Music and Memory!

 So now we're talking about music and its ties to memories. I feel like we all know how major of a role music can play in our experiences and memories; I personally love to talk about music not only as art, but as a tool we use to learn and memorize. As someone studying music professionally, I could probably think of a thousand songs that trigger things in my mind, but I'll try and pick out just a few so you're not here all night reading this.

1. While plenty of Britney Spears' music was wildly famous, nowhere was it more popular than in my childhood home. Seriously, she went like 1000x platinum in there. Our little PS2 was tired of playing her CDs. One of the songs that especially took over my mom's shower time, makeup time... okay maybe just all of her time, was "Oops!... I Did it Again." When you grow up with a young mom who was serving Y2K baddie all the time, Miss Spears is just kind of a part of your daily routine. I remember playing with my toys or reading a good book, and all of the sudden I would know my mom was about to look different when I saw her and my aunt disappear into the bathroom with our portable CD player and a box of black hair dye. I loved hearing her sing along to the music and grew to do the same. As of now, we will STILL blast this song on our smart TV (we've moved up in the world huh) when we're in the mood.

2. This song takes me back to one of the weirdest, craziest times in ANYONE'S life: middle school. Sweaty kids walking down the hallway and getting in my way when they try to jump and touch the ceiling after recess, adapting to a new town, and having way too many rehearsals for a musical while I tried to deal with everything else all come flooding back to me. However, I also remember falling head over heels in love with the idea of pursuing music professionally. When I was 13, my then choir teacher decided to ask me if I would be interested in private lessons with her. I was absolutely dumbfounded; since when does she do private lessons? How did I not know about this? Does she expect my poor little self to pay for something like that? 🤨 

Luckily what she said next eased my fears. She didn't expect me to pay for anything! She didn't even teach privately, but saw potential in me and decided to take me under her wing. I could not explain to you the joy that overcame me when she offered me this opportunity. For the first time I felt like I had a future. That's where "The Black Swan" from Menotti's The Medium comes in. For my first lesson after school, I walked into the high school auditorium and she handed me this piece. It was the first classical piece I'd ever been given to sing on my own. It was hard, it was high, but I learned it and I've known it ever since. I used it to get into my state's Governor's School program and to train my voice before my college auditions. It will always hold such a special place in my heart, not only because of its significance to me but because of its beauty and the skill it takes to do it justice.

3. I thought it'd be best to go in chronological order, so I'm ending this blog with the latest of these! I'm sure all of you know who Fleetwood Mac is. One of the most popular bands of the 1970s, nobody could escape their grasp, not even me. I finally decided to fall into the Stevie Nicks rabbit hole in high school; from "Rhiannon" to "Never Going Back Again," I was obsessed with their sound. Despite their extensive discography, however, one song stuck with me in a different way. As a senior about to graduate, "Landslide" absolutely tore my heart to shreds. The way Nicks sung about the inevitability of endings and lost love found a part of me I didn't even know was there. Just when I thought I was so excited to leave and never look back, this song made me realize I might actually miss certain parts of my high school experience. Overall, though, it really set in stone for me that change is a necessary part of life and it can be beautiful, but only if we let it be.