memories-and-music-blog

[memories-and-music-blog]

Spotify Allows Users to Relive Memories With "Your Top Songs of 2016″ Playlist

There have been many instances in my life where I’ve been listening to music and somehow end up in the black hole that is Spotify.  Sometimes I end up listening to songs I listened to in elementary school, and sometimes listening to songs that I had listened to on repeat only a week or month earlier.  While going back and listening to archived music isn’t too weird of an experience itself, reliving the memories that these songs bring back can be.  Some songs in particular bring back very vivid memories that almost place me back in an exact moment in my life where the song was playing.  A few weeks ago I found out that in 2016 Spotify compiled playlists of each user’s most listened to songs and I was amazed when I looked through mine.  For nearly every song I could immediately think of the occasion(s) that I was listening to it.  The number one song, “Break Up In A Small Town” was of course because when the song started getting airplay on radio stations lined up with when I was going through a breakup and I thought the song was basically written for me, typical.  “Teenage Dirtbag”, number sixty-four, by Wheatus reminded me of closing shifts of my first job in high school when my coworkers and I blasted it while cleaning the store.   Number eighteen, “My Church” by Maren Morris brought me back to summer of 2016 when I was driving around in my company car for my job which was the highlight of every day.  While some of these songs bring back small memories of a certain experience, others have significant meaning and bring back some of the best and worst times in my life.

In high school many of my peers started listening to country music, but I was very anti-country until my senior year. Growing up I refused to listen to country because I had some notion that it was boring and only for people living in rural areas.  I thought all of it was gloomy, slow music about living on a ranch, sitting around drinking beer and riding horses.  However, I eventually started to get sick of all the music they were repeatedly playing on pop radio stations.  So, one day I was listening to the radio in the car and every one of my regular stations was on a commercial break, I flipped the channel and gave country music a chance.  It took a while for me to get over my irrational hatred for country music, but the first time I heard Keith Urban’s “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” it was the beginning of the end.  I couldn’t stop listening to it and as a result ended up listening to country stations all the time just so that I could hear it again.  While I don’t exactly remember the first pop song I listened to, I remember, and will always remember, the first country song that I ever really listened to, and now any time I hear “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” it brings me back to the car I drove in high school, my route to school, and the beginning of my love for country music.  To this day I listen to country music in my car with the windows down and sometimes while studying, and because this song reminds me why I like country, it ended up as number three on my most listened to songs of 2016.  

Even though I listen to country all the time now, none of the other country songs I listen to bring me back to the start of my country fandom.  One of my theories about why “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” is the one song that takes me back to that time in my life is because it marked a transition in who I was as a teenager and my shift in taste in music from teenypopper pop to country and alternative.  The song is definitely country, but incorporates some aspects of pop and rock as well.  It has an upbeat tempo that could easily be tweaked and become a pop song and the drums and guitar allow the song to have a rock side to it as well.  If you had asked me five years ago I would have never thought that country could sound like pop and rock because I thought country was off in its own world.   However, I think that the incorporation of many different genres that I was already familiar with made it easier for me to realize that country can be a broad genre and wasn’t as bad as I thought.  “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” will always hold a place in my memory for when I started to like country and how once I removed my block on country I was able to see why so many teenagers in my generation liked it so much. 

In the 1950s, rock music began taking the world by storm and became a favorite genre of the baby-boomers.  Growing up, the baby-boomers bought rock ‘n’ roll records to “assert generational identity through rebellion against previous adult standards and restrictions of musical style and taste” (Starr & Waterman, 244).  While country music in my generation isn’t necessarily a way for us to “rebel” against older generations, just like how Rock ‘n’ Roll became a part of the identity of the baby-boomers, I believe that country music is part of the identity of my generation in my area.  There are many outdoor concert venues within thirty minutes of my hometown, and in the summer many country artists perform there. This has led to an increase in the number of children that have been exposed to country music in my area, making it part of our identity.  Country isn’t as rebellious as Rock ‘n’ Roll, but it is a sign of youth as many of us have attended country concerts with our friends because they were our “safe and affordable way for kids to assert generational identity” just like Rock ‘n’ Roll was for the baby-boomers.  Once I started to like country music I was able to be more in touch with my generation and felt like I was doing high school “right”.  Just like how Rock ‘n’ Roll had its own “culture” with distinct rituals, fashions, etc. country has its “culture” as well.  Instead of black denim, and boots we have ripped jeans, cowboy boots, and American flag everything.  Starr & Waterman state that “it would not be an exaggeration to say that the 1950s essentially invented the teenager as a commercial and cultural entity and that rock ‘n’ roll music, along with television and, to some extent, movies, played an essential role in this invention.” (244).  Just like Rock ‘n’ Roll defined a teenager in the 50’s and 60’s, country defined a teenager in Northern Virginia just a few years ago. Without “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16” it is possible that I would have missed out on a big part of my generation that our kids, and our kid’s kids will be talking about, which is why it holds a special place in my memory, and why three years later it is still the first country song I play from my country playlist.  This song represents how one song can change your taste in music, and any time you listen back to that song it reminds you of that transition.

