With the passing of Michael Jackson, several people in the blogosphere have written posts about growing up with his music, and just how much certain songs meant to them and contributed to their memories. And it made me think about music in general, and the amazing amount of influence and recall-power that it has.
There are the traditional, perhaps cliche, memories – the prom theme songs, for instance. My favorite prom’s theme song was “Fields of Gold” and, while I don’t hear it often, when I do, it takes me back to one of those perfect nights, when you wouldn’t change a thing.
But there are also those songs that you hear – maybe in the car during a road trip, or with a certain person, or the ones that you don’t even realize are significant until you hear them again – that are just as memorable.
- When I hear Bon Jovi, I think of high school dances, shouting the chorus to “Livin’ on a Prayer.”
- Rihanna makes me think of last summer, when “Rehab” was constantly playing on my iPod, for better or worse. And “Disturbia“, surprisingly enough, takes me back to last summer’s week at God camp, as we listened to it in the car, non-stop.
- Additionally, at the risk of completely embarrassing myself, I used to own the Ja Rule CD “Pain is Love” (I sadly can’t find it anymore) which reminds me of PiC and myself driving around back home, in our high school years, looking for just enough trouble to have fun, but not enough to cause any lasting damage. Those stories could be posts, in and of themselves.
- And, of course, there are past boyfriends. It wasn’t always an “our song” type of situation, but there are some that remind me of certain guys, or certain moments. And they range anywhere from “In Your Eyes” to “King of Wishful Thinking” to “Build Me Up Buttercup” to “Magic Carpet Ride.”
Some memories are more bittersweet than others, but there’s something – I don’t know, comforting, maybe? – about being transported back in time, just for a three-minute song span. Music is your own little time machine.
The best songs, though, are the ones that you can listen to over and over again, the ones that you never tire of, because they have the power to evoke multiple memories and be a time capsule of sorts. I have one from high school (“Drops of Jupiter“), that’s full of memories, and one from this past year (“Use Somebody“)* that I can feel filling up.
And when I play them, it’s two very distinct trips down memory lane.
What about you? Which song(s) would you call your time machine?
*And here, just because I love it:
I think music is like a picture, a certain song or photo will remind you of a certain time and place (hopefully only good).
I have so many songs that remind me of various times throughout my life that I can’t even chose just one!
I think that even if the original memory is bad, the music can kind of turn it bittersweet. So that we can remember without feeling the full force of the initial pain/sadness.
One that stands out for me is Bitch by Meredith Brooks. My eight grade class trip was to DC (I lived in SC at the time) and as we were gathering in the parking lot of my middle school, my mom had the radio playing with the windows down while I got all my stuff out of the trunk. That song came on and my friends and I danced in the parking lot before heading off for a week of un-parentified bliss. I have so many others that transport me but that one is just so funny and I have such clear memory attached to it, that I had to share.
I love the sharing! And that song takes me back to middle school, as well.
Actually, one of my oldest friends and I used to sing Build Me Up Buttercup to each other. We were dorky like that.
That’s funny. The guy it reminds me of told me to listen to the lyrics specifically because he was mad at me, and wanted to me to understand that I was building him up and letting him down. Passive-aggressive much?
For me, it’s a whole soundtrack: the soundtrack to Corrina, Corrina. We grew up pretty isolated from the radio and without cable, so we got whatever our mom put in the stereo. And that album just sums all of that up: the R&B, the soul, the jazz… It’s still one of my favorite albums and whenever I listen to a song from it, I remember singing and dancing in our living room.
I love that you have a whole soundtrack. I’ve often wondered what mine would be.
You bring up a good topic, the entire Fall Out Boy catalog reminds me of one girl and I got Death Cab for Cutie for another girl.
Music can create relationships between so many things in our lives.
It can, indeed. And sometimes it really makes the moment.
Hearing the Beach Boys, brings me right back to when I was 8 or 9, swimming at our pool, while my mother had her tape rolling on her bright-pink cassette player.
November Rain (Guns n Roses) and Spending my Time (Roxette) take me back to my first boyfriend when I was 13.
Island in the Sun (Weezer) reminds me of my summers, back when I still worked in NYC, and every weekend I’d drive down to the Jersey Shore with my windows open and that song always played in the radio.
I loved this post! I might have to teef the idea from you, actually. Music = magic.
High school senior year: The General. Now and forever.