Music and memory 'tagging'

So lets all talk about the fantastic concept of memory tagging? I just made the name up so who cares but I'm talking about how when you listen to a song/album for the first couple of times while in a particularly strong emotional state or just during any sort of particularly memorable event, the music becomes 'tagged' with the memory so for years to come when you hear this music it will instantly make you think of how you felt the first time you listened to it.

For instance, I discovered tri repetae right around the time I discovered Google earth, and spent about the first 3 playthroughs fucking around with GE and just wandering the earth and shit. To this day most of the tracks make me think of that program.

Less oddly, generally if I listen to an album for the first time when I just happen to be getting involved with a lady, that music will pretty much forever make me think of them.

It seems to be the only reliable way to capture the actual mental states as one would capture moments in photographs. It boggles my mind sometimes how overwhelmingly real the feelings are that come rushing back.

Music has the right to children did this same shit to me, makes me think intensely of nature because the first playthroughs I was walking in the forest.

Anybody else here have experience with this concept?

When i was a kid, 11 or 12 I think, I had a Super NES and "Final Fantasy 2" had just come out.

I made it a ritual every morning to play that game for an hour before going to school, and my mom fixed me English muffins with delicious blackberry or strawberry jam for most breakfasts.

So now whenever I eat English muffins with jam I want to play that game. And whenever I play that game, I want to eat delicious muffins. English muffins and Final Fantasy "2" are one in the same to me.

Also, later in life, the summer I graduated highschool I got into all sorts of new music thanks to finally getting a computer fast enough to play mp3 files. Also, got a PlayStation and Final Fantasy 7 as a graduation gift, along with about half of all of Kraftwerk's albums.

I cannot play Final Fantasy 7 without craving Kraftwerk's music. And every time I listen to Computer World I want to play FF7. Even though I now hate that game, I still heavily desire to play the game whenever I listen to it. That summer was full of weird emotions for me, leaving high school and not certain what college would be like, so I made loafing around an art form for those three months.

"Bush - Sixteen Stone". One of the first CDs I owned. When I hear it, it reminds me of Magic cards. I had just discovered the game and spent a lot of that summer going to tournaments. When I was at home, sorting through my cards, I'd very often listen to that CD, so the two are very linked. It's easy to recall the smell of the cards, my room, the sounds my CD player made when changing tracks, etc, etc..

anyone remember the PC game "glover"? i played this with my brother while listening to disraeli gears by the cream on repeat. perfect match.

also, read a madeleine l'engle book about being stuck on an iceberg while listening to "at the heart of it all" over and over. whew.

  thehauntingsoul said:

. It boggles my mind sometimes how overwhelmingly real the feelings are that come rushing back.

 

Music has the right to children did this same shit to me, makes me think intensely of nature because the first playthroughs I was walking in the forest.

 

Anybody else here have experience with this concept?

same forest shit for me except with come to daddy. walking through the woods in the rain looking for my phone for 2 hours, listening to IZ-US on repeat. whenever i listen to that track i remember the rain. you can also tag places to songs, like the first place you listened to it or the first place you realized what a great song it is.

Music Has the Right to Children makes me think of Half-Life 2 because I had that album on repeat while I played it over the summer.

Same with Geogaddi

And for a few months I connected Time Machines with touring Stanford with my high school sophomore class

my friend played me bad touch by the bloodhound gang on the bus up to the mountain the first time I went snowboarding and now I always associate that track with majestic snow-capped mountain scenery.

snowboarding, i snowboard just about every weekend during the winter and nearly everytime i went i listened to the moog acid lp, so i am always reminded of the mountain when i listen to it.

I too have this with music, that's also why I can't be bothered to check out that many new artists in a short period of time, as I don't have memories to associate the new music with.

Yeah I love this... there's so much music that i associate with some kind of event/time of my life. I will sometimes listen to some music just for reminiscing.

