Music and My Brain

When I listen to music, I rarely listen to individual songs. Instead, I listen to albums from start to finish. And when I love an album, I devour it, often listening to it multiple times a day, a week, a month. Because of this, or because of my brain chemistry (or both!) I associate said albums with the time at which I was listening to them. Furthermore, the dominating colors in the album art make up the colors I associate with the season in which that album was spinning.

I’ll give you an example: if I listen to Heritage by Opeth, I’m flooded with memories from the Fall of 2011. If I listen to that album, I can’t help but think back to those days. The artwork is sweltering – it’s filled with deep reds, washed out oranges, pale blues. Therefore, my memories feel warm and overtly colorful, much like the artwork. I don’t outright see shades of those colors in my head, but in a very real sense I can feel them somehow injected into those memories.

It’s been such a real part of my life that I now listen to albums completely aware that they’re shaping my future memories of the present. When Cult of Luna released Mariner, I knew it would be my “summer” album of 2016 because of how many times I listened to it. When I listen to that album now, I feel nostalgic for those days. In fact, if I ever want to reminisce about a specific time in my life, I’ll put on the album that goes with the season. It’s something I do somewhat often.

I don’t know what to do with this information, but I thought it interesting enough to share.

Guest Blogger: Sam Mooradian Album Listener

Memory... is the diary that we all carry about with us.

— Oscar Wilde