Why do some songs make us nostalgic?

By: Avika Gandhe

Listening to old songs often makes us imagine memories in our heads, giving us a sense of nostalgia, or making us feel emotions we used to feel a long time ago. But have you ever wondered how we connect something like a song to the memories in our head? The science behind it is actually pretty simple. During our childhood and teenage years, we tend to play songs on repeat, since we don’t have a huge music library in our heads. When we listen to music, our brain’s visual cortex lights up, and we almost immediately associate the sound playing with what we see around us. These moments become memories to us, and the small set of songs we played around that time become associated with the moments we experienced around that time. Our brains are exceptionally good at recognizing sounds we’ve heard before, and so, as we hear those songs again, even years later, we remember the memories and moments we had while listening to that music. Usually, by the time our brains develop completely, around age 25, we have already listened to a wide variety of songs, and it becomes harder to associate songs with our memories. However, the songs that we listened to in our teenage years, during life changing and memorable moments, will be with us for the rest of our lives, deeply sown into our brains. So, we should make the most of our music while we can!