I'm not
someone who necessarily looks that deeply into how music is produced or even
conceived, although I possibly should bearing in mind that I was studying to be
a sound engineer many moons ago. That
dream sadly never came to fruition, but being the inquisitive person that I am,
I still have a fascination with all things music and am resigned to
understanding it as best as I can. I am
currently reading the book ‘How Music Works’ by the brilliant David Byrne and
am looking forward to gaining some insight into this world via his prose. In the meantime though, my mind is still
actively questioning.
I was
recently on a train journey to London and, as always, I was carrying my trusty
notebook and pen so I could write down anything that came into my mind as a
possible new article. Staring out of the
window and seeing the familiar scenery approaching the outskirts of London, I remembered
growing up there and had various other memories of days gone by. I then had an idea. So into my notebook I wrote the words ‘music and memory or association’. I also wrote some other bits and bobs
around this and did a bit of googling. It was the start of a train of thought (literally) and the thought was
this. Why does music link to memory and
what does this mean?
We all have
certain songs that are related to events in our lives. For example, when people get married they
have a first dance and this song then becomes intrinsically important to their
lives from then on. It will always be
‘our song’ because of that. You may
remember that a specific track was playing the first time you saw ‘x’ across a
crowded dance floor and suddenly realised that you wanted to spend the rest of
your life with them. It may well be why
‘Saturday Night’ by Whigfield means so much to you, but who am I to judge?
Anyway, this
thought also reminded me of a recent radio show that I had been listening to
where the host, Claire, asked folks to get in touch and tell her which song
related to various events in your life like your first crush, when you were a
teenager or when you left home etc. I
had a ponder and ended up joining in. This also got me reminiscing about when I was younger and the various
reasons why my songs choices were important to me. Claire had asked for the song that
represented your first crush and mine was ‘If
I Can’t Change Your Mind’ by Sugar. The reason I picked this song is because it was on a mixtape that my
first real crush made for me when I was about 19. It’s still a firm favourite with me and I
have to say that when I listen to it now I am always reminded of him. It’s quite odd really as I haven’t seen him
in person for nearly 20 years, but when I hear the jangly guitar of this track
I can see his face as clear as day. And
that’s what makes the link between music and association so very interesting.
Also in my
notes was a line that said ‘Glenn T –
cowboy films’. I'm sure this will
mean absolutely nothing to you, so let me try to explain my thinking around
this bizarre notation. I am a big fan of
the band Squeeze and in particular Glenn Tilbrook. Glenn has released some solo albums and also
recorded a tour video when he travelled around America in an RV. As I was thinking about memory related to
music, I recalled Glenn telling a story on his tour video about how when he was
a small child he used to like watching cowboy films. Not very interesting so far, but just bear
with me. He said that his memories of
the films were linked to the sounds he heard in them rather than the picture
he’d seen on the screen. He would hear
the sound of metal on metal and place this as a cowboy scraping a spoon across
a metal plate while eating beans. He did
not recall the colours or what was in the background picture, it was all about
the sounds that were being made. I find
this fascinating.
I read about
‘Music-related memory’ on Wikipedia and the opening paragraph says this:
Musical memory refers to the ability to
remember music-related information, such as melodic content and other progressions
of tones or pitches. The differences found between linguistic memory and
musical memory have led researchers to theorize that musical memory is encoded
differently from language and may constitute an independent part of the
phonological loop. The use of this term is problematic, however, since it
implies input from a verbal system, whereas music is in principle nonverbal.
Interesting
stuff, but not really what I was aiming for. Looking at savantism or child prodigies who can play 10 instruments at
the age of 6 is a bit beyond me. I also
read an article on some new psychology studies around the link between memory
and music. Again, not quite what I
wanted to delve into, but worth a read none the less. Check it out here.
I think what
I am more intrigued about is the relationship between music and how it messes
with your emotions. Why does hearing
certain pieces of music make you happy or sad and why do we feel the need to
attach certain feelings to it? I also
wonder why I can remember the lyrics to songs I haven’t heard in years, but I
have no idea what I did last week? It’s
a strange thing that you can recall all the words to a random song like
‘Snooker Loopy’ by Chas and Dave and yet I can’t remember to pick up milk on
the way home. It must perhaps be related
to the part of your brain that holds what is basically useless information.
It could be
that music is such an emotional tie because it’s more important to certain
people. I would class everything music
related as a hobby of mine so I am always focused on learning about it, be it a
new artist, reading about it or a new way of obtaining songs. Perhaps if you don’t consider this to be an
area of interest to you it wouldn't have such an impact. Although I'm pretty sure that going back to
Claire and the song requests on her radio show, that we all have records that
mean something to us for whatever reason. It could well be that the bands your grew up with when you first started
to take an interest in music have stuck with you throughout your life. I know that I attach my adoration for my hero
Neil Finn to the fact that I discovered the music of Crowded House when I was
in my teens and at the age where I was looking for something to speak to me
about my life. I found that with Neil
and his band and he has been something of a constant companion to me ever
since.
I used to
travel by train a lot in my early twenties and back then I didn't have my
beloved iPod with me as they hadn't been invented yet (yes I am that old). Instead, I used to take with me my personal
CD player and one of those CD holders where you could just carry the discs in a
zipped pouch. The effort of picking only
a few discs to take along was torture, but I always seemed to have ‘Ether Song’
by Turin Brakes each and every time. When I listen to tracks from that album now, I can still sense those old
train journeys from London to Liverpool and I remember how it made me
feel. That album is my travelling friend
and when the first track ‘Blue Hour’ opens with the drum machine, I associate
it with the train pulling out of Euston station and heading up the railway tracks
northwards. I haven’t made that
particular journey for well over 10 years now, but I'm transported back to
those days whenever I play that record.
I suppose
it’s easy to say that this is just human nature or memory working in the usual
way. The same thing happens with more or
less everything around us such as food we've eaten at specific places or
certain books we've read. What makes the
link with music so interesting to me though is the feelings that it brings with
it. I mean, I can probably recall the
first time I tried Chinese food, but it doesn't really bring out any emotion in
me. It was no doubt very nice and I
still like it now, but does it make my happy thinking about it? Not really, no. When I hear that song by Sugar playing though,
now there’s a completely different story. I find myself smiling and thinking about the person that made me a tape
a very long time ago. And that’s the
power of music. The images it conjures up
and the feelings it brings with it are something wonderful and I really do hope
the things I am listening to now will continue to have this effect on me for a
very long time to come.