Musical Memories

Music can contain memories, or perhaps more accurately, music can trigger the recollection of memories.  There are a few tracks that to this day I cannot hear without thinking of certain people.  For me there are bittersweet tracks like Cuttin' Deep by Darren Styles which reminds me of a love that could have been if it weren't for all that happened; guilt ridden songs like Chasing Cars by Snow Patrol remind me of a love that jumped the gun and ended in misery for everyone involved; and melancholy tracks like The One That Got Away by Katy Perry remind me of quite literally the one that got away.  There are many others but these three were the first to come to mind, all three dealing with love, one of the strongest emotions it isn't surprising then that these three connections are the strongest.

Music reminds me of places too, Nas Ne Dagoniat by t.A.T.u. oddly enough reminds me of standing waiting for a train in West Hampstead wondering if I made the right decision - cryptic I know, and the answer is I still don't know.  Something by Lasgo reminds me so much of my time in College which I still regard to be one of the happiest periods in my life.

The connection between music and memory is not something that is easy to break, at least, I've never managed to do it.  Having said that, I don't know if I would actually want to break it, even for those songs that evoke emotions that aren't happy or positive, they remind me of a time in my life when I had no idea what to do, and all I could do was what I thought was right at the time - no matter how terrible those decisions turned out to be, they were still what I felt was right and I can't be angry at myself for making that choice.  Even now, in my life when I make decisions, I make them because I believe they are the right choice for me, here and now.  In years to come if I look back and think they were the worst possible decisions I could have made, that judgement will be made in hindsight with knowledge I can't possess right now.  If I was blessed with foresight I would probably be a very rich man by now.

There is a thought that does arise when thinking about music and the memories that are attached to them, that is, what do people associate with me?  What tracks do people hear now and think of me?  That may sound very self centred, and to be honest it is, but as they say it's my party.  There are a few tracks I could guess people might associate with me, one or two of those I know I was the first to introduce them to, and the rest are tracks that they were the first to introduce me to them.  Music was always something I found it easy to bond with other people over.  I have an eclectic Music taste that stems from Kylie Minogue to Marilyn Manson, Enya to Ozzy Osbourne, Ke$ha to Frank Sinatra, Guns n Roses to Celine Dion, Madonna to Mama Cass - you get the picture.  I'll try anything once and see where it goes.  There have been very few people whose music taste has had absolutely no crossover with my own.

Styles of music do vary, but it is often lyrics that I connect with more than melody.  Songs that I form the deepest connections to are those with lyrics that aptly capture thoughts and feelings that I have now or that I had when I first heard those songs.  On apps and messengers when there is an opportunity to set a status my default choice is the lyric "I think we're alone now..." from The Birthday Massacre, or Tiffany, or Tommy James and the Shondells, depending on how old you are - we don't talk about the Girls Aloud cover, that never happened.  The thing I love about this song is the playful nature of the lyrics, young, carefree, innocent, with an optimism that is so persistent when it comes to those days when you start falling for someone or when you start feeling a connection and all you want to do is be with them and share in that joy and fall head over heals, laugh, sigh, breathe, and lose yourself in their arms.