I am constantly on the lookout for new music. Listening to the same songs can get repetitive, but also a lot of songs become associated with certain memories and emotions. Music that I listen to on the weekend with my friends is not necessarily what I want to hear when I’m trying to study or run errands. This is what has driven my need to make playlists for all kinds of occasions. A song that I heard while on a road trip automatically becomes linked to that adventure and those feelings of freedom and carefreeness.

However, why is it that listening to certain music brings up old memories and feelings? According to Christopher Bergland in Psychology Today, songs and other sounds become interconnected with our neurons. Thus, when we hear something from our past, those neurons are automatically called upon. We feel nostalgia for our past as well as a combination of emotions we felt when we heard those songs.

For instance, listening to an old High School Musical song, such as “Get’cha Head in the Game” or “Start of Something New,” brings back memories of my childhood. Not only that, but as soon as a song starts playing, my mind recalls the lyrics I had so carefully memorized all those years ago. And yet, if you asked me to recite the lyrics to one of those songs without the recording of it, I could not tell you.

Similarly, I’ve noticed that when I remember specific moments or am placed in similar situations from my past, there are songs that come to the forefront of my mind. When I think back on an old paper or exam that I worked hard for, I have an instant recollection of the soundtrack I listened to while preparing for those things. When I go out with my friends, I tend to put on music that I listened to the last time I went out and had fun because I hope for the same kind of fun to happen.

The brain is an amazing organ that is made up of so many neurons that capture every moment we have, much like a camera captures the smiles and the adventures we go on. Not only do our neurons remember our emotions and memories in conjunction with the music and sounds we heard while feeling and making them, but they also can be used as a kind of therapy. In the same article by Bergland, he mentions how the neurons woven with our memories are linked to other areas of the brain, such as creativity centers and motor circuitry. In this way, music becomes a part of us. Listening to songs that made us feel happy in the past can bring up those same emotions and give us the same kind of energy that we had.

I can testify this as true as I, myself, put on my summer playlist. A playlist filled with happy, bouncy beats that make me think of all the past summers lying on beaches or road tripping with friends. My advice: don’t stop listening to music and don’t stop making memories.