Songs are like little keys to my past.

I’ve recently come to the realization that I don’t like music for the sound or the beat. I like it for the memories.

Until the iPod I spent more time listening to the Pop stations than listening to my CDs. This led to hearing a lot of new music regardless of the type. So in the past all of the music I heard was from the Pop stations or movies.

I only buy an entire album from my favorite artists, like Richard Marx, Tracy Chapman, Bon Jovi and most recently John Mayer. Most of my favorite music is from the Pop stations. I don’t mind turning on the Pop stations and letting them play but with the iPod I spend more time listening to my own music than the Pop Stations.

Songs are like little keys to my past. I can be listening to my music, close my eyes, sit very still and transport myself in my mind back to a point in time that the song reminds me of. Along with the point in time is the surroundings such as where I was, what I was doing, who I was doing it with and the little details. I can slowly rebuild an entire scene in my head of that point in time including even the smallest details.

Some of my favorite music (memories) comes from the late 80′s when I was High School. Most recently the music from The Fast and The Furious Tokyo Drift has struck a note with me. There is something about the movie that makes me feel good or young, whatever it is I associate certain songs in the movie with those feelings. Songs that I know I would have never listened to otherwise. Once a song is associated with a memory it doesn’t matter how many times I listen to it, it always reminds me of the original memory.

I listen to music for the memories. I even organize my music by the dates in which they remind me. My Playlists are titled like so “1988-06 GrandMother’s (Hanson)”, “1988-07 Dorothy’s (C.L.V.)” and “1988-08_1989-05 Senior (Cherry Creek)”. I was just listening to a song that reminded me the two summers (87 and 88) that I spent away from home my family moved.

There is a song that I like because it reminds me of my Granddad and how the song made me literally thank him for being there for me. That same song reminds my wife of a bad memory, not the same way I associate memories to songs but certainly a point in time. I choose not to listen to it for that reason. I avoid any song that’s associated to a bad memory, mine or hers.

If I’m ever in a comma I want some tests to be run on my brain activity. I know for a fact that certain songs trigger memories for me so if I’m in a comma I would bet money playing those songs will modify my brain activity. Even if it doesn’t, play the songs for me anyway (the ones organized by date and checked in iTunes).