In August of last year I wrote an article about how music has influenced me throughout my life. Tonight, after watching a bunch of live shows from Faith No More on YouTube, I thought I’d continue the discussion on music.
For this post, I’ll be focusing on how music has a very emotional effect on me and how it connects me to memory.
When I turn on the radio and I hear December by Collective Soul, I am immediately reminded of a road trip to Toronto in 1995. Or when Shook Me All Night Long from AC/DC comes on, I think of high school dances, my friend Jason, and countless parties I went to as a teenager. And when Faith No More’s cover of This Guy’s In Love With You circles around on iTunes, I think of the night me and Tamara got married.
For me, music has been and will always be a means by which I connect myself to my memories. I said before that music has always been a part of my life, but it’s never been just about what was playing in the background.
Entire parts of my life are forever connected through one or more songs. Should a random song from a playlist come up on Spotify, my mind immediately races to a specific point in time that the song reminds me of.
It’s not just a flashback. When the right song comes on, it evokes a very visceral reaction from me. Whether the memory is a good one or a bad one doesn’t matter. The song somehow is permanently connected to a point in my timeline like the soundtrack of a movie.
The soundtrack of my life would be one of the weirdest playlists ever compiled. Let’s just see what that would look like.
- This Guy’s In Love With You / Epic / From Out of Nowhere – Faith No More
- December / Maybe – Collective Soul
- Blackbird – The Beatles
- Shook Me All Night Long – AC/DC
- Canary in a Coal Mine – The Police
- Angel of Death – Slayer
- The Old Apartment – Barenaked Ladies
- Raindrops Keep Falling on my Head – Burt Bacharach
- One – Metallica
- 4am – Our Lady Peace
Turns out the list is not as weird as I originally thought but it certainly is quite diverse. But for every one of those songs, it brings me back to a specific time or place or era within my life. In many ways I associate entire sections of my personal history with music.
Beyond just allowing me to recall memories from parts of my life, music has a very emotional connection to me. Allow me to give you an example.
On November 30th, 2010, my friend Gary and I saw Faith No More play in Hollywood, California. As luck would have it, about a week or so after the show, I came across a download of the entire set from that live show. I added it to my iTunes library and every now and then, one of the songs from that show comes up when I’m playing music.
One day the song From Out of Nowhere came on and I realized it was live from that show. All these memories of Gary and I at the Palladium in Hollywood came flooding in. A big smile came over my face as I recalled how much we enjoyed the show. But as fast as the memories came, something else overtook it. I found myself welling up enough that tears were rolling down my face.
This wasn’t a sad memory nor was I in any kind of pain. It was just raw emotion rolling out of me in the form of tears. Since then, I have had the experience on more than one occasion and it has always been tied to certain songs in certain situations.
It’s shown me that not only do I connect my memories to music, but my feelings as well. Whether it be joy or sadness, hearing a song that has meaning to me seems to bring it all out. It is for this reason I used the word “visceral” earlier to describe my reaction.
According to Google, visceral means “relating to deep inward feelings rather than to the intellect”.
To me it paints the perfect picture of what the music is doing to me. Since my entire life has been surrounded my one song or another, it’s no wonder that such deep emotion comes out when I hear familiar songs. It’s instinctive rather than just plain enjoyment or reaction.
The point I’m trying to get at is that music isn’t always just something on in the background. Sure, I have plenty of days where I have no idea what Spotify is playing for me. But the more memorable days or experiences in my life are always augmented, or reinforced by some form of music.
If you’re the type that associates many of your own memories with music then we share something in common. If not, it’s a shame. You don’t know what you are missing.
