Do You Associate Music with Memories? (1 Viewer)

[Evan S]

I was listening to the Dave Brubeck Quartet - "Time Out" on SACD tonight. This was the very first SACD I bought, back in December of 2001. I listen to this disc quite often, but whenever I listen to it, it reminds me of that winter. I had just broken up with a girlfriend of 18 months and everytime I listen to that disc it projects me back to that moment in my life. It's almost bittersweet because I love this disc.

This happens with a LOT of the discs I own. Whenever I listen to GNR's "Appetite for Destruction", I get jettisoned back to December of 1988, when I first heard them during the equipment changeover of a Kiss/Ted Nugent concert. In fact, nobody had heard of them yet...the video for "Welcome to the Jungle" hadn't even made it's MTV debut yet and "Sweet Child of Mine" was still 6 months from release.

Does this happen to anyone else? Do you associate good or bad memories to certain discs based on what happened in your life during that moment? Some discs I hardly ever play anymore because they bring me back to a place I don't want to revisit, even though the music may be particularly good. Am I the only one who experiences this or is this commonplace?

 

[Marc Colella]

Definitely.

For me the songs not only remind me of a certain event in my life, but also a timeframe.

I can remember hearing a song for the first time and I was just watching TV or out with friends, etc. It doesn't necessarily have to be a good or bad event or anything specific.

I constantly relate music of the past with what I was doing at the time (again nothing specific). For me though, it's usually from the 70's up to the mid 80's. Don't do it nearly the same amount from the late 80's throughout the 90's.

 

[Brian Perry]

Absolutely. I remember exactly where I was when I heard Supertramp's Take the Long Way Home and countless other songs.

That's one of the drawbacks of videos; instead of each person having an individual memory tagged to a song--a current girlfriend, the car you were driving, etc.--we now have "mass" memories based on what the music video's vision is.

 

[Evan S]

That's one of the drawbacks of videos; instead of each person having an individual memory tagged to a song--a current girlfriend, the car you were driving, etc.--we now have "mass" memories based on what the music video's vision is.

Interesting take Brian. For me, this really doesn't affect me. I watch very little TV so I hardly ever catch the videos for most of the music I buy (if there even IS a video) but even for the songs that have videos, the memories of that PERIOD of my life far overwhelm the visuals from the video.

For instance, the "Rebel Yell" album by Billy Idol will always remind me of my high school days, but I don't really think about him dancing up there on stage with Steve Stevens when I hear that song. I usually thinking about stealing my parents car and taking it out for a early AM joyride before I got my licence

When I posted this thread, I figured most people experienced things like this, but I guess I wondered if the memories were specific or general in nature. For me, more often than not, they are specific, taking me back to a specific moment in time, when I first kissed a girl, or got in trouble with a friend, rather than a "time table" or a generality.

For instance, I am must more apt to say to you..."this song reminds me of the time at Steve's party during the winter of our junior year when Ryan broke the thermostat and it caught fire" than "This song reminds me of high school".

 

[PaulDF]

I was just explaining this concept with my wife tonight...

For me, a lot of music from the late 70's on, brings back very definite feelings or memories. Some are vague memories of a certain state of mind, or a place I frequented, or even a single place I visited while listening to the song. Some bring back very strong emotional memories of people and good/bad feelings.

I think this is the main reason, as Brian said, that I do NOT have any interest in music videos. I didn't really understand why until just now.... Thanks Brian!

Flashbacks are an important contributor to my love for music, a welcomed escape to the past, and many memories which undoubtedly would be long forgotten.

 

[Yee-Ming]

funny, for me I associate certain songs with certain women I've dated, e.g. Roxette's "It Must Have Been Love" with the woman I saw Pretty Woman with.

 

[Jordan_E]

Almost any old Steely Dan song takes me back to my high school days. Funny thing is I never listened to Steely Dan back then, but it always seemed to be in the air.

 

[JordanS]

I remember the first time I heard "Shine On You Crazy Diamond." I was just sitting there thinking, "this is music from heaven."

I actually like the PULSE version the best, however.

 

[Yee-Ming]

I actually like the PULSE version the best

hear hear. I started off with Delicate Sound of Thunder myself, which I thought was the best (better? only 2 at the time, studio version on WYWH and DSoT?) version until Pulse was released.

 

[Carl Miller]

Absolutely! There are many songs that bring out specific memories for me. Tops of all of em' is "Every Breath You Take" by the Police.

That song was so popular that when I was in college you could hear it blaring from dorms all over campus. It just so happened to be playing from someone's dorm room the night I kissed the woman who would later become my wife, for the very first time. We were sitting on the quad lawn late at night, sharing a bottle of wine and listening to whatever people were playing from the surrounding dorms.

For the next I don't know how many years, everytime I heard that song, it would bring me right back there to the scene. It was an incredibly vivid memory.

And then, a few years back something bad happened...Puff Daddy or whatever he's called these days sampled the song to make that tribute to Notorious BIG...I'd hear the opening notes, the memory would kick in and suddenly instread of hearing Sting, I'd hear Puffy! It was like somebody put the breaks on my memory and it came to a screeching halt...Or crashed into a wall.

This pretty much altered the memory related to that song forever unfortunately, and is the best example I can give of why I hate it when certain songs get sampled or even used in commercials.

 

[Evan S]

Damn Carl...what a great story...it's a shame your memory got ruined. Thankfully, the puffy version is no longer popular and you can put on your Syncronicity album whenever you want!

 

[MarkHastings]

Does this happen to anyone else? Do you associate good or bad memories to certain discs based on what happened in your life during that moment?

Isn't that one of the main reasons for most songs? They stir up emotions that aren't easily forgotten. Try watching any movie without a music soundtrack and see if it's the same movie you remember seeing. I'd be hard pressed to find someone who doesn't associate a particular song with a past memory.

I have a rather bizarre correlation to the final song in "Mr. Holands Opus". I used to listen to the final Opus (on the CD soundtrack) before everyone of my hockey games. The song was so powerful that it charged me up on the drive over to the rink. I always pictured myself making kick saves and dives during the crescendos in that song.