Songs from the past can create powerful emotions and act as a vehicle to transport us back in time.
Have you ever heard a song that evokes the same memory every time? Every time I hear Love Story by Taylor Swift I think of my youthful time during high school. I can remember walking down the road after school with my best friends while listening to the song. Every time I have heard it since then I picture the same scenario in my head, but when I deliberately try to remember something particular from the period, I can’t recall the scenario without music.
This is an experience shared by many; like stepping into a machine, you can feel everything as you were actually there by listening to the music. The relationship between memory and music is significant and powerful, as music is an important mnemonic device.
According to an article from the BBC, the hippocampus and frontal cortex are the parts that the brain associates with memory and it takes information for us. So, the parts determine what we remember. Sometimes it is difficult to retrieve something, as memories do not simply come when you ask for them. Music helps because the rhythm and rhyme act as a cue for us to unlock information. The lyrics and consistent beats accompanying it makes it easier for us to recover our memory.
Music is linked with our emotion
Similarly, music triggers our brain and stimulates emotion from our memories. There is implicit memory (aka unconscious) and explicit memory (conscious). Implicit memory still can be retrieved by our conscious mind, it normally lasts longer as it attached to a particular emotion. For instance, I remember walking on the road after school because I was extremely happy with my friends and paired a strong emotion with the song. Although this happened 8 years ago, I perhaps can’t remember when I had my dinner last night because there was no emotional connection to my dinner for me.
Additionally, music is related to movement and it is another reason that evokes our vivid memory. According to Bergland’s article, researchers discovered that music activates some part of the brain. When we are listening to music, the cerebellum and cerebrum involved our motor abilities are stimulated. That comes proof that music, emotion and movement are interconnected. This can explain why I was walking, I felt happy, I was listening to the song, and I can now recall the memory to the day.
If you have a particular memory that you want to recall (no matter good or bad), try to pick that song to help you faster bring up the memory.
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