My Sunday was spent taking a nostalgic musical trip. While doing the household chores, my stereo was blaring songs back to the days when music had distict melodies and danceable tunes, and the words, however silly, were at least intelligible and made sense.
I'm sure you have songs that jog your memory when you hear them. Maybe you hear them piped into an elevator or at a department store, or by accident when you move the radio dial. That's the joy of music. It's not only entertainment. It's a part of our life.
Athough I don't remember listening to the music of my generation as I grew up listening to my parent's music which I come to like very much, for me music is an important influence on my memory. I could associate songs with people, places and emotions I have experienced in my life.
Do you also experience when certain scene or event suddenly flash back in your mind when you hear a particular song? It seems that a piece of a familiar music serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head. These melodies call back memories of a particular person or place, and we all of a sudden see that person's face in our mind's eye.
But do we like the song first and associate it with a memory or do we like the song because of the memory we associate it with?
Maybe it really doesn't matter whether the music is good or bad. The music itself acts like a recorder on all possible levels. It absorbs my perceptions and freezes them, then just put them on replay the next time I hear the same song. I can recall what I was seeing, smelling, thinking while I was listening to the same melody back in my past. Scary, actually. Like being in a time machine for a second and then back again.
I still haven't migrated to listening to rap music and opera, although I'm not a big fan of today's popular music either. I guess I'm stuck in a folksy, music limbo, like a glam rocker who went into retirement, waiting for the day when big hair, spandex, heavy makeup, and drum pads are again fashionable.
How about you? What songs do you attach particular feelings or memories?
6 comments:
country songs remind me of my childhood, Elvis reminds me of holidays as a teen, also songs from the 7o's bring back memories of disco's and secondary school! I love all kinds of music except some modern stuff that you can't hear the words! (or is that just my age!)
Tracey x x x
i grew up listening to andy williams, nat king cole, the lettermen, connie francis, and others whose name i can't remember. during highschool though its definitely the beatles, beegees, bread, eagles, chicago, queen, seals and croft,jackson 5, etc.
i also remember abba and bonnie m as an uncle who is a seaman would come home with loads of cassette tapes of these groups.
I don't know about old songs in general but there are certain songs that transport me back to certain phases of life-old crushes, past summers and winters, agony and delirious fun!
I love an eclectic mix of music. I was bought up listening to hits of the 60s/70s/80's. The older songs appear to have more meaning in their lyrics, and feeling. However I do love musicals also, escapism is a great thing:)
xoxoxoxo
I listen to all kids of things... Grew up listening to many things... Starting with the BeeGees and ABBA. I think my first cassette was Sean Cassidy, and from there it was 80's rock, Rick Springfield, VanHalen, and then the hair and spandex followed... I eventually got into Rush and then Heavy Metal and Thrash to cool down and settle on what I have been into since, which is Jazz, not smooth jazz, but REAL jazz...
Yes, absolutely. If I hear a tune from then, immediately, I am transported in memory to when I listened to those tunes, the house, my room, and the time, clothes and era assosiated with it. Its like the music pushes a button, and we are transported back in tiem and remember things we couldnt have otherwise...
Many memories are noting but fun, nostalgic reminder of how it seemed life was sooo much easier then. Some others are of girls that didnt like me as much as I thought I liked them... (sigh, all of them beautiful, ofcourse, I wonder where they are today...) I thought I was soo dashing!!!
Being someone who has made his living one way or another in the music world, I can only agree of the power and influence music has on our mood, feelings, and decisions as well as these same things that will be with us forever.
I dont know what I would do without music.
Ed
PoE,
music tend to bring more meaning to everything you do when your younger. it seems a lot of the lyrics is speaking what our heart says...
Kirst,
yeah, those wonderful days when you can just lie in your room, close the door, and drown yourself in loud music and let your mind wander to where it will take you!
Ed,
music had influenced you more than it did to others. you can play a lot of instruments as well, while we can only listen!
i wish we can sit down someday and share our love for music.
Any plan of coming to Cebu?
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