How music takes us back to our past – Quiz

1.  Read the text and answer the questions. 

1. According to Paul Donoghue, what aspect of music’s nature makes it memorable?

He says that music’s emotional nature makes it memorable.

2. How do oral cultures often pass on knowledge?

According to the article, oral cultures often pass on knowledge through song.

3. What kind of music can be easily linked to a period of time?

The article says that pop music can easily be linked to a period of time.

4. According to the article, how is music different to watching TV or films?

The article says that people are more likely to hear a song over and over again than watch a film or a TV program in the same way.

5. According to the article, when do people make their strongest memories?

We make our strongest memories between the age of 10 and 30.

2.  Choose the appropriate words or phrases to complete the following sentences.

1. The drum beats out the rhythm of the song.

2. I love that song! I can sing all the lyrics .

3. When my favorite song comes on the radio, it makes me happy.

4. It’s easier to remember the words when they rhyme .

5. This is my favorite piece of music. 

V How music takes us back to our past

It’s happened to all of us: a song comes on the radio, and we are immediately transported to a time in our past. But what is it that makes music so effective at doing this?

There are a few things that link tunes with our memories. Paul Donoghue, writing for ABC News, reminds us that the emotional nature of music helps make it particularly memorable. And Kelly Jakubowski, an assistant professor in music psychology, adds that music and singing are often part of many important life events and rituals, and that it is also very effective in grabbing our attention. These things combined mean that music and these life events are likely to be encoded together in our memories.

Music itself is easy to remember. Tiffany Jenkins, writing for BBC Culture, tells us how throughout history oral cultures have passed important knowledge from generation to generation through song. The rhythm, rhyme, melody and alliteration in lyrics all serve as memory aids.

She goes on to say that pop music especially can be associated with a particular moment in time. As Shahram Heshmat, writing in Psychology Today highlights, we often become familiar with a piece of music because we hear it as background music. Familiarity is important. Jakubowski, tells us that the more familiar a piece of music is, the more effective it is at bringing back memories. This applies to music more than other cultural products because we are far more likely to hear a song over and over again than watch a film or a TV programme in the same way. Heshmat points out that our musical preferences usually form during our teens, and this corresponds with what many experts call the ‘reminiscence bump’, where we make our strongest memories between the ages of 10 and 30.

It’s clear that our memories and music are closely linked – to the point that music is being used to help dementia sufferers access memories that they thought they had lost.