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Commentary: Reliving Your Life's Movie Through Music

By Carolyn Menyes, Contributor

At the end of winter quarter, my roommate and I wanted to do anything but study for finals. As we lounged around in our dorm room playing flash games on our laptops, "Adia" by Sarah McLachlan came up in the shuffle on my iTunes.

My roomie had a good laugh at the fact that I still keep that particular song in my music library. I stood up for Ms. McLachlan and my credibility by explaining how much I loved that chick when I was growing up. This led to quite a long conversation about music and nostalgia, which then resulted in a mix of epic proportions of all the songs we grew up listening to. My roommate and I, who have quite different tastes in music, could both agree on one thing: The '90s fucking rocked.

And then I realized that it doesn't matter who I talk to when it comes to music—my bubbly violinist neighbor, my classic rock fanatic of an older brother, and my super-hip best friend from home can all come to the same agreement that my roommate and I came to.

The '60s were highly influential, the '70s and '80s were alright, the '00s were slightly less than alright, but man, weren't the '90s grand?! The pop songs were poppier, the catchy one-hit wonders were catchier and the rock songs were more rockin'. Musically, it was a great time to grow up.

We all have those certain memories of listening to music during our childhood. I, for one, can recall listening to my local pop radio station back in the day, WKDD, on the way to the water park. I was a tot, sitting in the back seat in my little booster chair. Blaring through the speakers was "My Hero" by the Foo Fighters, and I would drum along on the top of my chair. It was simple and comfortable and, to be quite honest, rocking.

When I really think about listening to music while heading off to Water Works now, I can't actually be sure if that particular memory is even real. Sometimes it's Dave Grohl singing to me, and other times it'sJohn Reznik or Gwen Stefani or Michael Stipe. No matter who is singing and no matter what the song is, I always feel completely content. I'm taken back to a simpler time. Bill Clinton was our president, Ross and Rachel were always making up, making out and taking breaks, and Tamagotchis were keeping children who couldn't figure out how to pause the game up all night (or was that just me?).

I can't help but wonder if we're all just distorted by our warm, sunshine-y memories from the backseat of mommy's minivan. Is Edwin McCain’s "I'll Be" really any better than "Hey There Delilah" by Plain White T's? Are the Backstreet Boys any different than The Jonas Brothers? Is the 1994 version of Pearl Jam actually better than the 2010 version? I'm sure us college students would answer all three of these questions with a resounding "YES!," but a lot of 12-year-olds would probably beg to differ.

There's a scientific side to all of this. It's recently been discovered that the area of our brain where past memories and emotions are kept also helps to process music. In a study at University of California, Davis, 13 students listened to 30 different songs off the Billboard charts from their adolescent years while in an MRI machine. Then, they were asked how familiar the songs were and if they had a specific memory attached to the songs. It was discovered that the songs that activated the most activity in the brain were also the songs that had the strongest memories attached to them. Furthermore, the most personal memories also triggered the most neurons.

The song is the soundtrack to a short film about your life, and you can't really stop this from happening.

It's no real shock that certain songs send a flood of electronic signals to our brain and remind us of days past. Nostalgia plays an important role in the music that we like and adds an extra element to the memories in our heads. The song that fittingly played on the radio when your parents gave your dog away, the tune you walked around to while singing with your best friend in middle school, and even the jam that pumped from the speakers at the bar last Saturday night are all so much better because of the memories attached to them and what plays out in your head because of the song.

Even as I was writing this article, "Out Of My Head" by Fastball came up on my shuffle, and I had to pause for a moment to relish in the warm and fuzzy feeling. I recognize that I am relatively powerless when it comes to the '90s music that I like. Sugar Ray may be a relatively embarrassing thing to have on my iPod, but "Every Morning" reminds me of karaoke nights in my neighbor's basement back in the day, and it certainly reminds me of a generally simpler time.

Being a kid was great, and I'm not going to pretend that I don't miss those times. The music from the '90s is one thing that I can still grab on to and remember. Moments in time can be summarized in songs, and that plays a key role in keeping those thoughts vivid. Our brains are hardwired to give our life a certain soundtrack, which leads to the aforementioned warm and fuzzy nostalgic feelings. The music and the memories will go on in our lives forever. So, next time Sarah McLachlan or Savage Garden comes up shuffle, don't let the haters get you down. You're just reliving your life's movie.

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