Another very significant song on my list is number nine, Nelly’s “Hey Porsche”.  While in California for a lacrosse tournament with UVA’s club lacrosse team, we were warming up for a game against Texas A&M which was at 10 PM west coast time, meaning 1 AM our time, which is a distinct memory because never in my life have I played a game in the middle of the night, and I probably never will again.  Whenever we’re warming up for games we tend to blast music from our speaker because it has the power to bring energy and confidence to us that we transfer onto the field.  Now, most of the time these songs do just that, but for some reason “Hey Porsche” did more.  My teammate threw it onto the playlist queue without telling anyone, and the second people realized what song it was everyone turned to each other and our energy went up ten times the level it was at before.  I’m not exactly sure why this happened, but I have a feeling that it is because none of us had heard the song since 2013 when it came out and it brought back memories of high school.  The song has a dance track flare to it with a beat that is easy to jump around to.  For the longest time I thought that it was released in the early 2000s when I was in elementary school because it sounds a lot like old Akon and Sean Kingston songs we used to listen to on the bus to and from school.  It wasn’t the lyrics of the song that brought us back to our childhood, but rather the mix of hip-hop, rap, and pop that was so prevalent in the early 2000s. The guitar and quick beat that was the perfect speed to put a little pep in our step mixed with our enthusiasm that came with the memories was key in getting us at a high energy level.  The nostalgia it brought back to when many of us started to play lacrosse and being in the highest level we will ever play created a lasting impact.  Once we got back from California we listened to “Hey Porsche” at practice, and I listened to it on my own mostly because any time we heard it it reminded us of California and one of the greatest weekends of our college careers so far.  When we first listened to it in California it made us all nostalgic for our childhood, and now and in years to come it will make us nostalgic for our California tournament and 1 AM game.

As described by David Suisman, “the business of popular song grew up in the shadow of musical “uplift”- the nineteenth-century idea of music as a means to elevate the mind, body, and character of individuals and the spirit of the nation as a whole” (20).  Not only did songs like “Hey Porsche” get me in an enthusiastic and excited state that one day on the field, but managed to bring that same state of mind anytime I listened to it and was taken back to California.  When looking for warm-up songs, the most important thing we look for is energy level, beat, and just how the song makes us feel in general.  Young adults at my age and adults our parents’ age alike have a part of themselves that gets nostalgic in a happy way when they hear songs that remind them of their childhood.  Whenever my mom hears a song from when she was young she immediately tells me and I can sense the excitement inside her.  It’s the same for me and my team.  Hearing songs like “Hey Porsche” that remind us of an earlier time in our life and bring us joy, with something as simple as the style and sound of the music, is a good thing to experience on the lacrosse field, and in life in general.  This song is a prime example of how one song among many can have a lasting impact because of the emotions it brings over the listeners and how well it fits into the given situation.

“Kill The Lights” by Alex Newell and DJ Cassidy (with Nile Rodgers)- Audien Remix is another memorable song from 2016.  Because club lacrosse is such a big part of my life it is no surprise that two of my most listened to songs were a result of my teammates introducing them to me.  One day at practice my teammate Lauren, who usually plays the music for practice, played ‘Kill The Lights” and after a few listens it became our team anthem for the Fall 2016 season.  Not only did we start listening to it at practice every day, but we also listened to it at all of our social events as well.  One very distinct memory associated with this song is when Lauren had a party in her apartment and because it was so crowded, my teammates and I decided to hide away in Lauren’s room to escape the madness.  By no surprise, the first song played was “Kill the Lights”.  Once we all heard the song come on we each raced to a part of the wall and got ready for our tradition that when the chorus comes on we all bang against the wall, floor, field, or whatever is nearby along with the beat.  This song became a unifying force on my team and had the ability to bring us all together for four minutes as a unified group despite the number of people that were around.  

