Does anyone else find that certain songs are like musical "snapshots" of emotion to them?

[Nev]

<div style='font: 10pt ; text-align: left; '>Sometimes a song will get so associated with a particular moment in my life that it doesn't matter what the song is about or whether I even like it anymore. For instance, if "Nothing Compares 2 U" by Sinead O' Connor were released today I wouldn't even listen or care. But it got so associated with a particular memory that it's just brings some strong and wonderful feelings up.

I'm thinking of trying to make a musical "photo album" of my life, and hunt down the songs that just recall so precisely all those feelings I felt back when. I can't listen to them too often or the memory seems to get "overwritten" - I've lost the feelings I had with a couple of songs because I listened to them so much when I got them again that now I associate them with new memories, not old ones.

It's kind of a beautiful phenomenon, though.</div>

[SineSwiper]

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>The human mind is a fasinating thing.</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>It happens sometimes with a particular song, but most often with an album. When I find an album I like, I play it into the ground, so whatever was going on in my life gets associated with it.</div>

[Shellie]

<div style='font: 10pt georgia; text-align: left; '>Most definitely. I think it would be a neat idea to make a musical photo/memory album :)</div>

[Gentz]

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>That's why I can't listen to Deathcab for Cutie</div>

[Lox]

<div style='font: bold 9pt ; text-align: left; '>That happens to me sometimes. If I listen to this one Black Label Society album, it immediately brings back memories from the summer of 2002.</div>

[Lox]

<div style='font: bold 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Seriously. I was in my parent's house one time and I caught a wiff of what smelled just like this perfume my first g/f used to wear, and boom, all of these memories came right back that I hadn't thought about in years.</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I've read somewhere that our sense of smell brings back memories the most. I don't know if it's true, but I've certainly had similar experiences to yours.</div>

[Stephen]

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>Not so much for me. I try to keep my aesthetic pleasures separate from everyday drama. Woe that I should ever associate a song I like with some temporal event in my life.</div>

[Flip]

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>Sometimes you just cant help it, though. I listen to a lot of country and sometimes the lyrics of a new song you've never previously heard on the radio before will hit home on you in your life at that particular moment.</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I don't see how. I didn't set out to associate Bad Religion's Process of Beleif with the end of my junior year of college, but I listened to it so much during that period I couldn't help it.</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I will also actively use music as a release.</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>They're just entertainment to me</div>

[Julius Seeker]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Of course: Eye of the Tiger reminds me of pumping iron, Still Dre reminds me of basketball, a number of early Beastie Boys songs remind me of hockey.</div>

[SineSwiper]

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '>Honestly, I think it has to do with smells being so unique that some of the really rare ones (like certain types of perfume) only have one link to go to. After all, it's not like the smell of spagetti sauce is linked to any special memories.</div>

[Stephen]

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>I see your point, but I've always tried very hard not to conflate art and life. If anything, my life is more informed by art than the other way around.</div>

[Stephen]

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>I see your point, but I've always tried very hard not to let my life dictate the terms by which I appreciate and enjoy art (that is, all kinds of art--music, film, architecture, etc). If anything, my life is more informed by art than the other way around.</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Eye of the Tiger was even in Pumping Iron? Someone watches that movie far too much :-) Eye of the Tiger will ALWAYS be linked to Rocky</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I don't think I could do that, nor would I want to. I look at art as complementing my life; it effects how I view my own life, and what happens in my life effects how I view art. I wouldn't want to give up the experience of being able to personally identify with various kinds of art.</div>

[Flip]

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>Agreed, it would be hard for me to simply walk up to a piece (or listen to one) and say, "It is good." without <i> feeling </i> that it is good. Most times i feel it is good when i can relate to it, i.e. reflects a part of me life.</div>

[Stephen]

<div style='font: 10pt Arial; text-align: left; '>Associating a very particular kind of personal experience with a particular aesthetic experience emphasizes the former at the expense of the latter. I want to listen to music for the sake of music, not to remind me of some event in my life. The last thing I want when I hear a good song or see a terrific painting is to think, "Gee, this is the song that was playing on the car radio when Susie called to break up with me" or "I was at the museum looking at this very work when Dave called and told me I got promoted." Obviously, it's much more pleasurable for art to trigger a positive memory than a negative one, but I still prefer to enjoy the work in question on its own terms, not by the emotions I experienced at the time due to some other factor.</div>

