Ongoing History Daily: How music manipulates out memories, part 2

Last time, we talked about how music can manipulate the way we remember things. For example, you may have noticed that songs you heard in your teens have an especially strong hold on your memories. This is because music strengthens your autobiographical memories. We’re very receptive, neurologically speaking, in our teens, meaning that the music we hear when we’re that age is ingrained forever.

And when we say to ourselves, “music was so much better when I was young,” that’s known as the “reminiscence bump.” And here’s a thing to look out for. If you hear a sad remix of a song that was originally happy, it can change how you remember how you felt when you first heard the song.

Music is a powerful thing when it comes to generating the context of a memory.