Have you ever heard a song and been instantly transported to a moment from your past? If so, what was it? What did you think about when you heard it? What did you feel?
In “Live Music Is a Time Machine,” Holly Burns explains why music has the special ability to make us “time travel”:
In September, I went to see Counting Crows, a band whose music formed the soundtrack of my adolescence. The people alongside me at the Greek Theater at the University of California, Berkeley, were mainly in their 40s and 50s; people who might have had a babysitter waiting at home, or a slightly achy back. (I had both.)
As we belted out the lyrics of “Mr. Jones” together — a sea of fans singing a decades-old song — I could’ve sworn I was a teenager again. I forgot that I had a mortgage, two kids and a favorite brand of tea bag. I turned to my husband (it was a shock to remember that I had one), and said, “Did we just travel back in time?”
This experience is fairly common, said Dr. Andrew E. Budson, a professor of neurology at Boston University and author of “Why We Forget and How to Remember Better: The Science Behind Memory.” Music has a powerful ability to make us feel like we’ve been transported to the past.
Many experts say that, as we get older, we tend to remember things that happened to us in our adolescence and early adulthood more than in other eras of our lives, a phenomenon known as the reminiscence bump. Though there are several theories, some experts speculate that it’s because we’re forming our identities during this time, and our brains are particularly receptive to new information. It’s also a period that often includes social milestones, like a first relationship.
So the music we listened to when we were in our teens and early 20s tends to stick with us and evoke strong memories when we hear it again, said Kelly Jakubowski, an associate professor of music psychology at Durham University who studies music and memory. And for many of us, the music we liked when we were younger remains our favorite as we age.
Nostalgia can be good for us, staving off loneliness and enhancing well-being.
The author also delves into the science behind nostalgia:
When we’re initially forming a memory from an experience, different regions of the brain become active. There are several theories about exactly how this happens, but many experts believe that the hippocampus, a part of the brain involved in memory and learning, binds all of the elements of an event into a single memory. If it’s important or emotional, a neighboring region of the brain, the amygdala, will boost activity in the hippocampus to ensure that information is encoded and stored as a lasting memory.
When some part of your current experience matches some part of a memory, the hippocampus helps retrieve and reconstruct the remaining elements of the original event.
“The reason it feels like time travel is that you actually have the same patterns of activity in the brain; when you pull up the memory, they become active,” Dr. Budson said. So things you saw or heard or felt originally, “you’re able to experience many of them again.”
Music is particularly good at doing this because it activates so many different brain regions, Dr. Budson said. Plus, a song lasts several minutes, so “it encourages you to be thinking about that memory and retrieving that memory not just for a few seconds, like looking at a picture might, but for a prolonged period of time.”
Students, read the entire article and then tell us:
What are your experiences with nostalgia? Have you ever, for example, heard a song, seen a photo or watched a video and instantly been transported back to a moment from your past? Tell us about one such time this happened to you.
The article specifically talks about music’s ability to be a time machine. Is there a certain song or album that always evokes memories for you? If so, what is it, and what do you think about when you hear it?
How would you describe your relationship to the past? Do you like reliving memories from your childhood? Or do you prefer to live in the present or dream about the future? Why?
You’ve read about the reminiscence bump, which makes our adolescence and early adulthood stand out in our memory. How do you feel about that? Do you want to vividly remember your teenage years? Do you ever feel pressure to make memories that, theoretically, you will one day cherish?
Ms. Burns writes that the music of the Counting Crows formed the soundtrack of her adolescence. Whose music is part of the soundtrack of yours? If you aren’t into music, what other cultural artifacts (such as art, video games, books or movies) do you think will remind you of your teenage years when you’re older?
Students 13 and older in the United States and Britain, and 16 and older elsewhere, are invited to comment. All comments are moderated by the Learning Network staff, but please keep in mind that once your comment is accepted, it will be made public and may appear in print.
Find more Student Opinion questions here. Teachers, check out this guide to learn how you can incorporate these prompts into your classroom.
