I clicked on iTunes yesterday and was momentarily shocked when there was nothing on my playlist. Shocked because I have over 12GB of music and I didn't expect to see an empty iTunes library staring at me. We got a new desktop recently and I haven't updated the music on it yet. Anyway, so while I was updating iTunes, I started listening to some songs I hadn’t heard in aaaaaaages. Some made me laugh, some made me nostalgic, some I’m not sure why they are on my playlist at all. But it got me thinking about how songs can trigger certain moods and how our brain makes certain associations with certain songs. They are not necessarily always our most favourite songs but they just stick with you anyway.
Off the top of my head, these are some of the songs that I always associate with something/ someone.
Everybody Hurts – R.E.M: This is my ultimate sad song. Whether it’s a fight with V or missing home, this song always makes me sadder yet better.
Yellow – Coldplay: This is the first Coldplay song I ever heard and I love Chris Martin. Sometimes it makes me feel romantic, at others it reminds me of school and a cousin and his car stereo where we discovered many of our favourite artists together
Leaving On A Jetplane – Janis Joplin: Between 2003 and 2006, I couldn’t listen to this song without crying. V was studying in a different city and I’d only see him once every 6 or 8 months. It also reminds me of my best friend A because we listened to this the day before I left for Aus and it’s so true… “don’t know when I’ll be back again….”
That Thing You Do – The Wonders: Again reminds me of A and my sis because ever so often we’d go a little mental and dance to this song (in the secrecy of our homes) like there was no tomorrow.
Turn Me On – Kevin Lyttle: It was such a HUGE rage a few years ago and my sister made up this little dance for my dog, where she would be flailing his little paws all over the place. It makes me laugh so much and reminds me of all the torture we put our dog through! It’s a happy-sad song now.
Romeo & Juliet – Dire Straits: It’s not exactly a love song a couple should be singing but somehow V & I both love this song and he loves to play it so it always makes me feel gooey. :)
Anything Metallica: V worships them and I started listening to them a lot more because he insisted on playing all the songs for me. I quite like them now. But I can’t listen to them all the time.
Say My Name – Destiny’s Child: Hahaha… okay, my cousins and I came up with a ridiculous harmony version of this song when it first released. It’s funnier because none of us can really sing and we did a four part harmony with seconds et al. I heard this at the sushi place the other day and I was laughing by myself. Must’ve looked a bit loopy I reckon.
Never On A Sunday – Melina Mercouri: My mum used to sing this song when she was in one of those happy moods where annoying me only made her happier!
I Want To Break Free – Queen: I went to an all-girls Catholic school and there would be days we wanted to “break free” from the sometimes archaic rules we had to follow. We even had a wooden desk beating nice percussion beat to go with the song.
Absolutely Everybody – Vanessa Amorosi: This used to be the theme song for the ads on Star World (an Indian TV channel) at one point and my sister and I were obsessed with it. We had a thing for TV & movie theme songs and would download almost all of them.
I’d really like it if some of you did this and wrote about your songs and the memories you associate with them. Its fun!
6 comments:
Hey !
I love this post
will work on my playlist soonest !
Mwah :D
thank you! Looking forward to yours..
Oh this sounds fun, here goes:
1. Star Wars theme, by John Williams- I can never hear it without immediately feeling like I'm twelve years old and want to be a Jedi in training (with Yoda, of course, who is awesome even in the crappy prequels).
2. Life in Mono, by Mono- this was one of the themes to the 1998 version of Great Expectations, which I really loved despite the fact that all the reviews say it sucked.
3. Sexy Boy, by Air- I first heard this in that scene in 10 Things I Hate About You where flyers for a party are floating down a stairwell...now I can't watch that movie without feeling sad about Heath Ledger.
4. Alone in Kyoto, by Air- that scene in Lost In Translation has more or less the most perfectly chosen music ever, and it reminds me so strongly of what it's like to sit and stare out of windows on any form of transport.
5. Buffy the Vampire Slayer theme- I hate to sound like an old goody-goody, but as a mad geeky fangirl of this show, it'd be nice to see something for teens on TV these days that isn't all about whiny rich girls and actually has a cool heroine.
6. Just A Girl, by No Doubt- THIS was my pissed-off-at-the-nuns/teachers, pissed-off-at-the-parents, pissed-off-at-lecherous/patronising-men song all through school, and I don't think there is another song that sums up more perfectly how much it sucks to be treated like a female. I don't normally pay too much attention to lyrics, but I can identify with pretty much everything Gwen Stefani is singing about here. And it never hurts to remember how awesome No Doubt were, back in the day. (I realised I was getting old when Don't Speak turned up on Classics Hour..)
7. Cemented Shoes, by My Vitriol- I first heard this on an episode of Buffy, back in Class 11 or 12, and went on a mad online search after it (I didn't know what it was, and had to look it up). I don't think I've ever hunted a song for as long as it took me to get this one (finally got the whole song last year, and I still love it)
8. Don't Look Back in Anger, by Oasis- I hated this song when I first heard it, and kept hating it all the way until I heard a friend of mine at college sing it- she had the best voice I've ever heard live, and she just made the song sound amazing. Enough for me to go back and listen to it and stop hating it, too.
9. Glory Box, by Portishead- I remember this used to get played on Channel V a lot, back in the days when it was still half-decent. It reminds me of all the music I first heard in those days- I still love most of it, even now.
10. A Brimful of Asha, by Cornershop- this got played at literally every party I went to about five years ago, and I can't listen to it without thinking of the people who played it- half the time this was the soundtrack to whatever they did, and I adored them without question.
A lot of my list seems to consist of stuff featured on soundtracks. Weird..
This is a great idea! I will do my own post about my songs.
http://whathappensinvegasstaysinvegas.wordpress.com/
@Blue: Love your list and I remember us loving "Don't Speak"... haha...
@ Charlotte...thanks for stopping by, do drop me a line when you finish your list.
How random, I just clicked into your blog and I did a post exactly like this a few weeks back. :) It is really fun running through old songs in your iPod - definitely a walk down memory lane. It's at my new blog (http://deliciouslysunsational.blogspot.com).
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