It’s a rarity, a diamond in the rough, when music comes along that does more than simply aesthetically please the ear. Everybody has artists that mean more to them than they know how to explain – the music that pierces their inner membrane and imbues their soul with a soundtrack that feels as though it were written specifically for their life.

For my dad, this music is the soundtrack from the original Rocky movie. When I was growing up, every time he would try to get me pumped for a youth league basketball game or would lift weights in the basement, “Going the Distance” and “Eye of the Tiger” could be heard reverberating throughout the walls of our little brown house.

For my mother, Stevie Wonder has always been the one that’s spoken to her in a way I could never understand. She would dance around the house singing along and saying, “Just listen to that piano . I love his voice. Can you believe he’s blind?”

My first big musical crush was definitely the Space Jam soundtrack in fourth grade. Aside from my parent’s music and a massive quantity of Disney songs, I had never learned how to fly solo in the musical world.

After seeing Michael Jordan and Bugs Bunny thrash a bunch of Martians on the big screen, I went to Target and bought the soundtrack – my first purchased album.

From the first track, “Fly Like An Eagle,” by Seal through the final track, “Buggin’,” sung by Bugs Bunny himself, I was in love. This was my music, and nobody was going to take it from me.

I played the tape so much my family probably could have recited the lyrics. The tape eventually became unplayable and I had to replace it with a CD version a few years later.

Ten years down the road, I still listen to Space Jam. Now that’s longevity. You may be laughing, but if you take the time to analyze yourself, you’ll probably remember that you still have “Achy Breaky Heart,” “Barbie Girl” and a couple of Backstreet Boys albums hidden in your closet. Sicko.

However, we grow and our interests change. We find new favorite songs and new artists that act as soundtracks to our lives, helping us concentrate when we pull all-nighters and giving us something funky to dance to while we’re waiting impatiently for our Easy Mac to finish boiling.

Music is an individual choice that should be cherished. You shouldn’t listen to something you don’t like just because your music elitist friend told you it’s the best thing since sliced bread, but at the same time you shouldn’t sell yourself short when it comes to trying to new things.

There are decades upon decades of recorded music at your fingertips, and obtaining it has never been easier. The digital age and iPods have made music listening easier than pie – don’t ask me what that means; my grandma used to say it all the time – and as college students you have more ample opportunity to enjoy this stuff than you likely ever will again.

Do yourself a favor and borrow a record from a friend, try a new radio station, go see a local concert and by all means hang on to the music you cherish. I can guarantee that my children will be hearing their share of the Space Jam soundtrack, although they’ll never appreciate it the way I once did.

– Dan McClanahan is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Ames. He is a Daily Pulse Editor.