As a kid in elementary school, I was not very exposed to music of the present day. I had not listened to the radio much at all, unless it was listening to NPR classical music on the way to school in my dad's car. When I arrived to high school in all my awkward glory, I discovered the magic of Spotify. My best friend and I used to go to the computer lab every day for our computer applications class, but instead of listening to our lecture and doing our spreadsheets, we would plug in our headphones and giddily share our newest musical treasures full of Glee Cast music and Demi Lovato that we had found the day before. These are songs that we indulged in, thinking we were the coolest things on earth while jamming out in the computer lab.

1. “Hello” by the Glee Cast

For some weird reason we had an obsession with glee remakes, and this one was always a tear jerker. Was it a love song? Was it a sad breakup song? The decision was always ours, depending on the mood of the day.

2. “We Can’t Stop” by Miley Cyrus

During this time we were still coping with the shock of Miley Cyrus cutting her gorgeous brown locks and going loco after her separation from Disney Chanel. Despite this, the minute I heard this song, I knew it was a banger in my little freshman mind. She had gone from America's country sweetheart to being bad butt betty in 2.5 seconds. So, it had to be a “banger" right? Especially since the album was named “Bangerz”, with a Z.

3. “Hurt” by Christina Aguilera

We sang this song from the bottom of our hearts as if a boy had just shredded our souls to bits. Who cared if we didn’t have an actual boyfriend at the time? The song twisted us into rags of tears. I like to think we were just preparing ourselves for future heartbreaks to come.

4. “Neon Lights” by Demi Lovato

I remember when this song came out with the rest of her album, “Demi”. I had been waiting for this album my whole freshman year, and it came out in May. I was so ecstatically happy, she had been my favorite Disney Channel character growing up. My best friend and I immediately loved this song, and jammed out to it since the day it came out. When it became extremely popular on the radio and overplayed, I always thought, “I liked this song before it became popular!” I felt some sort of entitlement towards the song, a weird sense of overprotectiveness as to shelter this beloved song from shredding society.

5. “A Drop in the Ocean” by Ron Pope

This song made you want to cry a river, or in other words, contribute to the drops in the ocean. It made me feel for a person that I didn't feel for in the first place, it made me long for something I never even had. It is definitely up there with the songs that called for me to clean up my heart and feelings off the floor.