How Music Can Create Pleasant Memories
A study by Durham University in the UK in 2022 found that music evokes pleasant memories [1]. This effect is called musical autobiographical memory, in which the composition provokes certain thoughts about past events. While listening to recognizable songs and sounds, positive emotions are generated in our brain [2]. Music has a more effective influence on memory than any of your favorite movies or books.
Scientists have found that such an effect of music on memory is due to the emotions that arise in the process of listening to a particular melody. For example, sad or aggressive songs contribute to more positive memories. That is why music is often used for therapeutic purposes.
However, not in all situations, music can help us evoke positive memories. Research shows that involuntary memories in our brain are more likely to form when we are free to think about the past [3]. Such situations can be considered periods of time that do not require much attention:
- traveling in transport
- going out with friends
- attending events
- exercising
- reading books
- relaxing
Therefore, in order to form pleasant memories, it is worth engaging in routine activities more often, which will not require you to concentrate much attention. To make it easier to create such situations, you can try following the following tips.
Create a playlist for daily tasks
Making a list of songs for each type of task during the day will help you unblocked pleasant emotions when you are doing them. These can be playlists that have already been pre-assembled by music editors on the music platforms available to you or it can be a list of your own songs sorted into different categories.
For example, if you are jogging, you can create a playlist of energetic songs from the 80’s. Listening to such music while exercising will increase your motivation and awaken pleasant associations with sports for you.
While reading your favorite book, you can listen to songs that you associate with the plot. When you read any of the books about Harry Potter, you can immerse yourself in the atomic sphere of the magical world by including songs from the film. If you've watched movies, then you can also dig into the memories that accompanied you when watching in the past.
In addition, you can create a playlist to perform routine tasks such as cleaning, cooking or traveling in public transport. Firstly, you will not be bored with performing monotonous actions. Secondly, while listening, you can remember funny or enjoyable moments from your life that will boost your mood for the whole day.
In any case, making a list of certain songs will bring more positive emotions and pleasant memories into your life. Apart, it will bring musical accompaniment to your leisure time and you will feel like you are in a music video.
Turn on the music when it gets lonely
If you start to experience feelings of loneliness and abandonment, listening to familiar music will evoke pleasant moments from your life. Support is always important, especially when you move to another country. To reduce the feeling of anxiety, it is necessary to create a familiar atmosphere around you. Listening to your favorite song with headphones is the easiest way to recreate such an atmosphere.
For example, you may worry that it is difficult for you to find friends in another country. In this case, you can turn on your favorite song from childhood, which will bring you back to cozy childhood memories, or turn on a song that you associate with close friends from your native place. This music will help you focus more on your own feelings and experiences.
Or you're scared because you're far from home. Listening to songs in your native language, you can feel at home surrounded by people close to you. The recognizable rhythms and words in the songs will turn your fears into a pleasant expectation of meeting your family and friends. By the way, listening to a native music makes any place home, no matter how far away it would be.
In the end, the additional sounds will give the impression that you are not alone, and will make the fear less intense. In addition, pleasant memories from listening to music will awaken pleasant memories in your memory.
Create vivid events around listening to music
To avoid feeling lonely, you can also try using music to find new friends. This will not only give you pleasant listening memories, but also give you sweet emotions from communicating with new people.
You can attend a music festival or a concert by your favorite artists. You can find similar parties on the Internet by simply typing the desired musical direction or theme into the search engine. It can be either an event dedicated to pop music 00’s, or a rock concert by a small indie band. By attending such events, you get to know people with similar musical tastes to you. It brings people from different cultures together perfectly. In addition, fans often create communities on social networks, which can also help you find new friends among subscribers.
At the same time, pleasant memories from listening to music with friends can be created under other conditions. You can organize your own event or a themed evening for a certain music that you like. Everyone can be invited to such an event. In this situation, you not only create positive emotions, but also train your management skills.
In any case, with the help of music you can find pleasant communication with interesting people and create pleasant memories about it. Discussion of musical preferences with members of musical communities can be used as a language practice.
Learn new languages and get to know different cultures
Music is a good way to understand the culture you find yourself in. The easiest way is to listen to local bands and performers who sing in a different language. But this method will not give you the most important thing — the opportunity to understand another culture. Therefore, you should not immediately listen to music. Firstly, you can read journalistic articles about it. Secondly, you can watch the explanatory videos on YouTube. There is a whole section of video essays about the meaning of a particular song in a particular world culture.
Also you can translate songs using online translators or your own knowledge. It’s not necessary to understand the references inside the text or some local stories told through the song. To look at the song from a new angle is the main task. Understanding the text will give you an awareness of the experience of people who live in another country. This unusual way of learning a language will not only amuse you, but also teach you something new. For example, when listening to Russian music from the 2010s, you can find out how slang expressions are used by young people in Russia now. And the k-pop hobby will make the culture of South Korea more accessible and understandable, because all musical groups of this direction use the Korean language mixed with English. Subsequently, listening to these musical compositions evokes pleasant memories and associations with cultural events or phenomena.
Listening to music is the easiest and most convenient way to cheer yourself up. Thanks to music, you can evoke pleasant memories of the past, which will make staying in an unfamiliar place easier. We hope that with the help of the above small "tips" you will be able to get pleasant emotions from listening to music and create a favorable atmosphere for work, creativity and life around you.
Sources:
- Jakubowski, K., & Francini, E. (2023). Differential effects of familiarity and emotional expression of musical cues on autobiographical memory properties. Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology, 76(9), 2001-2016. https://doi.org/10.1177/17470218221129793
- Salakka I, Pitkäniemi A, Pentikäinen E, Mikkonen K, Saari P, et al. (2021) What makes music memorable? Relationships between acoustic musical features and music-evoked emotions and memories in older adults. PLOS ONE 16(5): e0251692. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0251692
- Berntsen, D. (2009). Involuntary Autobiographical Memories: An Introduction to the Unbidden Past. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
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