There is an element or elements in the decision of whether we like a piece of music that maybe most of us may have not considered. There is more to the choice than just liking the tempo or the back beat or lyrics. Maybe it's that the sound of the voice is pleasing for an unknown reason, or maybe one actually knows that this voice has a resemblance to a voice from a song in adolescence that somehow is connected to a pleasing memory. Her voice is reminiscent of the voice on a tune that was on the charts when I was just starting college or in love with Lucy. I know for sure that if someone hears a song on the schoolbus coming home on a Friday afternoon on a beautiful day before an exciting weekend that has been planning for months you are likely to keep a positive memory of the feelings you experienced on that Friday. The opposite might occur on a snowy Monday morning when school should have been canceled and you were geared up to sit around and watch TV or sled or skate and the news came on the radio that your schoolbus will arrive after all. You sit there boiling and feeling cheated and the new Beatles song comes on and it is kind of dark or even too happy for the gear you are in so the song always gives you an out of place kind of emotion when you hear it. These theories are similar to the Dianetics books of L. Ron Hubbard in the 80s. Mental engrams or memory files that go hand in hand when this tune or even one with something similar in it is playing. I am sure that this occurs on no predictable level or pattern in some or all people, but it is probably the luck of the draw or timing and we are usually completely unaware. I dated a girl and during that beautiful few months at the beginning where everything is wonderful and makes sense she would always play a certain artist when we snuggled and he is one of the only contemporary artists that I really like. Coincidence?
