Blogocentric Formulations

Stay (I Missed You)

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Song: "Stay (I Missed You)"
Artist: Lisa Loeb
Album: Reality Bites Soundtrack


This is one of those songs that I can sing along with (and accurately for the most part!) pretty much anytime it plays. It was the lead single from the Reality Bites soundtrack, and rose to prominence - including No. 1 on the Billboard Hot 100 - in large part thanks to the success of the film. That success actually earned Lisa Loeb a Grammy nomination and gave her the distinction of being the first artist in the history of the Billboard Hot 100 to have a No. 1 hit before being signed by a label.

How did this song get on the soundtrack you ask? Well, that's the result of one of those "right place at the right time" kind of stories. Lisa Loeb was living in New York, across from Ethan Hawke, and met the actor via mutual friends through the New York City theater community. After hearing her play the song, he slipped it to Reality Bites director Ben Stiller, who liked it enough to include it in the film. As far as breaking in stories are concerned, I suppose you could do worse than meeting two actors who went on to have pretty impressive careers in their own right.

Relatively well-received by both critics and audiences, the movie is one of those movies that seems to capture the voice of a generation... in this case the jobs and lifestyles of members of Generation X. As one critic (Caryn James of the New York Times) put it, "Like the generation it presents so appealingly, it doesn't see any point in getting all bent out of shape and overambitious. But it knows how to hang out and have a great time." I'm a big fan of generational movies, but I shudder to think what one might look like for today's new graduates. It feels like there's a really loud clash and odd mix of resentment, entitlement, and disillusionment that has captured the latest generation and, well, I'm not entirely sure that'd be a movie I'd be amped up to see. But you know what? Write a movie as good as this and include a song as good as Lisa Loeb's, and I might just give it a try.