Music Memory Connection

"What seems to happen is that a piece of familiar music serves as a soundtrack for a mental movie that starts playing in our head. It calls back memories of a particular person or place, and you might all of a sudden see that person's face in your mind's eye." said Petr Janata, a cognitive neuroscientist at University of California, Davis.*

Why do you care? Well it's really cool. Have you ever had that moment where a song comes on that you haven't heard in a while and all of a sudden you remember an old friend, funny story, or the exact last place you were when you heard that song? I kind of had one of those moments several times over and over again for about 45 minutes.

I was tired of the same old playlist on my iphone and wanted something new. I only listen to the ipod part at the gym lately, so I wanted something up beat, duh. So I got onto itunes cruised the top songs, I had all those already. I was at a road block, I wanted something different, up beat, and familiar. Nothing was really jumping out at me. I gave up on trying to come up with a specific set of songs and decide to search by artist. What artist has the largest catalog of dance music? Who has the most dance remixes? Who has a wide variety of musical style? Then it hit me, MADONNA!!
Seriously people, who else fits that criteria? Into the search box I type, "madonna" and of course the list is miles long. I chose songs like, Lucky Star, Borderline, Material Girl, Vogue, Like a Virgin, Into The Groove, you get the idea.

The next day I set off for the gym, iphone in hand. I get onto the elliptical, turn on my music and go. I put it on shuffle, (i like surprises) and the very first song up is Borderline. All of a sudden I'm taken to my Sister's closet (house on Lacey? I think? or Pinetree?). She had a walk in closet, I'm in her closet with her. She's pulling clothes off hangers and giving me orders of what to wear with what. I'm changing as fast as I can. I'm twirling checking myself out in the mirror and then the next outfit.

Then the next song is Vogue. I'm in the basement of CDA Resort shopping plaza in a storage room with my Mom and my Sis packing gift baskets. I think I'm ultra cool because I'm "at work" (I'm like 10), my Mom is probably pretty happy she is getting time alone with her daughters and getting paid for it! My Sister, well, I think she's just there because she's getting paid.

Next song is Lucky Star. Now I'm in the our backyard, at the house on Kelly Rae, with my Sister and our cousin Kristina. They brought out a giant boom box that they plugged in on the back porch and with the help of an extension cord or two brought it down to the grass below and we are dancing. Dancing like we are super stars.

This metal jog kept going and going through my entire workout. My 45 minutes on the elliptical just flew right by. I thought, that was cool. The next day, same thing happened again! This has been going on for about a week now. I think it's great. I just wanted to share that. I never knew Madonna was that connected to my Sister and Mom in my brain. I love it. It's super nice to be able to take them to the gym with me.

*http://www.livescience.com/health/090224-music-memory.html