In Our Feelings: Memories Long Faded Away

In+Our+Feelings%3A+Memories+Long+Faded+Away

Morgan Bluma

Have you ever been just jamming to some tunes while multitasking and then a song comes on and you are just hit with these intense memories? I honestly have and most of it happens with a lot of music I used to be obsessed with in my childhood. I just have this flashback-kind-of-moment where a weird memory appears in my head. It’s kind of crazy to think about. Really, these are memories you don’t just sit down and think about. For me, most of the memories that hit me are from scenes in a book I have read. I’ll have that certain song playing repeatedly while reading a novel and normally, a very intense scene just kind of stinks with that song. It isn’t like just “oh yeah I remember that novel.” Rather, I remember where I was reading the novel, the scene that I had imagined plays out in front of me, and who I might have been with. Now, if some of you haven’t experienced this, you are probably like, “this doesn’t happen,” but I am not the only one, according to science.

It has been shown in research by many neurologists and psychologists that certain songs can evoke very vivid memories from our past. Research has shown that if you have not heard a song in years, the song will evoke specific memories of a time from your past. Whereas songs that are overplayed tend to become attached to diluted memories since our brains are constantly updating these memories to that song. There is a board range of neural networks that are engaged when music is heard. To read more about the specific studies done and what this has shown over the years.

Oddly, my memory for the song I picked today doesn’t have to do with a novel, as I wanted to talk about a memory that makes me smile instantly. The song is Midnight City by M83. This song was a huge hit back in 2011 off of their highly acclaimed album “Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming”. The song is fairly straight forward about how a major city comes to life at night. One of my close friends from back home actually showed me this song and, to say the least, we loved it for years. So, when we could both finally drive, I would always play this tune as we went on our driving adventures to random places with no destination in mind. Just taking random turns where ever we went. We did and still do this often.

One moment that I always remember when I hear this song (because I am still in love with this song) is one day we were driving like always, but this day we actually had a place in mind. It was me and this friend and another one of our close friends. We had all decided to go to this very adorable small town in Wisconsin. We had to plan this out since it was at least a two-hour drive one way. I just remember I was in the passenger side of the car, with the windows down, had my feet out the window, and I grabbed her iPod (I know, it’s ancient) and picked this song. All three of us where singing as loudly as we could. We played this song at least six times on the way up to where we were going.

Why I find this memory interesting is because I do not recall the actual drive up to this town regularly. I remember the great time we had finding this cave located in this town but the drive to the place isn’t something that I think about often, except when this song plays. It’s fairly normal since we drive to places all the time and it becomes so automatic that some people even say they don’t remember how they got to the place they were going. I don’t have any other memories attached to this song. I can literally picture it too. It’s such a simple memory. Nothing wild happened; almost everyone has done or experienced this type of road trip.

I deeply encourage you to find a song you loved and to see if it brings any odd memories back. I personally love to write these memories down as we all tend to forget about music we used to listen to. It is really fun to look back upon and visualize these moments.