My Sonic Time Machine

Jason Landry, contributor

I’m not sure if this happens to you too, but as I’ve grown older, music that I loved from my past has creeped more into my daily playlists. I guess it all depends on what age you are, right? As I’m over 50 and have had the opportunity to listen to a lot of music in my life, I’ve been asking myself: Why do we tend to go backwards in our musical rolodex rather than embracing newer music?

 

Don’t get me wrong, I do listen to and buy a considerable amount of new music, but most recently I have been spinning a lot of vinyl from my favorite New Wave and Synth-Pop bands from the 80’s. Yes, I was an 80’s kid. The Police, Duran Duran, Depeche Mode, Pet Shop Boys, Tears For Fears and the Psychedelic Furs all have been on rotation at times throughout my life. Once music from the late 80’s and early 90’s came into my periphery and auditory pathway, my taste in music changed drastically toward rock, metal and alternative music. I probably have to thank MTV for this.

 

Most recently, the channel in my mind palace was set to New Wave and Synth-Pop music. I’m not sure why all of a sudden it’s pulled me back in. Maybe it’s because in the last few years I was finally able to see Duran Duran, Psychedelic Furs, and even Sting live in concert and that nostalgic feeling took over. Or maybe it’s because  I started to collect vinyl records and I associate that genre of music to when vinyl was in its original heyday. Could it be that this music transports me back to a time when the future felt wide open and technologically thrilling, rather than overwhelming. I guess, anything is possible.

 

While doing a little research on this topic, I’ve learned that neuroscience has concluded that music engages various sections of the brain that has to do with stored memory (the Hippocampus) and emotion (the Amygdala). Both of these sectors sit close to one another in the brain and share various neural pathways—like a highly intricate interconnected highway system. Our brains go through massive development in our formative years and into preadolescence, and music and songs that we heard during this period become attached to certain memories and tend to be tagged or hard-wired with lifelong emotion nostalgia. It’s a a psychological phenomenon that is known as the "reminiscence bump." In a sense, we physically re-experience the emotion of that song that is tied to our youth.

 

This is all fascinating to me and frankly I wasn’t planning to dive this deep in my thought piece today, but WOW, I’m so glad I did.

 

With so many different genres of music to choose from, or be exposed to, what music or song transports you back to the soundtrack of your childhood and evokes the fondest memories? I'll go first ⬇️