Article written by Lauren Johnston.
Have you ever thought about what your life’s playlist would sound like? We all have those songs we hear and lose our mind to. Those songs you scream the lyrics to until your lungs collapse because that’s ‘your song!’, and those songs that always make you cry or reflect on a sad part of your past: it all means something to us. The songs that bring back those bittersweet and/or absolutely heartwarming memories are all a part of your life’s playlist.
Just like all great pieces of art, music can tell a story. The songs on your playlist can reflect on how you feel, how your day went, and by looking at someone’s music history, more times than less you can tell how they have been feeling recently. Just take a moment to think about what might be on your playlist…
Jonathan Burdette, a neuroradiologist at Wake Forest Baptist Medical Centre – a laboratory for complex brain network – and a researcher from Psychology Today, conducted an experiment in 2014 to determine why music has this powerful effect on our brains and our bodies, and called it “Network Science and the Effects of Music Preference on Functional Brain Connectivity: From Beethoven to Eminem.” Using such advanced technology, just like fMRI neuroimaging, Burdette found that listening to his favorite music/song engages the functional connectivity of the brain's default mode network. The default mode network's actual function is highly controversial. Most scientists and experts agree that it does play a big part in retrieving autobiographical memories, daydreaming, and stream of consciousness mind-wandering. The DMN (default mode network) lights up when we recollect or reminisce significant events or life experiences.
A Trip Down Memory Lane….
Thinking back now, I wouldn’t be able to put any one genre to my playlist or categorise it in any way. It would literally just have to be “My Life’s Playlist.” I can’t help but get emotional and all worked up when I hear certain songs, as the way they make me feel is indescribable. Some songs hurt, not in a bad way, but it’s the pain of missing something and someone, the pain of memories regardless whether they’re happy or sad.
One of these songs for me is ‘How to Save a Life’ by The Fray. It reminds me of my Papa, memories of him and I and all the things he’d do for me, such as teaching me life lessons. This song was somehow always on or came on at some point, and it was the song that came on after I was told that my Papa had passed away. We had sung this song when it had come on the radio on the way home from the store, and I had asked if I could have some cookies before we got home so Nan wouldn’t get up me for eating before dinner.
One song that really gets to me too is ‘These Days’ by the Rudimentals and Jess Glynne, Macklemore and Dan Caplen. This song played while I was leaving Queensland for the last time, moving to New South Wales. You’d think it would be a joyous moment, right? A new start, fresh beginnings? For me, it wasn’t my first choice, and realistically I didn’t have a choice. I had to quit two jobs I worked my ass off for, left everything I knew behind, left the people I knew and saw as family as long as my actual family such as my little brother. If you have had to leave your entire life behind, you know how much it hurts.
I remember crying while driving down the Pacific Motorway because a song my best friend, Kat, and I would listen to every time we were together, ‘Catch 22’ by her all-time favorite artist Illy, was playing. Whether it be driving down the road at night to this one park in Calamvale, or just on one of our late-night adventures because one of us needed to get out of the house, we always listened to it. Nothing compares to how f**king torn I was. I didn’t know when I would see my best friend again, or any of my family. I started to think of how I could be a better friend or do something nice or special or cool for her and our lil’ squad. It’s basically an AA group that helps each other by frequently drinking, and somehow it works.
Fallout Boy’s ‘Sugar We’re Going Down’ is another great punch in the feels. For the last several months, Kat and I went to heaps of shows that the band Alania were playing at. They always did a cover of ‘Sugar We’re Going Down’ and every show we were a little more drunk than the last. The last show we went to, we were standing on chairs, screaming the lyrics until we literally lost our voices, all with a drink in our hand. We laughed and nearly died from falling off of chairs multiple times, even snuck in a game of “Where the f**k is the Ping Pong ball” which is always great fun and I highly recommend.
There wouldn’t just be a song to describe our friendship, it would be a sub playlist in the playlist of my life. If I had to describe our friendship in a song it would be ‘Oath’ By Cher Llyod or ‘Really Don’t Care’ by Demi Lovato, because both those songs share the same memory.
One morning, I was waiting for her ass to show up on the train and when she hopped off, I could see and tell something was wrong because she hugged me with no words or warning, and we don’t usually hug unless it’s bad. So anyway, we are walking towards the shops just across the road from school so we can have a smoke, get some hot chips and some munchies for the school day. She starts telling me that the drop kick she was seeing broke up with her last night. To be fair, I told her he was a drop kick but oh well. I didn’t quite know what to say because it was 7:00am in the morning, coffee is only just kicking in, and she had rattled me with hugging me, so I apologised like you do in that situation and was like I’m just going to try and make her happy or take her mind off it. SO, I whip out my phone and start playing ‘Really Don’t Care’ and start dancing along the main road. There’s a part in the song that goes “Hey Demi, you picked the wrong lover, you should’ve picked that one, he’s cuter than the other, I’m just going to laugh, while you try and be a hipster, kick him to the curb and take a polaroid picture” and apparently my plan of actually beating him up was frowned on, so we went with burning photos the next morning.
‘Oath’ is literally a song about friendship, and I have never felt so lost without my main. Hoping soon to go back and see them all again, because the songs and the memories aren’t enough.
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