In my younger and more vulnerable years, I used to go to my friend’s house every Thursday after school and watch bootleg DVDs of One Tree Hill. We’d sit on the floor, a foot from the TV set in his dad’s study. I with a legal pad and a no. 2 pencil, he with a stolen pint of Bintang beer. That’s how we baptized ourselves in the world of American pop culture. We were thirteen then, playing out adolescent angst as sold to us by the WB. Enter Peyton Sawyer: driving dangerously fast in her black Mercury Comet, blonde hair swaying in the wind, to the sound of a Forty-Foot-Echo-fueled desperation. Mark Schwahn painted the ideal scenario: a Maugham-reading, NOFX-referencing, attractive and sensitive jock, courting an equally attractive part-time cheerleader, part-time goth illustrator with a penchant for wearing metal band-shirts. One Tree Hill was as close as a TV show could get to the glossy appeal of 2003-end-of-rope rock.

We performed our Thursday afternoon ritual year after year, endured the reappearance of Peyton’s biological mother, the death of Peyton’s biological mother, the appearance of Peyton’s fake biological brother, the appearance of her real, biological brother and, if you’re still with me, several Sunkist product placements. We couldn’t understand what kept us glued. Here I am, still figuring it out, but I guess it was the music that was to be blamed. Where else on earth could you watch professionals play basketball to the Beta Band? Blame it on my top 20 songs featured on One Tree Hill.

20. Doktor Kosmos - “Holiday”

19. Story of the Year - “Sidewalks”

18. Tegan and Sara - “Walking with a Ghost”

17. Ryan Adams - “When the Stars Go Blue”

16. Hot Water Music - “Remedy”

15. Nada Surf - “Always Love”

14. Rock ‘n’ Roll Soldiers - “Funny Little Feeling”

13. The Wreckers - “The Good Kind”

12. La Rocco - “Non Believer”

11. The Cure - “To Wish Impossible Things”

10. The Get Up Kids - “Overdue”

9. Travis - “Re-Offender”

8. The Honorary Title - “Stay Away”

7. Fall Out Boy - “Sugar, We’re Goin Down”

6. Bauhaus - “Bela Lugosi Is Dead”

5. The Replacements - “Here Comes a Regular”

4. Jack’s Mannequin - “The Mixed Tape”

3. Dashboard Confessionals - “Hands Down”

2. Sheryl Crow - “The First Cut Is The Deepest”

1. Led Zeppelin - “Babe, I’m Gonna Leave You”