Your Younger Brain and Music

[AARPRachelA]

In The Powerful Link Between Music and Memories, cognitive neuroscientist Daniel Levitin shares that our musical tastes form early, including a crucial period from around the age of 11 to 14. During that time, our musical tastes really take form and we hold onto those for the rest of our lives.

Music has always been a big part of my life, and it was especially important during my brooding teen years. Pop was a genre I embraced, and it's still one I adore today. One pop album I spent a lot of time with, learning the words and singing to myself in the mirror, was Michelle Branch's Hotel Paper, especially the song "Breathe." I recently relistened to the album and was transported back to my angsty, younger self.

What album or song did you love when you were younger?

[GinaG28321]

I memorized all the Christmas carols on a popular Christmas LP when I was 8-12.  A group of us would go caroling ip and down our street every December.  We challenged ourselves to learn all the words to all the verses of many carols.  Every year we added a new song to our list.. 

[dn3371]

Ten Years After was a relatively obscure British band.  They blew the doors off the place at Woodstock in 1969 when I was 11 years-old with "Goin Home", and the world got introduced to Alvin Lee, known as the "Fastest Guitarist in the West."  My favorite rock band of all time, and I still listen to them to this day.  Another favorite TYA song:  "50,000 Miles Beneath My Brain."  Psychedelic rock at its best. 

[rufrt]

Album wise: The Beatles Rubber Soul, and Fleetwood Mac Rumours." However, I would choose the second movement of Bach's Italian Concerto in F Major, if I had to choose just one piece to listen to for the rest of my life.  It seems to have the remarkable capacity to elicit each type of my emotional responses.  Also, because there are no words, it does not create the unfortunate sense (for me) of endless repetition.

[AARPRachelA]

Don't judge, but I finally listened to Rumours for the first time last year! It really is a musical dance as depicted on the album cover.

[gm5271]

@AARPRachelA 

Rachel yes I love Fleetwood Mac 

Was my dating songs me & future husband played 8 tracks of them & Elton John and Linda Ronstadt while out on dates... my youngest son named his daughter Stevie from Stevie Nicks... he used play in band & loved her music

Enjoy your discovery of all the music being shared here

Ginger  :  )

[TomW178779]

I liked Fleetwood Mac better before their "Fleetwood Mac" album (1975).  They were really great in the late 60's to '74, when they were pretty much unheard of in the US.   When Nicks & Buckingham came along, then they became more commercialized and "bubble-gum".   Those two were good but not as great as before.

[rockaria]

First of all, I have to say I've been thoroughly enjoying the mini concerts that AARP has provided.  Thank you for that entertainment.

Now.... don't laugh....  In my younger years, I listened to The Partridge Family and The Bay City Rollers on LP.  I now have those gems on CD and listen to them in my 60s.  Good, fun music.

[gm5271]

@rockaria 

Hey no laughing loved them too & also their albums... every once in while catch an episode of The Partridge Family on Antenna TV & David Cassidy is still a cutie in them

Ginger  ;  )

[c577738g]

Every Friday night my sister and I walked to the minute market, got a slushy/Icee, and a bag of cheese Puffs. We would go back home, go to our room, grab our pillows, sit on the floor in front of the TV, and watch The Partridge Family. Really good, innocent times!

[imaxgirl]

I liked Broadway musical soundtracks at that age and I still do. I was so happy the Christmas that I received The Sound of Music, Fiddler on the Roof, and Annie albums.

[TomW178779]

I kind of like those musicals but not crazy about them, or it's just not my favorite.   Last night I saw A Chorus Line and I really liked it.   I wasn't sure if I would like it, but I did.   It's hard to believe last night I saw that movie for the first time and it was done in 1985. 

[AARPRachelA]

I love Broadway soundtracks as well! The Sound of Music is my dad's favorite movie and the music always brings back lots of good memories 💜

[drlindamc]

I was 11-14 from 1963-1966; therefore any Beatles album that came out during those years, or shortly before. Perhaps "Hard Days Night" was my favorite album; I just looked at the 13 songs on the album to see if I could pick a favorite and it is impossible; 10-11 home runs out of the 13! 

[AARPRachelA]

I recently watched the "Get Back" documentary and it was really fascinating to see their creative process in the studio!

[TomW178779]

I wish that the Let It Be movie would be released on DVD.   I haven't seen the Get Back documentary, but I get the feeling that the Let It Be movie is more authentic or more telling.   I heard that it's not being released because both Olivia Harrison & Yoko Ono own the rights of the movie.   They don't want it released because it painted a bad picture of the Beatles.   At the time it was showing in the theaters I recalled that those who saw it were not crazy about it.   But I think they may feel differently about it now.  

[c577738g]

The Get Back documentary is raw, and unfiltered. It is live continuous tape of days and days of the Beatles collaborating and brain storming, to put together a concert with new music. They get mad with other, they curse, they smoke and drink, a lot, but most of all they laugh and play and love the company of each other, and their families are included. This doesn’t get any more genuine and unscripted, Get Back makes you feel, like you are a fly on the wall of History.

[ReTiReD51]

.

My musical tastes were probably shaped during those ages of 11 to 14. I was 13 years old when Dylan recorded “Blowin In The Wind” and the Beatles first appeared on the Ed Sullivan show. And I’ve been a huge fan of classic rock all my life.

If I had to pick just one song to listen to the rest of my life, I couldn’t do it. I do appreciate all music across the spectrum. Whether playing or listening music is that elixir that improves my mood and makes me happier. But I do enjoy those blues too.

To paraphrase, someone once said the words used in songs make you think but the music makes you feel those thoughts. I agree.

[AARPRachelA]

I also couldn't pick a single song to listen to for the rest of my life. That would make things quite dull! I've always loved to sing and learn the lyrics, so I can listen to the same song over and over in order to learn the words...but I always have to move on after a bit!

Music definitely is a conduit for my emotions. When I don't yet know how to verbalize what I'm feeling, music helps me say it.

[stevem3]

Hot Rocks, 12 x 5 by The Rolling Stones