[SineSwiper]

<div style='font: 10pt "EngraversGothic BT", "Copperplate Gothic Light", "Century Gothic"; text-align: left; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://www.bash.org/?377931">Rocky</a>

Good Bash.org quote related to the topic...</div>

[Julius Seeker]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>???? I listen to it when I pump iron, so therefore it reminds me of it. I hate the Rocky movies, so I could care less if it is the theme song of those movies.</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Seeker means it reminds himself of lifting, not the Arnold documentary.</div>

[Lox]

<div style='font: bold 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Wait...Zeus was being serious? I thought he was making a bad joke. :)</div>

[Flip]

<div style='font: 10pt Tahoma; text-align: left; '>Couldnt care less... that is the least level of caring. If you could care less then you care, albeit only a little... have i mentioned this is probably my #1 pet peeve yet on this board?</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Wees don't speek Anglish no good</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Heh</div>

[Julius Seeker]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>I slipped that in there, and a few other times in the past month or so specificly to piss you off =)</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>No joking that time, just being an idiot as usual :-0</div>

[Julius Seeker]

<div style='font: 12pt ; text-align: left; '>Youse shuts up! No do insults upon to wees!</div>

[Lox]

<div style='font: bold 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Haha...I really thought you were kidding. :)</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>While we're on the topic of language usage pet peeves, something is either unique or it is not. Putting "very" or "so" in front of it makes no sense.</div>

[Lox]

<div style='font: bold 9pt ; text-align: left; '>He could care less whether you did it on purpose or not! ;)</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>You don't think there are levels of uniqueness?</div>

[Gentz]

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>"I could care less" is *sarcastic* phrasing - it's just found common use. Just like "yeah, right"</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '><b>Link:</b> <a href="http://dictionary.reference.com/search? ... =unique</a>

Of course not, such a concept has no meaning. You can figure out where I stand in dictionary.com's usage note. I contend that if you want that sort of meaning, use a different word (such as "rare").</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I don't buy it. The phrase "I could care less" still has negative connotations. I think that people just lose the contracted not because it's easier to say the phrase without it.</div>

[Gentz]

<div style='font: 11pt arial; text-align: left; '>Yeah, which makes it sarcastic.</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>No, it just means people are lazy.</div>

[ManaMan]

<div style='font: 12pt Arial; text-align: left; '>LoL...</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>I can see where you're coming from, but at the end of the day, it's semantics and popular usage allows for other words to accent the level of uniqueness, even though the pure definition of the word does not.</div>

[Nev]

<div style='font: 10pt ; text-align: left; '>Smell is considered to be the most powerful, and visceral sense that humans have (possibly excepting touch, but even that doesn't have quite the same kind of power).  And woe be to he/she whose sense of smell gets linked up with something inappropriately...</div>

[Nev]

<div style='font: 10pt ; text-align: left; '>You know, I agree in principle, but music does such a better job of making me remember something I felt than anything else, I just really couldn't live without that very precious-to-me sense of recall.</div>

[Nev]

<div style='font: 10pt ; text-align: left; '>I've occasionally made the connection that when I ask someone "How's it hangin'" that the literal and original meaning whether or not their package is ready, limber, and swaying freely as God intended, but, thank God, I always manage to forget again within a few minutes.</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>I try to chose my words so that what I say is what I mean.</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Which dillutes the actual meaning of the word. We have a word that means one-of-a-kind, and when it's used to mean other things, it doesn't have as much power when it's used correctly.</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Again, I don't really disagree, but all words are are a manner of communication, and there's nothing that says that can't evolve (or devolve, depending on your position) over time. Just because something USED to mean one thing don't mean that popular usage can't change what it means in everyday use</div>

[Kupek]

<div style='font: 10pt verdana; text-align: left; padding: 0% 10% 0% 10%; '>Right, I understand this, but in this case, we only have ONE word that means one-of-a-kind. It is, fittingly, unique.</div>

[Zeus]

<div style='font: 9pt ; text-align: left; '>Technically speaking, those T-Shirts that have slightly varied patterns are unique. So is each individual person. Aren't people a little more unique (ie. different from each other) than those T-shirts?</div>