Today at work I was in the stock room, putting the delivery away, and jamming out to the radio at the same time, when a song came on that just transported me to another place. All of a sudden I was 17 again, young and free, with so much stretching out ahead of me and tinged with the sadness of a first love that ended badly. It’s always amazed me how much of an effect music can have.
There’s some songs form certain T.V. shows that as soon as I hear them I can picture the scene, I can relieve those emotions, and picture it all in my head as clear as day, like I’m watching it again. Which isn’t so great when I’m in work and a song I have associated with an emotional scene of my favourite T.V. show comes on, but oh well.
It’s not just being able to picture specific scenes based on the music you’re listening to, but it’s also the effect music can have on your mood. I have certain types of music that I listen to based on the mood that I’m in at the moment. If I’m in a good mood there’ll be a lot of happy, upbeat songs, and if I’m in a miserable mood then my music will reflect that. If I’m getting ready to go out and party I have certain songs I listen to when I’m getting ready to put me in the mood.
Sometimes it’s even deeper than that. There’s some songs I just can’t listen to, or that I really struggle to, simply because listening to them takes me right back to my last year of sixth form. Takes me back to a time I was in such a dark, lonely, isolated place that I just can’t handle those emotions.
There are some songs that I dare not listen to at the moment because I don’t know quite how I’ll react. Specifically, the songs from my Dad’s funeral, one of them I know I listen to when I miss him, because there’s a strange comfort in it. The other one? I daren’t even try because I’m scared it’ll break me.
Music is powerful. Music has power. It makes us feel, it makes us think. And those people who can write that music? That can make us feel those things? Those people are the true magicians.
A Place of Mine 