Why We Always Go Back to the Songs of Our Youth
From Misunderstanding to Understanding
🔗As a child, I often thought my parents were stubborn.
Why did they listen to those old songs every day? There were so many new songs with fresh melodies and trendy arrangements - why couldn't they appreciate them?
Back then, I was quite proud of myself, thinking I was open-minded: I could listen to any kind of music and wouldn't be limited by any era.
But as I grew older, I found myself gradually changing too.
Although I still chase the latest playlists, sometimes when I accidentally click on songs I used to listen to during my youth, my heart suddenly skips a beat. Those melodies instantly transport me back to scenes from those days.
It turns out, my parents weren't stubborn - their youth was living in those songs.
Music as Time Markers
🔗Music is fascinating - it's actually a kind of time marker.
During our youth, we experience the most profound firsts in life:
- First time falling in love
- First time staying up all night for a dream
- First time crying from heartbreak
These emotions are most easily imprinted, and the songs we listened to then become the background music of our lives.
That's why they're so moving when we hear them again as adults. Even some songs that we thought were cheesy when we were young, we discover years later:
"Ah, so that's how deep those lyrics were."
Music in the AI Era
🔗Now that AI is so powerful, composing and writing lyrics have become fast and convenient.
But precisely because of this, it's becoming harder to have a song that accompanies us through a certain period of life like before - one that can still make our hearts ache when we hear it ten years later.
Because music isn't just melody or lyrics, but the memories and feelings we left through it at that point in time.
Conclusion
🔗So you see, parents loving old songs and us starting to go back to our own "old songs" - it's all the same.
Because truly moving music isn't about how new it is, but whether it can accompany us through the ups and downs of life.
Alvin
Software engineer who dislikes pointless busyness, enjoys solving problems with logic, and strives to find balance between the blind pursuit of achievements and a relaxed lifestyle.