Everyone says that college is the best four years of your life, and I believe that this is because it is when you’re first away from your parents, living on your own, and finally have the freedom to, for the most part, do what you want to do as an individual.  College is all about embracing your young age before you enter the real world as an adult.  In the 1950s, and 60s when Rock ‘n’ Roll was the music of the young generation, “Youth [was] riding tandem on a Honda motorcycle or walking the streets with a transistor radio. Youth [was] playing a guitar, drinking Coke, eating pizza. Youth [was] long hair and miniskirts, white lipstick and Clearasil.” (Taylor, 11).  For me, I think that “Kill The Lights” is one representation of my youth.  Banging against walls, being loud and rowdy in hotel rooms when it came on, playing lacrosse, all of these things will be a part of my young adulthood forever.  The power of this song every time I listen to it to bring me back to the time and place where I was carefree, happy, and enjoying my youth will never fade.  

Audien is a young producer that has created remixes on sound cloud for Bastille, Bruno Mars, and many other artists’ songs.  They have become extremely relevant as EDM has become a very present genre in today’s young music world.  While EDM is a main aspect of rave culture in many big cities, it is also spreading to some people’s day to day lives.  Artists such as the Chainsmokers and Major Lazer have become very present artists in my life because any weekend you go out with friends you are bound to hear a lot of EDM music.  “Kill The Lights” is unique in that it was originally more of an 80s dance songs but Audien turned it into a more electronic and youthful song. While the beginning of the song is similar to the original, the one aspect of Audien’s remix that is engraved in my memory forever is the enhanced beat that he added during the chorus that inspired our team wide wall-banging sessions and the way that he managed to increase the suspense right before the chorus so that when the beat drops your energy level skyrockets.  There is no doubt in my mind that simply because of the beat of the song and how it went hand in hand with many of the memories I have while listening to the song, I will never forget those memories.  Just hearing the bass drop puts me back on the lacrosse field or in Lauren’s apartment.  This song is an important indication that one song has the capability to make you remember important memories just based on the beat, and how that beat and the experiences you associate with that beat will never be forgotten.

I’m the type of person that when I hear a song that I like I listen to it over, and over, and over again.  Because of this, many of my top 100 most played songs from 2016 are mostly those that I probably listened to for at least a week straight.  These songs, however, probably wouldn’t have been my top 100 most listened to if it weren’t for Spotify and free music.  Many of these songs I first heard on the radio, from a friend, at a concert, etc. and immediately took a liking to.  With my generation we often listen to one song from an artist’s album and have never heard the rest.  Because of this, if I had heard any of these songs mentioned before free music was available, I probably wouldn’t have gone out and bought the whole CD and as a result would have forgotten about them.  However, because I was able to pull up those songs on Spotify and add them to my music library instantly, I was able to listen to them over and over again.  If you’ve ever heard of the idea that when you experience something and never relive the story in your head or tell the story to someone else you are likely to forget it, well music and memories work can work the same way.  If you hear a song and like it, but never think about it again in the near future you will probably forget about it, but if you listen to it again, and again, and again, like I tend to do, then the song and the memory of when you first heard it will be engraved in your brain together forever.  

A song doesn’t have to be music gold in order for it to have an impact on your life.  It can just remind you of friends, family, experiences, etc. with the beat, genre, or instruments and have a lifelong place in your mind and heart.  Lyrics aren’t always the most important part of a song, but the way that it fits into your experiences stylistically is more important.  None of these songs that I’ve mentioned are really anything special.  “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16″ is a classic country song, “Hey Porsche” sounds just like many other hip-hop/pop songs, and “Kill The Lights” probably sounds like many other EDM songs.  The difference is that each of these songs fit perfectly into the situation at hand when I first heard them and that was all it took to have lasting memories associated with them.  “John Cougar, John Deere, John 3:16″ had a mix of genres that was the perfect way to transition into a country music fan, “Hey Porsche” had the perfect mix of nostalgia and high energy to fit with the exciting 1 AM game, and “Kill The Lights” had the perfect beat drop that allowed my team to have a unique experience any time it dropped.  As a result of paying $4.99 a month, I have the ability to play through my music library and relive many good, and some bad, memories from my life.

RESOURCES 

Suisman. D. 2009. Selling Sounds: the commercial revolution in American Music. Cambridge, Ma. & London: Harvard University Press. 

Taylor, T. 2012. The Sounds of Capitalism: advertising, music and the conquest of culture. Chicago & London: University of Chicago Press.

Starr & Waterman (2013), Chapter 8: '"Rock Around the Clock": ROCK 'N' ROLL, 1954-1959'

Taylor The Sounds of Capitalism (2012) – Chapter 6 ‘The Discovery of youth in the 1960s’