People tend to be extremely nostalgic for the music they listened to when they were young. If you were a teenager in the 1970s, you probably love them Queen, Stevie Wonder o ABBA. And if you were young in the 1990s, sure Wannabe, of the Spice GirlsI’ll probably still get you on the dance floor.
But why does that happen? Do we really think that music from the past is better, or does it have something to do with the memories we have of that time?
Our recent study, published in Music and Science, has found a curious answer.
Music is closely related to memory and emotion. There is a reason that explains, for example, the popularity of the BBC radio show, Desert Island Discs, in which famous guests share the soundtrack of their lives. Or why did a recent video of a retired dancer with Alzheimer’s disease that spontaneously returns to his past through music.
Music seems to be particularly associated with positive emotional memories and socialization, which makes it relevant especially now, in the context of the pandemic, because it helps us improve our mood.
Psychology has shown that autobiographical memories (life experiences) of certain periods of time are remembered better than others. A particularly prominent phenomenon is the so-called “reminiscence hit “: The fact that people tend to evoke mostly memories of when they were between 10 and 30 years old.
Various theoretical explanations have been offered for this phenomenon, including the fact that this life span contains many new experiences, which can be encoded in the brain more deeply and retrieved more easily. Biological and hormonal changes can also increase the effectiveness of our memories during adolescence and youth.
It has been provedFurthermore, when we ask people to choose their favorite album they are likely to turn to one of the heyday of reminiscence. It is also a fact that older adults know more about the music of their youth than they do about current pop songs. But does that mean that music from this period is more likely to be connected with autobiographical memories?
Music at 14
In our study, my colleagues and I investigated the presence of the “musical reminiscence beat” in a group of 470 adults ages 18 to 82. Our goal was to investigate how a person’s age when a song was popular affected three related but distinct concepts: the degree to which the song was associated with autobiographical memories, whether the song was very familiar to them, and how much they liked the song.
We showed participants the titles and artists of 111 pop songs that had made the charts over a 65-year period (1950-2015) and asked them to rate all three concepts.
Thus, we found that the music that was on the charts during the adolescents of the study participants was not only rated as more familiar, but was also more associated with autobiographical memories. This music-related hit of reminiscence peaked around the age of 14 – popular songs when participants were this age evoked most of the memories.
Additionally, adults over 40 also liked songs from their teens more. However, younger adults (ages 18 to 40) did not show this same trend and, in some cases, preferred music published before birth to music from their teens.
This suggests to us that the songs of our adolescence can be closely linked to memories of our past, even if we do not personally value music, and it may be because those sounds have accompanied several memorable moments of this period (school dances, meetings with friends, graduations , etc.).
Merla/Shutterstock
However, most of the interviewees preferred some songs regardless of how old they were when they were on the charts. For example, we saw a general increase in the number of people who preferred songs from the late 1970s to the early 1980s, even in participants who were not yet born during that time period.
This suggests that the pop music of certain time periods is valued intergenerationally. The songs from this period that we use in our study include Hotel Californiaof the Eagles I Will Surviveby Gloria Gaynor, and Billie Jeanby Michael Jackson.
In short, it seems that we are not so interested in the music of our youth because we think it is better than that of other times, but because it is intimately linked to our personal memories. However, some songs can transcend generational boundaries.
Advertisers wanting to elicit a nostalgic reaction from a certain consumer demographic should take note. So should clinicians seeking to reconnect patients with memories of their past.
–
