the when and the where

Music. Very evocative, but very subjective. One person's all time favourite, is someone else's headache. And a lot of it is elevator music, muzak, annoying ear worm, a racket.

Of course, with some tunes, there is also a lot more going on than lyrics and a melody. There is the instant Bing of recognition when the opening bars of a song starts, that can transport the listener to another time and place completely. For me this happens, most often, with songs from my youth. To be honest, I don't even have to much like a song to have this happen, but most times I don't choose those tracks, they just appear on a nearby radio, but a big part of the appeal of my favourite ones is that they do transport me back to what, now, seems like simpler days (though I'm sure I never thought my life was simple at the time). The memories aren't necessarily all happy, of course, a break-up song is just as evocative as a make-out song. 

Another bonus of an old favourite is that I remember almost all of the lyrics, some from 40 years ago, an extraordinary feat that I just can't replicate with new music that I buy, and even more impressive when you consider that most days I can't remember what I had for lunch. But music has that power, the power to trigger recall. Where I was, how I felt, who I was with, when I first heard it, what it meant to me.

I think this is why music is so important to people. It's a soundtrack to our lives. A time machine. We all carry around a vast CD/Vinyl/MP3/Cassette/Whatever collection in our head, alongside a bigger archive of memories. Cue up a track, press play, and your memory starts to stream in tandem with the music, putting you right back in the moment.