I think everyone has a connection to music, like 13-year-old Danny to his PlayStation 2; humans and things that sound good are inseparable. Each and every one of us has a handful of songs that we can distinctly define moments of our life by. These are mine, and you might have different ones, which is fine since music is subjective — contrary to what your douchey friend thinks.

I’m only 20, so I’m sure there will be plenty more songs that will change my life (*cough whatever Pitbull’s next single is cough*) but for now these are the songs of Danny’s life. If you have any you want to share, throw ’em in the comments below so we can reminisce like old chums, whatever that means.

1.“Again”- Lenny Kravitz

The first song I ever remember having a visceral reaction to is by Lenny Kravitz. Hold on, I’m going to need a second to let that sink in.

(Waits…)

(Googles lyrics to prepare to write about the song he hasn’t heard in 10 years)

OK I’m good.

I was on a flight home from I’m not exactly sure where with my dad. I was listening to an airplane radio station, also known as the most popular 15 songs in the country on repeat for a three-hour flight. This song came on, and all of a sudden I lost it. I could just remember thinking about how much I missed my mom (#NODISRESPECTTODAD), with the chorus echoing my worst fears: “I wonder if I’ll ever see you again.” While Lenny Kravitz was talking about missing the love of his life, I was thinking about whether or not I would ever see my mom again at age five. Neat.

2. “Thriller”- Michael Jackson

When I moved to Westchester (also at age 5, big year for Danny), there are few things I remember. But what I do remember is going to my first grade teacher’s wedding, and summer camp. Purchase Day Camp became my on and off home for over 12 years. There were brief moments of doubt — my LeBron-esque decision to take my talents to sleep away camp was a dark chapter not worth re-visiting — but at the end of the day, it always came back to PDC.

The first memories I have of camp came at “Theater Day,” when each camp group performs a dance routine to a song based on the theme of the given year. Well, I guess that year’s theme was “Let’s scare the crap out of Danny” because that’s exactly what Michael Jackson’s hit did to me. But it wasn’t the song that did me in; it was the monologue by Vincent Price at the end. It was the first song that ever actually frightened me. The cadence of his voice and his maniacal laugh creep me out to this day — it’s just a truly uncomfortable 20 seconds of low talking and instrumental. It’s like he’s playing the scariest game of telephone ever, and I always lose.

3. “Crank Dat”- Soulja Boi

This Soulja Boi smash hit defined my middle school years, because this song defined the bar mitzvahs I attended. I’m not certain, but I’m pretty sure that if this song wasn’t played at bar mitzvahs from 2007-2008, the ceremony did not count and your child was not a man. It was unbelievable. If you thought white kids looked awkward dancing to “Cotton Eye Joe,” Soulja Boi would take that and multiply that feeling times infinity bagillion googol. I couldn’t believe it, there were people creating dance routines to a song that already had a dance to it. The song was about supermanning hoes, and we ate it up like the chocolate fountain that accompanied all dessert tables — and I swear that last sentence was completely serious, and I can’t believe it either.

Now, did I do it? Of course I did, even though I never learned the actual dance. But it’s not my fault. That dance had more steps than the Empire State Building, and I was still trying to get used to letters in math problems.

4. “Drops of Jupiter”- Train

My first slow dance was to this song. It was the St. Vincent’s dance in 9th grade, a dance perfectly suited for petrified 9th grade Danny, since the girls had to ask the boys out. I remember that it was time because everyone had made a pilgrimage to the dance floor like a line of cars on a busy highway during the apocalypse. I hadn’t danced all night, but this was mandatory, I couldn’t be that one chump scared to slow dance. So I went in, found my date, and danced slower than a sloth in a coma. Crushed it. I went on to continue crushing it by falling asleep in the car on the way home.

5. “Take You Higher”- Goodwill & Hook N Sling

The first song I heard at a party in college was an EDM song. Go figure. It was at the recently deceased Castle Court where I was introduced to the Princeton Review’s favorite party school. It was blaring from speakers as my two roommates and I went on a “Lord of the Rings” type quest to find the one true party. I was so overwhelmed with anxiety; we might as well have been storming the beaches of Normandy. Only a few hours earlier I was tearing up at “Home to the Dome” as I finally had begun to realize that my parents were not in fact accompanying me to college like I had previously believed. But just like this song, the anxiety eventually (briefly) ended, and I found my way around, eventually settling in.

Looking back on my life, there’s only one thing that I can say with certainty: it would be an awful Spotify playlist.

Danny Cuneo is a senior television, radio and film major. He has played “Guitar Hero” with friends, but never in front of a live studio audience. He can be reached at dacuneo@syr.edu.

Published on July 16, 2015 at 10:14 am