Music and Nostalgia*

Photo by Mark Solarski on Unsplash

Music is something we all have in common. It has the capacity to lift you up when you are down, make you feel emotional and can even motivate you in the worst of times. We all have vastly different music tastes and this can cause countless debates and arguments. However, we can all agree on one thing. Great speakers make listening to music even more enjoyable than it already is! I for one love the look of the Panasonic Wireless Speaker Systems. Imagine having a multi-room speaker system! I listen to a lot of music when doing chores around the flat and when listening to music with my current sound system, I can barely hear my music from the next room without turning up my speakers to the highest setting and annoying my neighbours to their wits end! Being able to have my music playing in multiple rooms around the flat would be so amazing!

Nostalgia is defined as: "a sentimental yearning for the happiness of a former place or time". I can't imagine a better way of describing it. A yearning, not just a feeling. It envelops you in a way that any other thought or feeling fails to do. When I feel nostalgic, it puts me in a bit of a daze. I feel preoccupied fully with the bittersweet yearning of it. I reflect a lot and I find that so many things evoke a sense of nostalgia within me; especially music!

Nostalgia can be felt in a multitude of different ways. It can be happy, sad, amusing and even reflective. It doesn't just make you yearn for a former place or time, it can really take you back to that time and the mindset which you were in at that time. Let's start with happy nostalgia. I have kept the same playlist of 'happy songs' for years and every time I listen to the songs on that playlist, they completely take me back to happier times. The nostalgia really stirs up a true feeling of happiness within me.

• You Make My Dreams - Hall and Oates
• Mr Blue Sky - ELO
• Rock With You - Michael Jackson
• Africa - Toto
• I Wanna Be Your Lover - Prince
• Barracuda - Heart
• Everywhere - Fleetwood Mac
• You Can't Hurry Love - Phil Collins
• Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar
• You Can Call Me Al - Paul Simon
• A Little Respect - Erasure
• Beautiful - Carole King

Let's talk about music that just 'takes you back'. I'm talking high school style and the different phases we go through in our quest to fit in! I loved angsty music and classic emo/scene music! I was angry with the world and listening to 'emo' and alternative music made me feel like I could relate to something or someone. Listening back to my old favourite tracks, I remember my teenage years and I yearn to go back and tell myself to make the most of them! I spent so much time feeling put down that I missed out majorly on the friendships I had at the time and the freedom that came with being a student and not having to also work on the side. I also yearn to go back to this time as music was my absolute life and I possessed this complete and utter devotion to the music I listened to and the idea of going to as many gigs as I could and meeting my favourite bands just so I could tell them how much they meant to me!

• The Taste of Ink - The Used
• I Hate Everything About You - Three Days Grace
• Going Under - Evanescence
• I Miss The Misery - Halestorm
• Knives and Pens - Black Veil Brides
• Numb - Linkin Park
• The Ghost Of You - My Chemical Romance
• Miss Murder - AFI
• Tears Don't Fall - Bullet For My Valentine
• The Kill - Thirty Seconds To Mars
• Welcome To The Family - Avenged Sevenfold
• Caraphernelia - Pierce The Veil
• Miserable At Best - Mayday Parade
• Second and Sebring - Of Mice & Men
• Blessed With A Curse - Bring Me The Horizon

After High School and when I attended college, my music taste shifted again. I started listening to more chilled out indie, folk and punk music. While I listen to most of the music I listened to in college still, certain songs remind me so intensely of the friends I made over my two years in college and all the time we spent hanging out in the common rooms between lessons. It was a great time!

• Twelve Feet Deep - The Front Bottoms
• St Christopher Is Coming Home - Frank Turner
• Lost In You - Great Cynics
• 40 Day Dream - Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic eros
• Tonight's The Kind Of Night - Noah And The Whale
• Awkward- FIDLAR
• Going to Georgia - The Mountain Goats
• From Here to Utopia - Ramshackle Glory

Even though it was only a couple of years ago, the music I listened to when I started university also makes me incredibly nostalgic. Life was changing at a rapid rate and I clung to my iPod as a massive comfort as I moved into my new life in Manchester. I watched Gilmore Girls for hours every night when I was homesick and the theme song lulled me into a sense of comfort and security. I had no idea what was to come once I got to university, but the music I listened to got me through it and kept me calm.

• Black (Unplugged) - Pearl Jam
• Where You Lead - Carole King
• Blackbird - The Beatles
• Landslide - Fleetwood Mac
• The Boxer - Simon & Garfunkel
• In My Life - The Beatles
• Helplessly Hoping - Crosby, Stills & Nash
• Hard Sun - Eddie Vedder

I've talked a lot about life phases and music up until this point. But how about single moments? Sometimes, the music you were listening to in a moment is embedded in the memory of that moment completely and utterly. They can be massive moments in your life or very mundane ones. For some reason, they just stick. These are a few of my moments:

• Walking home from the bus stop after asking my first boyfriend out for the first time. Always by Bon Jovi came on shuffle and I was completely caught up in the song. I started to listen to that song every evening as I walked home from the bus. If I pressed play as soon as I left the bus stop, the song would finish precisely as I got to my front door
• In the car on the way to the airport with my family. Considering this was when I lived in Oxford, this must have been about 12/13 years ago. We were in the car ready to go on holiday and my dad had an ELO greatest hits CD playing. We would always sing along to Don't Bring Me Down in funny voices
• When Love Story by Taylor Swift first came out, one of my childhood friends claimed it as hers and our other friend's song. However, in secret, our other friend bluetoothed it to me and begged me not to tell our friend. We listened to it for that whole afternoon and I was so over the moon that I had the latest 'in' song on my flip phone!
• Whenever I listen to the Rocky Horror Picture Show soundtrack, I always think back to the live anniversary screening which I attended with a friend! People got dressed up, we all got up and did the time warp, it was amazing!

Finally, let's talk occasions! Some events and periods of the year are just generally so nostalgic, and music just boosts this! The two go hand in hand and listening to music for that occasion can make you long for previous years' celebrations!

• Halloween: I am a big lover of Halloween, and I start listening to my 'spook' playlist as soon as September starts to end! Listening to songs like Thriller by Michael Jackson or Red Right Hand by Nick Cave and the Bad Seeds makes me think of previous years' celebrations, the people I celebrated Halloween with and the feelings of excitement that I get every year without fail!
• Christmas: This is the most obvious one! I crave Christmas music all year round and I THRIVE when it becomes acceptable to listen to it more! Listening to any classic Christmas tracks just brings me into the most wonderful time of the year and makes me think about all the amazing Christmases I have been able to spend with my loved ones!

I hope that you loved this post! What music gets you all nostalgic?x

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*I want to thank Panasonic so much for sponsoring this post! It is my first ever paid collab and I am so so grateful for the opportunity to earn a bit of income from my passion on here!