Imagine if music disappears in your life all of a sudden. How would you feel?
As a music aficionado, also known as a melomaniac, I cannot simply imagine the amount of depression, despair, sadness, and agony that I’ll suffer, once realizing that a part of me has disappeared. This may sound kind of extreme, or maybe you will think that I’ve gone too far. But to add a more distinct trait to myself, I am this much passionate when talking about my love of music. I listen to music on a daily basis. On my way to school, when I’m doing a workout, even when I’m showering, and just anywhere, anytime, music is always by my side. For most people, I think the superficial reason why we enjoy listening to music is because of the captivating melodies and rhythms, sentimental lyrics that you can sympathize with, and other musical features. Meaning, we’re looking at the music itself. I am not trying to say that this isn’t the right way to appreciate the music, nor to pick on people who take music lightly. Rather, I am willing to show the deep side of music, which is the ability to bring back memories and to socially connect people. Sorry for those who expected something bizarre, but the act of recalling memories and social association is somewhat very profound and a delicate category to deal with.
The idea of bringing personalized music to people with dementia is catching on across the globe. When doctors played specific music that triggered the patients’ core memory, the result was incredible. Each and every patient started talking about their past lives and they all burst into tears. The science is suggesting that there is more than just the emotional feel-good factor that brings up the effect. Researchers from Stanford University have shown that prescribed music can reduce one of the more distressing aspects of Alzheimer's other than the hardness of recalling memories. Which is agitation, where confused, stressed individuals act out or shout. A lot of experiments show what’s unique about music in the brain. Music is embedded nearly everywhere from emotional centers to memory centers to movement centers. And that explains why even when much of the brain is gone, music can wake it up.
But there’s another role that music played in our evolutionary past, a role without which we may not even have evolved into humans. It’s all about bonding. Music in many ways is fundamental to our ability to hold together large communities of individuals. It means that we can bond with lots of individuals simultaneously. In fact, the number of individuals in a singing or dancing group is likely almost unlimited. So music evolved as a method of sharing emotions and forging powerful social bonds.
Other than these phenomena, I personally have different types of attachment to each particular song that I like. For instance, when I listen to the whole album of Ariana Grande’s ‘thank u next’, it reminds me of the long trip to France and Italy in my sixth grade. When I listen to the albums of BTS, it reminds me of my elementary and early middle school years. ‘Die for You’ by The Weeknd and ‘Red Eye’ by Justin Bieber reminds me of winter in second grade of middle school. Just like this, every single song that I know has a special place in my heart. As the music starts, my mind is flooded with memories. And with it comes overwhelming emotions. It recalls the specific time and ambience when I used to listen to the song, and on top of that, it gives me an overwhelming experience with a sense of nostalgia. Of course, that is why everyone’s favorite music is so intensely personal since we all experienced different events in a different atmosphere. It’s a deeply shaped record of the times that mattered to us and the people we have loved. I am always amazed at the music’s capacity to hold on to countless memories. It seems like an equivalent of a time machine. Even the memories that we aren’t aware of, which are concealed by the predominant memories, thanks to music, we can have an everlasting reminiscence of our past brought back to our minds.
Comments