Many of us who are familiar with Stephan Chbosky's book and later movie, "Perks of Being a Wallflower," have been exposed with the term "tunnel song." You know—The famous scene where Sam (Emma Watson) blasts David Bowie while a cheering Patrick (Ezra Miller) speeds down the highway, and main character Charlie (Logan Lerman) narrates some inspirational words. Watson is standing up in the bed of a truck, arms stretched outward, smile on her face, and hair, somehow, in more than perfect condition. It's the typical teen against conformity type act—I mean, Watson's flight through the city is practically a mirror to the post-detention Judd Nelson's "Don't You Forget About Me" fist in the air. Frankly, it's platitude. Cheesy. Cliché. But that doesn't mean we don't like it. In fact, we love these types of scenes. We bask in the glory of their teenage-indentity-crisis angst, turn the volume up, and watch an outsiders attempt to feel special. We cherish these scenes. We don't just eat them up, we scrape them off our plates—but why?
Because despite their overt corniness, clichés are cliché for a reason. They are relatable, and therefore repeatable—common themes throughout our lifetimes. We like clichés because they model familiarity, and in some senses, the truth.
And Chbosky's tunnel scene clich has depicted three very fundamental truths about us teenagers 1) We love reckless driving and the fact that we might be able to get away with it, 2) We love the romantic idea that there is more to our youth than pimples and prom, and 3) We love music, because more than any other generation, music is the part of our youth that we latch onto. And music, out of the three truths, is the spirit that reminds us that we can feel. That although we are growing old, and callous, and routine, we can still know wind, and hair, and the people we love. We are no longer innocent, but we are still alive. We can still shed all that haunts us: behind us, what lies ahead of us, if only for a single moment. We can be stuck in time. On top of the world.
Or feel, what Charlie notes in one perfect word, "Infinite."
So I came up with a playlist of what I consider to be 15 best tunnel songs: in case you are ever interested in feeling "infinite."
1. "Heroes" // David Bowie
(As seen in the movie)
