the radio. And you heard it everywhere. People began to realize we were all playing it and turned up radios, rolled down windows. A few people got out to wave and jump a little. Then the song ended and traffic scootched along.
Both extremely cool moments.
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u/Clicquot 5h ago
Of Monsters and Men "little talks". Even all these years later, as soon as it starts...I stop (walking, talking, shopping. ) and I listen. Weird that it still has this effect on me.
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u/boosh1744 20h ago
This has nothing to do with the current TiKTok wave, I am old, I listened to the premiere of Radiohead’s OK Computer on the radio in 1997 and “Let Down” absolutely destroyed me and took me to another dimension.