Listening to songs from your childhood is like rediscovering old photo albums. It’s a strange sensation, both pleasant and eerie. I put my music library on shuffle, and by about the fifth song I was feeling so homesick I had a big cry!
The familiarity of certain songs has the ability to pull you out of your present reality into the feeling of forgotten memories. The colour of previous lifetimes start to fill in and earlier versions of yourself begin to resurface.
Music has a powerful effect over human emotions. Melancholic melodies arouse desperation and depression; whilst inspirational songs can fill you with so much charged energy you feel as though you might explode.
The following are some songs that I listened to whilst writing this blog, and the things I associate with each of them:
1. ‘Please forgive me’ by David Gray
I am on a bus in Singapore. I feel homesick and escape from the noise and chaos around me by borrowing an ipod off a friend. This was the only song that I knew. I listened to it on repeat – like leaning on the shoulder of an old friend.
2. ‘Soul meets body’ by Death Cab for Cutie
I am running through a bush track with trees crowding in around me as I push myself further and further. I am alive and motivated. I am happy, safe and contented. Youth. Freedom. Life.
3. ‘White Flag’ by Dido
I am at work, cleaning dishes, making food. Smiling at customers. I feel stuck and I am battling with boredom.
What frustrated me when attempting to write these things down was the fact that whilst words are powerful, they can’t encapsulate sufficiently the mix and sum of emotions experienced whilst listening to certain songs. Or perhaps I have yet to learn how to do that.
What about you? Which songs have an influence over your emotions, and why? What are some of the memories you have stored away in your music library?
