Sounds can have a strong link to memory. After all, there’s a reason why they’re so often the catalyst for a flashback sequence in movies and TV, whether they send the affected deep into a childhood memory or suddenly activate them as a secret assassin (lookin’ at you Derek Zoolander).
Most of us might not have that level of code phrase in our memory banks, but there are still certain aural cues that cause us to stare straight into the middle distance. For millennials like myself, any one of the sounds below has the power to ring through my soul like a haunted church bell…
AIM Message Alert
Fire off this bad boy and watch a grown adult immediately travel back to the most devastating crush they’ve ever had.
Dial-Up Modem
Part and parcel with the aforementioned AOL Instant Messenger sound was the broadcast from hell you had to listen to for access to the internet.
Static
Look, this might be a bit of a weird one, but I feel like Millennials, more than any other generation, listened to an insane amount of static during their formative years. Between changing channels on the TV and trying to use shitty FM radio transmitters to play music in their car, somebody should do a study on what that does to a growing brain.
Emergency Alert Test
Especially for insomniac children like myself, the dreaded test of the Emergency Broadcast System had the capability to bust you for watching TV late at night. You step away to grab an Oreo, and suddenly, the TV, previously at a stealthy volume, is hammering your sleeping parents’ eardrums with a fake emergency. You can still occasionally hear it on a cellphone, but it’s few and far between.
The THX Sound
Honestly, every movie has been slightly worse since they stopped playing this before them.
Fur Elise Nokia Ringtone
I have no idea what about the song “Fur Elise” made it the ringtone of choice for just about anybody with a Nokia, but it totally took over the market. Given that you couldn’t add any of your own ringtones, most people somehow found this one the least grating, which is shocking in retrospect.
Hello Moto
Then, when the Motorola RAZR became the phone you had to have in order not to be considered a modern-day serf, this is what you’d hear.
The Mazda Zoom Zoom Kid
Look, sometimes things were just weird. Mazda’s commercials had this little kid in a full funeral suit, he whispered “zoom zoom,” and it was absolutely inescapable for a big part of my life.
The PlayStation 1 Boot-Up Sound
Even now, this is deeply psychically soothing to me. It’s the sound of having finally finished my homework, or a snow day being officially announced.
The Hampster Dance
This is what a webpage used to be. You would wait 15 minutes for it to load and consider it a good use of time.
‘Bill Nye the Science Guy’
The first couple seconds? Those specific words and that specific cadence occupies a part of my brain so deep that surgery to remove it would be inadvisable.
The Opening Riff of ‘Fat Lip’ by Sum 41
If you ever find yourself at a karaoke night filled with a bunch of thirty-somethings, put this song on and you’ll all be best friends within three minutes.