Underneath a beige cabana, I’m sitting on my mom’s lap, fingerpainting the finishing touches onto a vibrant, abstract clay bowl. My brother sits beside me, covering his clay lizard in paint.
The song “Upside Down” by Jack Johnson is playing in the background, sweeping through each paint stroke, amplified in the crashes of waves on the shore. It’s 2009, and we are in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.
Every time I hear “Upside Down” or other songs like “Sparks Fly” by Taylor Swift and “Good To Go To Mexico” by Toby Keith, I am instantly brought back to the weeks throughout my childhood I spent in Cabo. The episode playbacks are vivid.
Music is a type of auditory memory that gets tied into our episodic memories, Ashley Hobbs, psychology teacher, said. Episodic memories are a type of memory that allow us to recall events personally experienced in our lives.
“They are the ‘episodes’ of our lives,” Hobbs said. “Sounds, especially music, tend to be triggers for memories.”
Hobbs said stimulation of the temporal lobe, the area of the brain responsible for auditory processing, and the right hemisphere, which is dominant in processing non-language sounds, are what primarily encode memory of music.
“Therefore, music with words tends to be processed in both hemispheres of the brain in different ways, which therefore increases memory,” Hobbs said.
Other staple songs of my childhood are “Hey, Soul Sister” by Train, “I’m Yours” and “93 Million Miles” by Jason Mraz and “Invincible” by Muse.
Each is accompanied by valuable memories: exploring Yellowstone National Park, sliding down Moab’s Sand Hill, watching the solar eclipse from Bryce Canyon and moving from Florida to Missouri.
The intricately woven patterns of song and image recreate childhood experiences that highlight important moments in my life. Moments that have solidified different aspects of the person I am now and who I am working on becoming.
Music holds value. It gives compelling purpose to experiences. It is a powerful instrument in constructing the defining characteristics of an individual.
I will always be appreciative of how influential music has been in my life, and I look forward to how it will continue to shape who I become.
