Music Reminding You of a Place and Time

Music does a lot, and one of the things I most love about it is its ability to bring you back to a time and place and time of your life in an instant.

Whether good or bad, there are certain songs or albums that the moment you hear them, you’re back to thinking about that girl that broke your heart when you were 15, or your early trips on the subway after moving into your first apartment. Whether it’s a ski trip with your family or a track that reminds you of dicking around with your best friends between junior and senior year of high school, nothing is really more powerful than that.

I’d even say it’s more powerful than looking at a photo. Sure there’s no visual of music, but nothing blasts you back to a moment like a song.

Your teenage years are tough — though I will admit I long for them— and I’ve noticed that a lot of songs from that time of my life reminds me of big events that helped to shape the adult I am today. Even the negative ones, through some 15 years of life, have positive connotations for me these days.

Bands like The Early November and Saves the Day bring me back to playing in bad bands with my best friends throughout our high school days. We were terrible musicians and never actually wrote or performed much of anything, yet those are some of the fondest memories I have.

I got married last summer and whenever I hear Regina Spektor’s ‘Us,’ I’m brought back to the moments after we had our first kiss as husband and wife. That feeling will last the rest of my life.

Even further back, hearing The Beatles’ ‘Elenor Rigby’ reminds me of driving to my grandparents’ house as a kid on Christmas Eve. I never not think about them when that song comes on, and it’s extremely comforting.

Music does a lot of things. It gets through the tough times in our lives, and even brings us back to them, and I’m glad it does.