music's memory imprints.

whenever i hear Billy Joel's 'Uptown Girl', im 3 years old again, dancing with my mom in our kitchen.

whenever i hear Mariah Carey's Daydream cd, i am instantly 8 years old, having a sleepover with my best friend.

music is so interwined with memories, its quite impossible to have one without the other. sure you can hear generic songs on the radio and not think twice about it, but songs that mean something to you, songs that change your insides just a bit, are so tied to their own memories its hard NOT to be transported back. to the first time you heard it, the era it reminds you of, the person whose face you see when you hear it.

i have a cd for every season. i don't premeditate it, choose it and save it for that season. it just sort of happens. friends will keep playing it, i'll listen to it on roadtrips, pedal down and our feet out the windows. if i close my eyes during king of leon's 'manhattan', im back on the Pacific Coast Highway, the sun so bright and warm i had to wear sunglasses in the car.

so can it change? can your musical memory imprint, something so defined and so finite, actually change? if you make new memories with a cd, a song, an artist.. do the first memories lose their meaning? become a bit more weak, tug at your heartstrings a bit less? or is it possible for the two memories, new and old, to coexist peacefully? for you to bring up either one at will, whichever you desire the most at that moment.

going along with that inquiry, if a song holds a bad memory for you.. reminds you of someone you'd rather forget, of a time when thoughts were not the brighest and your surroundings were not quite what you dreamed of.. can you change those songs to fit the new sun in your life? can you intentionally change the thoughts surrounding those tunes so that they bring a smile to your face, rather than a grimace?

i think the answer will be different for everyone. for me, i believe memories to music can coexist peacefully. MMMBop held a certain meaning for me when i was 11, but it holds another one now that many cleaning sprees around the apartment with my roommates have included the classic pop song. both exist, both meant something.

i dont know if i'd necessarily want to give up a musical memory for another... they both happen at the exact time they were meant to.