By: Lillias Cummings/Copy Editor

     Music can be emotional and often attached to certain memories, so much so that it can spark a certain feeling within you when you hear it years after that memory it’s associated with. 

     It could be just a song on the radio you may have heard a lot when you were younger, or a specific song you liked a lot at a very significant time in your life. Music altogether can be a large aspect of our memories and how we perceive them.

     Some people believe music can not be associated with some memories because it often isn’t a main part of a memory; however, even a song in the background of a memory can really become a trigger for a certain memory.

     Take a childhood memory for example. Childhood memories can be a very broad spectrum; One may be a song your mom sang to you when you were younger.

      It may not be the biggest part of your childhood, or even the biggest part of that memory, but because it is associated with someone you loved during your childhood, the song coming on years later can remind you of your mom when she used to sing to you.

     For me, one of those songs is “Bigger Than Us” by White lies. I always grew up listening to songs that not many people had heard of just because that is the kind of music my parents liked. 

     Now whenever I hear this song, I think of me when I was about four-years-old, at my old house watching the music video for this song for the very first time. 

     Some songs don’t even have to be related to a good memory. I like to only think of songs with good memories, but there are some songs that I can’t listen to without getting an anxious feeling.

      The songs that associate with bad memories for me often aren’t a significant part of the memory, but since it reminds me of this bad memory, I can no longer listen to them. Music can correlate with all emotions and memories even if we might not want them to.

     Sometimes we don’t even realize the significance of a song in a certain part of our life. You may not even remember why a song gives you a certain feeling when you listen to it, until you realize it was often in the background of so many of your memories. 

     To me, this happened with the song “New Slang” by The Shins. I heard it years later and it really confused me why it gave me a certain feeling, almost like a comforting sound I haven’t heard in so long.

      It wasn’t until I brought it up to my mom and she told me it was one of her favorite songs when I was younger that I realized why those feelings were connected. 

     I love hearing a song years later after not listening to it for a while: It gives such an oddly comforting feeling that I can’t even describe. 

     Music is such a strong indicator of memory and can really help form a memory even if you aren’t actively listening to it, which is what makes music so connected to all of our memories and why a lot of us feel music so deeply.