Music and Nostalgia

I feel something similar, certain artists and albums 'smell' like different seasons to me (generally the season in which I bought them). They literally cause me to smell things as if it were fall (Van der Graaf Generator), spring rainstorms (King Crimson), winter (Mastodon), etc. Some albums also make me feel like I'm in a certain place, really the very definition of nostalgia, like Magical Mystery Tour makes me feel like I did when I was on a plane back from London.

Not all albums/artists do this for me, but it is pretty interesting when it does happen. 

Whenever I hear 80's and early 90's rock/metal is takes me back to Jr. high school parties and school dances. 

Late nineties and early 2000s was still an O.K. time, after that I noticed there was too much junk in the mainstream. The better eighties music still gets to me, remarkable period the eighties. The Police made some amazing singles that were both fun and very original...

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobSaysHi 

Do any of you guys choose to remember a certain period of time by listening to the music you listened to that time? When certain songs play, it brings back emotions from the past. Sometimes I actively seek out songs that I listened to to remember certain things about the past. 

 

Am I the only person that does this?

Oh I definitely do this

- Albums paired with certain (life)events, periods (f.e. an album I listened to when I had my first appartment, an album my girlfriend and I used to listen when we hooked up in the beginning etc. etc.)

- 80's/90's rock; idem to ArmAndHammer

People have associations, that's how our mind works. When we hear things, there's some memories coupled with that, when we smell things also (almost everyone 'remembers' smells from some things of the past, mostly their youth), taste

Sometimes we seek those associalions, it lets us relive good times a bit.

Music in general is very close and about emotions all the time. In that sense, it really is a drug.
 

Sometimes certain songs or types of music remind me of girlfriends past. I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to get them out of my head. Also, I totally agree that Opeth reminds me of fall. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vikingatheart 

Sometimes certain songs or types of music remind me of girlfriends past. I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to get them out of my head. Also, I totally agree that Opeth reminds me of fall. 

Aren't you like 16? How many can it be!?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobSaysHi 

Do any of you guys choose to remember a certain period of time by listening to the music you listened to that time? When certain songs play, it brings back emotions from the past. Sometimes I actively seek out songs that I listened to to remember certain things about the past. 

Happens all the time to me. I graduated HS in 1988, and I still listen to a lot of pop and rock from the 80's, both on CD/MP3 and on the radio, as there are four or five radio stations around here that play mostly 80's music. Most of the songs take me back in a general way to when I was in Jr High and High School, and lot of songs remind me of specific people or places or activities, like if I was in a club and a ZZ Top or AC/DC song was played, I'll think remember where and when I was when I heard it 20-30 years ago.

Quote:

Originally Posted by logwed 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vikingatheart 

Sometimes certain songs or types of music remind me of girlfriends past. I don't know what it is, but I can't seem to get them out of my head. Also, I totally agree that Opeth reminds me of fall. 

Aren't you like 16? How many can it be!?

Haha! Well I am only 18 but I dated 4 girls and one of them was for about 2 and half years. Thats a long time for someone in my age group.
 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vikingatheart 

Haha! Well I am only 18 but I dated 4 girls and one of them was for about 2 and half years. Thats a long time for someone in my age group.
 

Ah, it's BobSaysHi who is the younger one. One of my former girlfriends has totally ruined the song Heart of the Sunrise for me, it was the only Yes song that she liked.

Music like Credence, Grand funk raildroad, and some old rockrelated stuff makes me remember of myu childhood, when my father/uncles used to hang out listening to such stuff.

i dont listen to those bands, but when i hear a sound i do remember.

Sometimes i think i grab a newly discovered band and play the sh*t off of it until i get bored, then look for new bands, from time to time i get at it again and memories come. same with old shoes.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BobSaysHi 

Smell? Haha, that's awesome . I don't remember smells, but whenever I hear an Opeth album I am instantly reminded of fall. It's uncanny, It's always the same image that comes to mind too. A really long road that was on the street adjacent to mine when I was a kid. During fall, the leaves would cover the street and it seemed as though they were always falling. Like it's raining leaves. Now, I never listened to Opeth as a kid, but the music brings back those memories.

Joanna Newsom's "Autumn" from the album "Have One On Me". Norah Jones' "Carnival Town" from the album "Feels Like Home".