We have them every summer. They come out around April or May and die out around August or September. They capture the feeling of the summertime; they leave a lasting impression and, when heard, inspire you to think of that particular summer when you hear them. They are summer anthems.

They are songs that don’t necessarily have anything to do with the summer, but they happen to be played every 10 minutes on the radio. You hear them every time you are in your car or at work.

They can have a memorable video and a catchy chorus that gets you to sing along, and you don’t even know you’re doing it.

The unique thing about summer anthems is that you don’t really know a song is an anthem for that time until that summer is over.

Since we student journalists are curious and like to be ahead of the times, I will attempt to predict this year’s anthems before the summer ends.

But first, let’s dive deep into the past and show a few examples. Not everyone has the same summer anthem for every season, but for the most part, some of these songs will definitely ring in your memory and get you thinking about what makes a true summer anthem.

As I began searching my mind and the Internet for anthems, two summers kept coming up. They were both great summers for music, 1991 and 1997.

Just the words “summer anthem” bring up one of the most appropriate summer-theme songs to date, D.J. Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince’s “Summertime,” which hit the airwaves in 1991 and inspired us and our friends to go out and buy “Homebase” on tape.

What about Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back” that same year? As a D.J., I still get both of these songs requested and cheered for, especially during the summer months.

Another big wave from 1991 was the grunge movement, and Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” and Pearl Jam’s “Evenflow” were all over the radio and MTV.

As the ’90s went on, anthems as Beastie Boys’ “Sabotage,” Bush’s “Little Things,” Tupac’s “California Love” and the most over-played song of any summer, Collective Soul’s “Shine” controlled the summer airwaves.

In the summer of 1997, even though a lot of us won’t want to admit it, we all sang the words to Hanson’s “MMMbop” at one time or another, probably got sick of seeing Marcy Playground’s “Sex and Candy” video and still yell along with Blur’s “Song 2,” you know, the “woo hoo!” song.

Then there was Puff Daddy’s tribute to the Notorious B.I.G., “I’ll Be Missing You.”

With its Faith Evans chorus and the colorful video, it is a song that still ranks up there in the best of summer anthems.

Last summer also had its share of anthems. One that still won’t go away is Santana and Rob Thomas’ Grammy-winning “Smooth.”

And there was also the over-played “All Star” from Smashmouth (don’t forget about their “Walkin’ on the Sun” a summer earlier), Limp Bizkit’s “Nookie,” Blink 182’s “What’s My Age Again” and those damn Backstreet Boys with “I Want It That Way.”

So all of that brings us to this summer. One problem I’m finding is that all the good candidates for the official summer of 2000 anthem, including Juvenile’s “Back That Azz Up,” Sisqo’s “Thong Song” and Eminem’s “The Real Slim Shady,” were all released too early, and the hype will be over by July.

But Jay-Z’s “Big Pimpin'” and DMX’s “Party Up” are putting in good bids to be the millennium’s summer anthem.

And there’s always N’Stink, I mean N’Sync, and their “It’s Gonna Be Me,” along with all the other boy groups’ and teen-age girls’ songs.

We’ll just have to wait and see.

I hope this brought back some good memories for you and maybe made you think about what is going to be “it” for this summer.

You never know, the next time you turn on the radio or television, you may hear the next summer anthem, and when you hear it in February, it will remind you of the good times you had just seven months earlier.

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Kyle Moss is a sophomore in journalism and mass communication from Urbandale. He is arts & entertainment editor of the Daily.