it must be for real, cos now i can feel

Jane and I spent last night at friends' place. By way of background, he (Pete) is British (in his own words, "kind of from South London, but more posh than that really") and she (Becca) is American but moved here when Pete and her got married a year or so ago. I'll have to post again on that night, because we had some interesting conversations.

After dinner, we got chatting about music and Jane got our ipod out to find a song she was trying to think of. Next thing you know, Becca is flicking through our ipod putting on old songs that she used to love.

Most of the songs she put on were 90's stuff from when we were all teenagers. Many of them were from that all important 1995-1997 period (i.e. years 10-12 for me). What surprised me was the number of songs that were important to Becca in that time, that were also important to me. Songs like Perfect Drug by Nine Inch Nails (for no particular reason for me), Glycerine (Bush) and Goldfinger (Ash).

Becca grew up mostly in California, so as an Aussie male it is quite weird to think that someone from the opposite sex in another country and context, found the same songs important at the same point (though completely different situations) in their life. As Becca said, "they evoke strong memories, but quite often their not good ones". I could definitely relate to that.

In the words of Harvey Danger: "Fingertips have memories".
In the words of Arundhati Roy: "Smells have memories."
In the words of myself (and the whole premise of Nick Hornby's book, High Fidelity): "Music has memories."

Music has the ability to take you (well me anyway) to a place and time in a very real way. I can remember ways of thinking, friends, fears, likes, dislikes just by listening to a song. It is a powerful thing, but as Becca alluded to, they're not always positive. For her, she actually avoids listening to a whole lot of music alone as it can make her introspective in a bad way. Music has a range of effects on me from taking me to great places, to getting me quite down depending on my mood, the song and the memory (if any) it evokes.

I guess the point of the post is that kind of common ground you can have with someone from a different world, just because you both identify so strongly with the same stimulus. So thankyou Alannis Morrissette, Nine Inch Nails, Ash, Bush et.al. for reaching a male teenage boy in Melbourne at the same time but in a completely different way as you reached a female teenage girl in California. It made for a fun night of "awww, I love this song" 's and memories that would otherwise fade to grey.