om your one’s also brings with it the memories of the times they have experienced while listening to that music. Whole periods, not just single occurrences, can be relived by hearing an old favorite. Several weeks ago in my wing on the second floor of Jester East, I performed an experiment. The participants were very well suited for the experiment because they mostly listen to rock and roll and heavy metal. Their musical taste is a far cry from the music I used in this experiment. Sometime around one in the morning I placed a compact disc entitled “80’s Dance Party” in my stereo, and turned it up excessively loud. My goal was to see how the male residents in the wing would react. Immediately after the music began doors started to open, and the residents proceeded to pour out into the hall. Though many of them had already been in bed, they all had smiles on their faces. Everyone was dancing around, and talking about times when they remembered having heard a particular song in the past. Dancing around in a dormitory hall during the a.m. hours of a school night may not be perceived as the most rational event to be occurring, yet the participants did not feel strange because of the music that was playing. The feeling that one has when hearing a song is often related to the most memorable moment they experienced while that song was being played. In the case of my experiment, being that all the participants were around 18 years of age, the songs from the 1980’s reminded us of our childhood. Since most of our childhoods’ were happy times, the songs reminded us of happy times. That is not to say that songs only carry joyous feelings, they may also hold unhappy denotations. For example, a song once held by two lovers as “their song” may now be a dreadful sound to the heartbroken singles. No matter if the memories inspired by the familiar tune are happy or sad, the experiences are vi...
