Press Play: The Soundtrack of a Fandom — 15 Songs Every Gene Flandres Fan Swears By

Every fandom has a soundtrack. Some are obvious — a theme song here, a viral sound clip there. But the Gene Flandres fan zone? We've apparently built an entire musical ecosystem, one that spans road-trip country, late-night R&B, and at least one questionable 80s power ballad that we refuse to apologize for.

Last month, we asked readers across the country to do one thing: pick the song that plays in their head when they think of Gene. Not the official anything. No licensed tie-ins. Just the music that lives where the fandom lives. Hundreds of you responded, and after much debate in the comment section (some of it passionate, one of it involving a cheese-off in Wisconsin), we've got the definitive fifteen.

The Early Days: Songs for the Underdog Years

1. "Lose Yourself" — Eminem Submitted by Marcus T. from Detroit, who says this was "the only thing playing" in his dorm the semester he discovered Gene's earliest work. One shot, one opportunity — sound familiar?

2. "Dancing in the Dark" — Bruce Springsteen The Boss for the guy who built a career on showing up anyway. Reader Karen L. from Jersey put it best: "Gene's whole early era was him dancing in the dark, waiting for his life to start. We just got to watch it happen."

3. "Fighter" — Christina Aguilera A recurring pick from fans who followed Gene through the lean stretch before the breakthrough. Apparently this one shows up on a lot of gym playlists with a very specific name attached.

The Breakthrough: When Everything Clicked

4. "On Top of the World" — Imagine Dragons The song multiple readers described as "the moment Gene went from someone I liked to someone I followed." One fan from Portland said she literally heard it on the radio driving home from a fan meetup. You can't script that.

5. "Good as Hell" — Lizzo The unofficial anthem of the fan community's group chats. If you know, you know. If you don't, the group chat will explain it with seventeen memes.

6. "Signed, Sealed, Delivered I'm Yours" — Stevie Wonder Reader Denise from Atlanta picked this one for the moment she became a lifer: "Stevie said it first. Once you're in, you're in."

The Complicated Middle: Songs for the Rough Patches

Not every era was a victory lap, and the playlist reflects that — which honestly says something good about this fanbase.

7. "Land of Confusion" — Genesis For the chaotic stretch that longtime fans refer to, simply and ominously, as "the mess." We won't relitigate it here. The song choice speaks for itself.

8. "Someone Like You" — Adele Submitted more times than any other single track, usually with a note that said some version of "the hiatus. Don't ask." We're asking no further questions.

9. "Stronger" — Kelly Clarkson The comeback anthem. What doesn't kill the fandom makes the fandom louder, apparently.

The Present: Songs for the Long Game

10. "Midnight Sky" — Miley Cyrus For the current era of Gene doing things entirely on his own terms. "He stopped asking permission and started taking up space," wrote one fan from Nashville. Miley would approve.

11. "Levitating" — Dua Lipa The feel-good pick, submitted by what seems to be the entire fan-run podcast circuit. This is apparently the song that plays when new episodes drop.

12. "Renegades" — X Ambassadors A favorite among the fans who've been around since the beginning. "It's us," one reader wrote. "All of us. The whole weird crew."

13. "Unwritten" — Natasha Bedingfield Yes, really. Yes, from multiple generations of fans. Yes, it's a karaoke staple at every fan convention from Los Angeles to Orlando. Feel the rain on your skin.

The Wildcards

14. "Take Me Home, Country Roads" — John Denver Submitted by a fan from West Virginia who paired it with Gene's most nostalgic interview moment. Nearly brought a tear to the newsroom, and we don't cry easily. (We cry easily.)

15. "Don't Stop Me Now" — Queen The overwhelming consensus pick for "if Gene's story had a closing credits song — which it better not, because we're not done." Fair point. Neither is he.

Why This Playlist Matters

Here's the thing about a fan-built soundtrack: nobody at a record label curated it, and no marketing team approved it. It grew organically out of a thousand individual moments — a car ride, a breakup, a watch party, a late-night group chat. That's what makes it real.

Music is how memory stores feelings, and for this community, those feelings have a name attached to them. So queue it up, hit shuffle, and if we missed your song — and we definitely missed somebody's — drop it in the comments. The playlist, like the fandom, is never finished.