Wednesday 17 June 2015

Why do we like playing songs from our youth so much?

Nostalgia is powerful, I'm sure you've experienced it. When that song that played during your last dance at prom comes on the radio, you have no choice but to crank the radio and sing along. Regardless of wether they align with your current tastes in music, those adolescent anthems will always tug at your heartstrings. I can't help but blast the backstreet boys obnoxiously loud when it comes on the radio, it makes me feel good. It takes me back to my first day of highschool walking through the front doors of that big menacing building, soon to meet some of my best friends in life. Can this feeling be explained by science? Yes, as a matter of fact it can.   Slate’s Mark Joseph Stern begins by discussing the way music interacts with the brain to stimulate various neural locations: “Sing along to a song in your head, and you’ll activate your premotor cortex, which helps plan and coordinate movements. Dance along, and your neurons will synchronize with the beat of the music. Pay close attention to the lyrics and instrumentation, and you’ll activate your parietal cortex, which helps you shift and maintain attention to different stimuli.” - Mark Joseph Stern The relationship between music and the human nervous system is, in fact, so complex that it constitutes an entire scientific field: the cognitive neuroscience of music. According to Daniel Levitin, author of This Is Your Brain On Music, listening to music can have a significant impact on our brain chemistry, including the way we feel both physically and mentally. When we listen to our favorite songs, our brains release dopamine, a pleasure-inducing neurotransmitter that’s also released by a good meal. Many of our favorite songs are chosen when our personalities (and thus our musical tastes) are coalescing, which principally happens between the ages of 12 and 22. Obviously, that’s not to say that personality development can’t occur after 22, but there’s a reason why so many YA novels by authors like Sarah Dessen can be pretty angsty: first having to figure out who you are is, well, pretty stressful. But it can also result in the discovery of songs you’ll caterwaul along to for the rest of your life. Music can also influence the way we recall memories. In 1999, Schulkind, Hennis, and Rubins documented the power of music to bring back specific memories. Since many of our “firsts” (first swig of nasty beer, first school dance, first time we wear red lipstick, first time we get the courage to hold someone else’s hand, and so on) occur during our teens, and because so many of those moments are, by their nature, accompanied by music of some kind, those memories can get linked pretty strongly with the songs themselves. For example, one-hit wonder Daniel Powter’s “Bad Day” was playing during my first (incredibly awkward) dance, so I giggle whenever that comes on. via/slate.com   The Nostalgia Machine The Nostalgia Machine Get your childhood jam on here. Set the date to which you would like to [...]

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