a catalogue of old msn display messages

12-Feb-2025

When I was a teen, I used a host of instant messaging apps to chat with friends: AIM (the door opening and closing sound lives in my brain), Yahoo Messenger (rainbow text, hitting the buzz button to jumpscare friends), Google Hangouts/Chat (the worst one), and, the one I used the most often, MSN Messenger. I don't know why MSN became the central hub that my high school friends gravitated toward, but the main draw from me was typing out a display message with lyrics to whatever song I was listening to on repeat. Occasionally a friend might ping me and go "are you okay??" And I would be confused for a moment until I remembered they were referring to the angsty lyrics du jour beside my username.

I actually made a playlist on Spotify last year called "msn display messages while i cry in the family computer room" haha So I'm drawing from memory here to pull out a sampling one might have seen when I logged on. My memory might be a little fuzzy on the allowed length of some so these are still approximate guesses.

Side-note: the all lowercasing is anachronistic as I would have followed exact casing when back then. What a nerd!

• Bright Eyes

  • "as i hide behind these books i read / while scribbling my poetry / like art could save a wretch like me" and "and i'm never real, it's just a sketch of me" and "everything i've made is trite and cheap / and a waste / of paint, of tape, of time" and "and i have no faith, but it's all i want / to be loved, and believe / in my soul" from "Waste of Paint"
  • "like a story told / from the fault lines and soil" from "Bowl of Oranges"
  • "and i never thought this life was possible / you're the yellow bird that I've been waiting for" from "Poison Oak"
  • "i'm happy just because / i found out I am really no one" from "At the Bottom of Everything"
  • "now i don't know where I am, i don't know where i've been / but i know where i want to go" and "and i thought it was strange, you said everything changed / you felt as if you'd just woke up" from "First Day of My Life"
  • "you said you hate my suffering / and you understood / and you’d take care of me / you'd always be there / well where are you now?" from "Haligh, Haligh, a Lie, Haligh"
  • "i touch the clasp of your locket / with its picture held / some secret you wouldn't tell / but let it choke your neck" from "A Spindle, a Darkness, a Fever, and a Necklace"

• Coldplay

  • "i came here with a load / and it feels so much lighter now i met you" and "and honey, you should know / that i could never go on without you" from "Green Eyes"
  • "in a haze, a stormy haze / i'll be 'round, i'll be loving you always, always" from "Parachutes"
  • "'cause my head just aches when i think of / the things that i shouldn't have done / but life is for livin', we all know / and I don't wanna live it alone" from "Life is for Living"
  • "hold my head inside your hands / i need someone who understands" from "'Til Kingdom Come"
  • "i can hear it comin' like a serenade of sound / now my feet won't touch the ground" from "Life in Technicolor ii"

• Damien Rice

  • "and why do you sing hallelujah / if it means nothing to ya? / why do you sing with me at all?" from "Delicate"
  • "you know when you've found it / there's something i've learned / 'cause you feel it when they take it away" from "Amie"
  • "i remember december" from "I Remember"

• Goo Goo Dolls

  • "what you feel is what you are / and what you are is beautiful" from "Slide"
  • "and i'll become what you became to me" from "Black Balloon"
  • "and sooner or later, it's over / i just don't wanna miss you tonight" and "when everything feels like the movies / yeah, you bleed just to know you're alive" and "when everything's made to be broken / i just want you to know who i am" from "Iris"
  • "yeah, the world is still sleepin' / while i keep on dreamin' for me / and their words are just whispers / and lies that i'll never believe" from "I'm Still Here (Jim's Theme)"

• Muse

  • "all of the love we left behind / watching the flashbacks intertwine / memories I will never find" from "Falling Away With You"
  • "i won't give you up / i won't let you down / and i won't leave you falling" from "Endlessly"

• Nick Drake

  • "but when i remembered those people and places / they were really too good in their way" from "Saturday Sun" by Nick Drake
  • "and now we rise /and we are everywhere" from "From the Morning"

• Once OST

  • "i don't know you / but i want you / all the more for that" and "falling slowly eyes that know me / and i can't go back" from "Falling Slowly"
  • "and i'm closer than i've ever been before" from "Say It To Me Now"

• Radiohead

  • "and if i could be who you wanted / if i could be who you wanted / all the time" from "Fake Plastic Trees"
  • "now we are one in everlasting peace / we all hope that you choke" from "Exit Music (For a Film)"

• Misc.

  • "it's only lies that i'm living / it's only tears that i'm crying / it's only you that i'm losing / guess i'm doing fine" from "Guess I'm Doing Fine" by Beck
  • "oh, give me your hands, 'cause you're wonderful (wonderful)" from "Rock 'n' Roll Suicide" by David Bowie
  • "look what i have found / a seashell in a sea of shells" from "Planting Seeds" by dredg
  • "these wounds won't seem to heal, this pain is just too real / there's just too much that time cannot erase" from "My Immortal" by Evanescence
  • "i'll go where secrets are sold / where roses unfold / i'll sleep as time goes by" and the flowers in the graveyard are all gone I don't belong" from "Lemon" by Katy Rose
  • "what have i become? / my sweetest friend / everyone i know goes away / in the end" from "Hurt" covered by Johnny Cash
  • "so, tell me when you're gonna let me in / i'm getting tired, and i need somewhere to begin" from "Somewhere Only We Know" by Keane
  • "I wanna heal, I wanna feel what I thought was never real / I wanna let go of the pain I've felt so long" from "Somewhere I Belong" by Linkin Park
  • "the worst of it now, i can't remember your face" from "Return" by OK GO
  • "and all the things that I wished I had not said / are played in loops till it's madness in my head" from "You Could Be Happy" by Snow Patrol
  • "live through this and you won't look back" from "Your Ex-Lover is Dead" by Stars
  • "she turns and says, 'are you alright?' / i said, 'i must be fine 'cause my heart's still beating'" from "Fell in Love with a Girl" by The White Stripes
  • "i am not everything you thought that i would be / but every story i have told is part of me" from "How I Go" by Yellowcard

#music #nostalgia