Energy levels of songs affect memories
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A new study has found that the energy levels of music affect what we remember. Two researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London looked into what kinds of memories people had after listening to different types of music. Music psychologist Safiyyah Nawaz and neuroscientist Dr Diana Omigie investigated how the tempo and mood of songs affected what people remembered about their life. The researchers found that high-energy music made people remember funny and happy events from their past. In contrast, slower and acoustic music brought back memories of calmness and sadness. It even made people recall romantic experiences.
The researchers asked 233 people about the sorts of memories they had after listening to music. The people listened to popular songs from their childhood and early adulthood. Dr Omigie said the feelings people had for music affected their memories. She said: "It's not just the musical features that influence memory, but also how much a person likes a song." Ms Nawaz said: "Acoustic songs were associated with memories that were more vivid, unique, and characterized by complex emotions like romance." She added that energetic songs were linked to "social, exciting, high-energy memories". The research will be put into a database of musical memories on the website memoryrecords.xyz.
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