Music is attached to memories. They go hand in hand. In those moments where this potential for connection activates, it’s like music becomes a spongy substance that pervades the air. Key details of the moment -or rather our subjective experience of it- begin to float irresistibly towards its pores, permeating them and leaving the music soaked with its memory.
Outstanding music becomes intertwined with run-of-the-mill moments. Or conversely, we relive significant moments when we encounter an otherwise ordinary song.
Either way, some of these songs can take us back to some of our most cherished moments in ways that are the closest we will get to relive them in a fully-embodied manner, dispelling once more that growing impression that they might have only been dream as they recede further into the past.
Some questions regarding dreams and memory:
Is music some sort of chaotic mnemonic device, powerful but difficult to control?
Can music be used in a premeditated way to infuse meaning to a moment for future remembrance?
Or does it only work when the music is compatible with the moment? But what makes a specific musical piece compatible to a moment? And can a moment that should’ve been completely forgettable form a more evocative memory in our minds than other meaningful moments just because some song happened to attach itself to it?
Does the moment the music is attached to change our perception of the music itself? Or can it happen the other way around? Or is it a mutual influence?
And -this could be the most important one- can we ruin a song we love by listening to it continuously during a bad period that we will prefer not to remember in the future? Even worse, were it previously attached to an invaluable memory, would this new association with a bad moment supersede it?
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