For example,

For me the Babyshambles will always be tied to an awesome periode of my life (pre-christmas time some years ago) when we used to meet up at a mates rehearsal room practically every weekend with all sorts amazing people I now have nothing to do with anymore.. good times.

Similar things go for Dr Dre, Jurassic 5, SAW1 and loads of other things...

SAW2: Driving back from the record store in the rain after having just bought the album, listened on the way home

oasis - hello: summer rain + hoodies

  JohnTqs said:

same forest shit for me except with come to daddy. walking through the woods in the rain looking for my phone for 2 hours, listening to IZ-US on repeat. whenever i listen to that track i remember the rain. you can also tag places to songs, like the first place you listened to it or the first place you realized what a great song it is.

I can totally picture that, IZ-US is a fantastic track. Makes me think of the day I got dumped by my first ex though because I bought the CD that day.

  Berk said:

I too have this with music, that's also why I can't be bothered to check out that many new artists in a short period of time, as I don't have memories to associate the new music with.

No new memories? Have you become like frozen in time or something?

I don't think I do this. maybe because I mostly listen to music at home with headphones with my eyes closed a good part of the time.

but even then don't you find that your specific mental state shifts really slowly around throughout your life?

For example you might be going through a particularly rough patch in your life, or perhaps a really cheerful time, and then even in darkness with headphones the specific moods can still get tied to the music and then when you think back you realize how totally different your mental state has become since then.

I would say a fantastic experiment would be to play MHTRTC over and over for your kids first 5-10 years, then hide the album and give it to them when they turn like 18. THAT would be FUCKING NOSTALGIA

  thehauntingsoul said:

Music has the right to children did this same shit to me, makes me think intensely of nature because the first playthroughs I was walking in the forest.

Something similar happened to me with draft 7.30.

I also associate drukqs to metro coaches because I remember I first appreciated it when I had to travel to the other side of the city to take math lessons in the afternoon.

  thehauntingsoul said:

  Berk said:

I too have this with music, that's also why I can't be bothered to check out that many new artists in a short period of time, as I don't have memories to associate the new music with.

 

No new memories? Have you become like frozen in time or something?

I think this will be my first BoC-style post on WATMM, but I'm not really talking about memories, it's more about a certain feeling/impression you get for a short period, a sort of mood or atmosphere you are in. These moods don't change every day, they can last weeks or months, and the music I listen to during such a mood will be associated with it forever basically. I hate BoC though.

I remember buying Bjork's Vespertine while I was in Japan on a highschool exchange. As soon as I hear "hidden place" this overwhelming sense of nostalgia takes hold of me. Memory is a great thing.

  Berk said:

  thehauntingsoul said:

  Berk said:

I too have this with music, that's also why I can't be bothered to check out that many new artists in a short period of time, as I don't have memories to associate the new music with.

 

No new memories? Have you become like frozen in time or something?

 

I think this will be my first BoC-style post on WATMM, but I'm not really talking about memories, it's more about a certain feeling/impression you get for a short period, a sort of mood or atmosphere you are in. These moods don't change every day, they can last weeks or months, and the music I listen to during such a mood will be associated with it forever basically. I hate BoC though.

regardless you said you don't have any new moods. I totally agree with you though that its more of a feeling/impression. Its almost like a flavour or something.

  thehauntingsoul said:

So lets all talk about the fantastic concept of memory tagging? I just made the name up so who cares but I'm talking about how when you listen to a song/album for the first couple of times while in a particularly strong emotional state or just during any sort of particularly memorable event, the music becomes 'tagged' with the memory so for years to come when you hear this music it will instantly make you think of how you felt the first time you listened to it.

That's your neural network at work with you conditioning it.

  JohnTqs said:

SAW2: Driving back from the record store in the rain after having just bought the album, listened on the way home

I think of Quake 2 when I listen to SAW2.

Because I used to use it instead of the game's own soundtrack. It really does fit the creepy Strogg atmosphere and surroundings of alien technology more than the cheesy industrial rock music does.