FEATURE:
Out of Shazam’s Reach
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Musical Memories: Recalling Treasured Songs and Creating a Comfort Blanket at This Hard Time
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I am not sure why it has hit me so hard…
ILLUSTRATION CREDIT: Lucy-Mae Naylor
but I was reading an article by Cailtin Moran on The Times’ website, regarding the potency and importance of cinema, literature and music at this very rough time. Whilst it is clear new music is very vital, a lot of us are going back to tunes that we know and love. This NME article provides more details:
“The pull of nostalgia has intensified with the strange new restrictions placed on us all in 2020. Spotify reported a 54% increase in searches for ‘oldies’ or ‘throwback’ since the lockdown, with a surge in nostalgic playlists. Music from the ’60s,’ 70s and ’80s have all seen a spike on the streaming platform, as well as tracks you’d always hear at the end of a night (and by that I do mean ‘Wonderwall’)”.
I guess nostalgia is that form of comfort and strength that we all need right now. Also, with new music a little more staggered, I think we are all relying more on our trusted favourites. I have been doing this, and really listening back to music I was into back at school. Whilst thinking about childhood music, a particular memory has come to mind. We all get annoyed when we are trying to remember a song and cannot place it. If one hears a song playing and they need to know the name of it, the Shazam app can name it in seconds.
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It is useful because, so often, I have been in a café or shop and a song has been playing. I get curious as to what the song is and, with Shazam, you can put a name to the tune. One of my greatest frustrations is the fact there is this song buried deep inside my brain that I cannot get out. I wonder whether anyone has the same issue whereby there are flicks of sounds and notes. I can recall the family visiting Hayling Island when I was a small child, and the song I am trying to recall was one I heard there. It would have been the early-1990s and the song in question is a club/Dance song. I can determine notes and slight flashes but, when I try and make something more concrete and cohesive, the song fades away. I do not know why I am so annoyed, but I think this song is a reason why I can remember that particular break/holiday the family had. I am sure that, years from now, I will remember the song and it will either be a wonderful moment or a bit disappointing. I have written about music and memory before but, at this moment in time, I think many of us are reverting back to the safe shell of childhood and youth and using it as a carapace in order to survive and feel optimistic. It is stunning how a single song or album can unlock a whole stream of memories and visions.
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More and more, bits of my childhood are sort of getting buried and lost in the mists of time. Maybe it is my slightly knackered memory letting them go more readily than most – it is depressing to realise that, one day, I might lose every memory from my childhood. I think music has this unique power to unlock the past and keep better times alive. Everyone will have a different reason why certain songs make us think back to when we were younger, but I have been re-investigating singles and albums from my first eighteen years of life. I think a bit of a nostalgia trip right now is good because, when we listen to our favourite music, we can remember what life was like then and we can think about the time that has passed since and how, through everything, we have survived and been okay. Granted, this pandemic is like nothing we have seen, but music can ingrain fortitude and optimism in us. When I play back various songs and treasured albums, I can recall where I was when I first heard them or when I bought them. I can remember hearing Carole King for the first time in primary school; the buzz and thrill of Dance music and mainstream Pop in middle school; the variation of the 1990s through high school, and so on.
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When recalling those tracks, memories are opened up like a book, where various people, conversations and contemporary cultural sights, sounds and smells envelop the mind. One of the saddest things (for me) is forgetting some of those great memories. Others are becoming more distorted but, from time to time, I can play a particular song and it is like petrol in the tank of my memory – it will keep that time running for a while before I need to ‘top up’ as it were. I guess it is inevitable that we cannot cling on to every treasured memory in quality HD. If I could invent anything, it would be a device or programme that allowed us all to perfectly preserve memories from various ages – we could select exactly what time period we’d like to select. Granted, there would be a lot of boring stuff, as it is essentially CCTV or every second of your life through many years. It would be good to have everything preserved for prosperity and be able to look back when the moment calls for it. Music, in its way, is the way many of us now – and through the years – are able to look back. Any other time of the year, we would be accused of being too nostalgic or being too dismissive of new music. I think recalling pivotal music memories not only lets us know how far we have come and the fact we can endure the troubles around us now; music is providing energy and positivity when we all sorely need it. Although I would like a psychic and ultra-hi-tech Shazam implanted in my brain that not only recalls songs I have forgotten but projects videos of my life and those songs, I am still able to bring back to life so many past times by listening to my favourite tracks from back then. Whether we are replaying our favourite Pop and Dance hits from school or songs that soundtracked holidays, friendships or scary times, this practice is helping so many people look forward and feel safe and, truly, there is…
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NO shame in that.