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CBC Radio Specials49:00 Music to my Ears

CBC Radio Specials49:00 Music to my Ears

Dylan Sinclair’s musical education started early in a gold Nissan Murano. Sinclair, a Juno-nominated artist in Toronto, still remembers driving around with his dad listening to R&B cuts. It was Kevin Sinclair’s favorite music. Dylan learned to love it too.

One song stands out: Excuse Me, Miss by Chris Brown. Dylan was a little chubby: four, maybe five years old.

“I remember my dad playing his album like all the time when we were in the car,” Sinclair recalled. “And this song, it was a lot of fun. I don’t know, as a kid, I was able to connect with it. And to this day, it’s still like one of my favorite songs.”

Every time Sinclair hears that song, he’s a little boy again, sitting in the back seat of the Murano.

“And he’s got it on repeat. That, Mariah Carey, just R&B,” Sinclair said, giggling.

Many of us know a song that evokes a certain memory: a song comes on at a party or on the radio, and instantly we are transported to another chapter of our lives, to a time or moment where that song wove its way. into our lives.

The connection is one of the reasons why music – especially old music – is so meaningful to people. It’s also why music became such an important coping strategy during the COVID-19 pandemic, in part to connect us with people we couldn’t be with during lockdowns, physical distancing and travel restrictions.

“Music is a really good way to bring us back to the kind of earlier pre-COVID times where we were actually able to get together with friends and family a little more,” said Kelly Jakubowski, a music memory researcher at Durham University in England .

“A lot of our memories related to music involve other people, and that’s been shown even more than certain other cues. So I think in this time that we’ve had this absence from social contact, music can really bring those memories back about loved ones especially well.”

Old songs jump in popularity

Since the start of the pandemic, we have seen a huge increase in the popularity of older music on streaming platforms. According to MRC, a provider of music sales data, oldies made up 70 percent of the U.S. music market in 2021. That’s up from 65 percent in 2020.

Granted, only songs released within the past 18 months count as new music. On the same subject : The great Hard Rock exhibition offers a unique perspective on Vincent Van Gogh. But the thirst for vintage melodies is also evident elsewhere, including in film and television soundtracks.

Stranger Things sent British singer Kate Bush back to the top of the charts with Running Up that Hill, a song she released in 1985. The new Top Gun movie tripled the streams of Heaven in Your Eyes, Canadian rock band Loverboy’s multi-platinum here from 1986.

Even the 2021 Super Bowl halftime show was a celebration of nostalgia rap, including artists Dr. Dre, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent and Eminem.

Going back further to the first pandemic lockdown period in April 2020, Spotify reported a 54 percent increase in listeners making “nostalgic-themed playlists” along with an increased share of listening to music from the 1950s, 60 ‘s, ’70s and ’80s.

It’s partly our digital age, which allows music lovers to explore and discover music from any time period rather than relying on what comes on the radio or heard at a party or dance hall.

But according to Jakubowski, music can also act as a social surrogate, something many of us needed during the pandemic, to cope with isolation and loneliness.

“Even when we’re not with other people, the feeling of music is kind of comforting and makes us feel like we have another person present, in a way. It’s kind of an imaginary friend,” said she.

“Perhaps the message of the lyrics resonates with us and makes us feel that we are not alone.”

Canadian music icon Jann Arden echoes this sentiment.

“Music is so important,” she said. “It informs your childhood and your youth. It gives everyone an anthem. It’s a balm for the soul. It’s a babysitter and a counselor and a friend.”

For Fatima Elrafie, music is a way to feel close to her mother, who died in 2013. While Fatima and her siblings were growing up in Calgary, Susan Elrafie was forever singing I Just Called to Say I Love You by Stevie Wonder. She would even call them on the phone and sing it, for effect.

It drove the kids crazy when they were little. But when Susan became terminally ill, the meaning of that song became more profound.

“When it was her last days in the hospital, all the hospital staff had this one volunteer come in and actually bring a piano into her hospital room and they played the song for her and they sang it to her, like the whole unit , which is crazy,” Elrafie recalled.

“She was really sick so she didn’t really show much emotion, but when they started singing the song to her, she had a huge smile on her face, literally from one cheek to the other. Her eyes just lit up so beautifully .”

Now Elrafie can remember everything from that day, from what she wore — a purple scarf and a new tan jacket — to the smell of fresh coffee in her mother’s room, which hospital staff brought on a cart to family members gathered at her mother’s. the edge of the bed.

“When I hear that song, which isn’t very often, all I can think about is that big, beautiful smile she had on,” Elrafie said. “It brings me back to that specific moment, even just a 10-second span.”

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The reminiscence bump

Jakubowski notes that we generally hear the same songs over and over again—especially our favorites—more times than we might re-read a book or re-watch a movie. This may interest you : This millennial mom built a $1 million business at 33: here’s her advice to other entrepreneurs.

That repetition helps cement memories, especially those from our youth, where we are still growing and developing our identities as individuals – including our taste in music.

It is related to a phenomenon known as the “reminiscence bump”, where we tend to remember events from our lives most vividly in our teenage years and young adults, including music from that period.

Not only that, but music is often linked to the most important moments in our lives: falling in love, leaving home, getting married, or even difficult memories, such as a heartbreak.

When we hear that song again down the road, we remember small sensory details from that moment. Researchers in Jakubowski’s field use the term “music-induced autobiographical memory,” or MEAM, to describe the experience.

Every time Hafsa Maqsood hears Low by Flo Rida, she’s back in 3rd grade again, on the school bus in Calgary. She remembers riding the bus at the end of the year with all the windows down while it was playing on the radio.

“When it came on, the whole bus would break into chorus and wave their hands,” she said.

“It’s a great memory to come home and all the kids of all ages, all backgrounds, just singing the whole song. A lot of us didn’t know what it meant.

“But every time I hear that song, I’m reminded of that part of the time when people could just come together over a piece of music from all different ages and not always be connected to their personal devices.”

Written and produced by Elizabeth Withey, with files from Meegan Read. Click “Listen” above to play Music To My Ears, featuring interviews with musical artists Jann Arden, Hawksley Workman and Dylan Sinclair and stories of musical memory from Canadians from coast to coast to coast.

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