A Musical Escapade

Written by Mathirakshana K

Edited by Vyakhya Vashishth

Illustrated by Deepshika Bannerjee

Déjà vu. What a powerful French feeling, that one (based only on its origin, ‘course). How is it, that through music, we get teleported through these invisible means to an ethereal realm that reeks of nostalgia? No matter of its ilk- a cruel memory, a sad memory or a happy one- we caress those buried emotions and feelings attached to the song, and immediately find ourselves surrounded by the atmosphere we used to or first listened to it in.

It’s the potency of the music- it imprints a reminder and bears resemblance to an “autobiography of memories”, as per a study based on the psychological effects of nostalgia. Come to think of it, something that is very significantly witnessed in all of our households is the mere fact that our parents are appalled and resist learning about our music preferences simply because they can’t ever seem to understand it. Kinda common to have conflicting interests, yeah? In their defence though, it is the songs that you hear when you are a teenager that can largely influence your music style and the genres of music you vibe to. Psychologists and neurologists have proven that our brain, while listening to music at that stage in our lives, immediately lassoes itself onto the comfort and the feeling of the songs. This unique connection does not weaken as we grow up- it just further reinforces the strong hold that teenage years have on the rest of our lives, literally shaping our musical choices. Oh yes, that’s right. Even Spotify is so considerate as to have a Time Capsule playlist, that much like its name, literally grabs you by its illusionist hands and leaves you in the exact moment you associate the song with and opens the flood of emotions that wash over you in strong waves. Even Spotify conducted a research to understand why they had a flurry of positive comments about this addition when they first released it.

In a survey they conducted, they got results that said music was the top trigger for nostalgia- people often find solace in listening to songs that remind them of special parts of their lives. Music evokes a range of emotions compared to other stimuli, and they are mostly ‘emotion-based’ than ‘non-emotion-based’. Spotify even went on to analyse user’s patterns of listening to music- they have listened to music that was popularised during their mid- to late-teenage years after which their music choices then shift from ‘ of the time’ to ‘of their time’, those songs and those artists having the most gravity thus far. Memory researchers call this period the ‘reminiscence bump’ where we seem to retain the most memories than we ever will. It might make us sound like we are old already, but no, let’s find peace in our existence now, okay!

When we discuss nostalgia, we recollect our memories and open the rusty, dusty drawers of our past, to uncover hidden gems or concealed broken shards. Memories are always fueled by the emotions we felt then and really nothing compares to the reaction music can draw out of its listeners. Brain imaging studies have proven to reveal that our faves stimulate the ‘brain’s pleasure circuit’, which therefore releases dopamine, serotonin, oxytocin and other neurochemicals that provide us with that mirth. Just the act of listening to music fires up our brain’s visual cortex, and in the young, it’s like a ‘firework show’ apparently as we still undergo rapid neurological development, and thanks in part to pubertal growth hormones. Also, listening to a song on loop, something we all do for sure, can make the feelings, and memories stick to our brains like glue and that stays like super glue- for LIFE. Moreover, at this stage, we essentially are charting our own path of discovery- we start off by foraging for music on our own while meeting new people who influence our tastes, and handpick the bits and pieces to put together our own identity. We are still exploring prospects but there comes a time when we are comfortable with what we have found.

Nostalgia runs deep, and it is instantly switched on when we listen to something that rekindles our fondest memories. Even if the whole picture does not replay, certain fragments out of the story do and the emotional meaning stays- unscathed.

To end this, I leave with you one of my gazillion favourite and nostalgic lyrics ever.

It’s a Tamil song lyric:

உலகென்னும் பரமபதம், விழுந்தபின் உயர்வு வரும், நினைத்தது நினையாதது சேர்க்க போறோமே

In this life designed like a ‘snake and ladders’ game, we may fall but we get a chance to rise. We’ll connect everything we think of, and everything beyond our thoughts.