Feast your eyes on Lisa Loeb. In 1994, she had a big hit single- Stay (I Missed You). As I listened to the iconic song on my drive to work today, I had a loeb-alation. Lisa Loeb may have invented emo music AND HIPSTERS! Hear me out- listen to the song as you watch the original music video. She wears all black, she talks directly in soft tones, she wears big black glasses (at a time when everyone, minus the kids in my elementary school class, were dressing a la Nirvana). Furthermore, she was the only artist at the time to have a Billboard Hot 100 single without being signed to a record label- very un-mainstream. Despite her somewhat recognizable second big single, I Do, Lisa remains largely obscure. She's still making music, but not in heavy radio rotation.
Back to STAY, Lisa plays her guitar, she talks about feeling sad because she misses someone, and she is emotionally wrecked- paving the way for her raw emotion-baring counterparts like Alanis Morisette (I still can't believe she had an affair with Joey from Full House, eww), P!nk, Jewel in her early years, and Natalie Imbruglia (Torn- 1997). Plus, Stay was used quite epically at the end of Ben Stiller's directorial debut movie, Reality Bites (the movie to define the beginning of emo hipsterdom's very existence!), starring the 90's queen and king of emo(tion), Wynonna Ryder and Christina Slater. How did her little song make a major motion picture soundtrack? Little Lisa was a neighbor of Mr. Hawke- such a small world it is....
RB is a fantastic movie that defines what it is to be young and lost, and I immensely respect Stiller's P.O.V. as a fresh new director at the time. I strongly recommend you check it out.
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