I have always loved music, from the time I got my first cassette tape, to learning my first chord on the guitar to the first time I went to a concert. Music has been a crucial part of my life. It wasn’t until I listened to, This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin that I realized music is and has been a foundational part of human development.
Have you ever noticed that when certain songs from your past start playing on the radio, memories from the time you first heard that song stream into your consciousness? It is as if someone pushed the play button to an old home video saved in your brain. This is similar to how a certain smell can bring back a memory. I believe that music, your memory and who you are at any certain point in time are connected.
In developmental psychology there are several theories on human development. Some common names associated with these are Carl Jung, Erik Erikson and Jean Piaget. While each theory may be different, a common trait among all of them are that they are broken up into stages. The theory that I am proposing is that people have a tendency to adopt different music genres corresponding to stages through out their life.
Looking back at my life, I have realized that each phase I went through had a corresponding dominant music genre. The interesting thing about these genres is that I had little to no association with them before that particular point in my life. For example whenever I hear “Going the Distance” by Cake I am immediately pulled to 1997, in my room playing a text based MUD at 3:00 AM on a summer morning. When I hear a Keith Urban song I remember the tough times I faced during my divorce and when Rage Against the Machine starts playing I am taken back to roller blading the 12 foot half pipe at Cheap Skates!
Think back to a song from you past and ask yourself… what stage of your life does that song represent? Leave a comment, I would be very interested in hearing about what genres pop into your mind!
Posted by Brian Lawrence
R&D Manager, HCI Oriented Computer Scientist, Musician and amateur music theorist
