You know the exact one I’m talking about: that one song you just can’t skip, no matter where you are or at what time you’ve switched on shuffle. It could be the most inappropriate song for the timeframe it fills, but you still hesitate for one very long second because there is actual guilt in even thinking about skipping that song. And so you let it play until the very end knowing the reason is actually because at one point a long time ago, or maybe even a short time ago, when you heard it for the first time, it kinda changed your life.

There is at least one song like this in everyone’s life, and the memories they elicit can be both good and bad; even if they’re bad, you still listen to that song because it is tied to a memory, and as writer for Slate Mark Joseph Stern writes in his article, “Neural Nostalgia” “…memories are meaningless without emotion- and aside from love and drugs, nothing spurs an emotional reaction like music.” Whether its Rap, Country or Dance music, there exists a song or songs that are special to us because they are tied closely to us by some experience, action or consequence. For me, one was the first time I heard Skrillex’s “Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites” in the back of a limo for my best friend’s Sweet 16; it blew my mind, opened it right up and filled it with a world of musical possibilities I had absolutely not been aware of before. Add to that the limo-full of 15 and 16 year-old girls whose idea of a big night was going out to dinner and blasting homemade CD mixes through the sunroof and you’ve got yourself a bonafide memory, amplified by music that, as I mentioned before, kinda changed your life.

This specific memory came up recently when my boyfriend and I started discussing the music we like to listen to in the car and why. Sticking to the ways of old, I made him a CD mix earlier this week and explained that it was all music I knew he preferred over some I’d given him earlier this month, which sparked the conversation. At my mention of playing old Skrillex a lot in the car, he replied that he felt Skrillex was too repetitive for his liking. My answer to him? I like the repetition, it might be my favorite part about his older music, that and the punch-you-in-the-throat beats, of course.

I started thinking about why exactly I liked that music, because my love for it sure as hell came as a surprise to me. I found an article on Huffington Post by Senior Writer Carolyn Gregoire that provided some scientific insight as to why some of us tend to like certain types of music, and others don’t. The basic premise was that our taste in music is linked to both personality and the way we think. Gregoire cites a UK study that categorizes the masses as either “empathetic individuals” or “analytic minds”, with each respective group driven toward a certain type of music. One of the things that stood out to me from this article was a quote that said “people’s musical choices seem to be a mirror of who they are.” I know it sounds overly obvious, but aren’t we all on the big journey to “find ourselves?” If not to simply understand ourselves a little bit better? Maybe that’s why those songs we just can’t skip hold on so tightly to our swipe fingers: because they are the pieces mirrored back that add to the puzzle.

Or…maybe it’s just a damn good song that reminds you of the best sex on the beach you’ve ever had (the drink guys, relax!). The meaning is entirely up to you, but either way, you know you’re going to keep that song playing, if for no other reason than its awesome for a reason that is entirely and completely, yours.