Music memories
They can be good or bad. The feeling stays with you.
I don’t remember my first encounter with music. But I remember the times when I used to hear cassettes in my dad’s car, wherever he used to take us. The songs were generally from recent Bollywood movie. The moment, me and my siblings used to sit in the car, we wanted to hear music and we used to ask dad to put in those cassettes and the ride ahead became joyous.
The time passed by, and the technology improved. Then came ipod’s and portable walkmans. Whenever we used to go on a trip, I used to hear songs on the walkman and used to stay glued to it all the time. I never knew when and how I got so much into music. I got introduced to international music in 8th standard. I used to play songs by Akon, Linkin Park and Shakira on loop and hear them all day long. I used to listen to songs 24/7 — while studying, while travelling, while doing anything else. Now, when I look back I don’t have photos of those times, nor do I have those days in my memory. But as soon as I hear a song linked to that time, I get back the same feeling. I figured listening to music doing something, associates that thing with a song.
Has this ever happened to you ? You put a song as your alarm, wake up to it early morning, while you hate to wake up early and soon, you start hating the song itself. This has happened to me quite a lot, that I stopped keeping songs as my alarm tones.
There are songs you have heard on some of your best days and some songs which you have heard on the best days. They just somehow store the feeling of those days within it. I remember about my school days, when just before the exam day, I used to work too hard, and get completely exhausted by the night. Before going to sleep, I used to hear radio. On radio, there used to be stories told by some great RJs or even news being told with no background noise. The feeling used to be too calming after the day’s struggle. Now whenever I switch up the radio, I get back that calming feeling.
As I did almost everything while listening music, I can say that I have all of my life’s memories stored in those songs and they are not taking up any space like the photos in my google photos account, which keeps filling up after a particular time. I have found music to have profound effect on everything I do. During workouts, I could go that extra mile, just because of “In the End” playing in my ears making me sweat harder, making me push my limits. I remember reading through most boring subjects during my school and college. It was music that got me through it.
I remember another funny incident, I was listening to a new album, and I just loved the songs. But at that time, I was learning to drive car also. I was good enough to drive alone, but I had to be extremely cautious, so there was a feeling of fear in my heart at all times. And, the worst happened, I crashed, took wrong sides and did all type of crazy things in my those early days and the result, the feeling got attached to those great songs, and whenever that track comes up while driving, I fear that I am going to be in a crash again today.
All that said, that’s why I believe music are an important aspect in movies too. It is very important to match the feeling of a song with the current scene. Because music in itself is a feeling, and you can’t be feeling two things at a time. Dramatic movies in trailers play a big role in determining whether people are going to watch a movie or not. Someone’s identity can be perfectly understood with the help of just a single song. We all know what tune comes to mind when we think of James Bond.
But funny thing, I bet many of you reading this won’t be able to say exactly which song do you like the most. This is simply because there is not one feeling which we love. All the feelings make us, and each has its own importance in each of our lives. Music also helps us bring back the memories of the people we lost who are no longer there in our life.
Music somehow has made everything better in my life. Even in the most toughest situations, when I was at the brink of breaking, I had music which helped me through that phase. It just makes bad things bearable and good things better. Those treks and road trips will not be as enjoyable as they are today with light music bursting through your speakers. Those workout/study sessions will never be as productive without the adrenaline rush caused by music in body.
Let me know in the comments section, which song has what memory attached in your life and how important is that to you. I believe all of you must have something called “Music memories”.
