I’ve always thought that music is intertwined with who we are as people. I am the kind of person who has about 20 different playlists, for different moods, seasons and situations, so that I will always have a soundtrack for whatever I am feeling or experiencing.
I remember my experience going to The Script concert in Sydney. I have always loved their music, because I don’t just hear it, I feel it. It takes me back to moments in my life where those songs meant something.
Music can make you feel so many emotions; you might dance, cry or scream at the top of your lungs. We become so emotionally attached to these songs that they start to feel like pieces of who we are.
Songs That Instantly Transport Me Back in Time
Do you ever put on a playlist and suddenly one song just takes you straight back to a specific version of yourself?
I remember when I was younger I had this awesome CD player with two speakers attached, and whenever I got a new CD I would play it from start to finish in my room for hours.
One of my go-to CD’s was my So-Fresh The Hits of Summer 2014 (the early 2000s Australians will definitely remember these). It had such a range of songs, and I think is where my varied taste in music came from.
I remember being in my room, it was summer, I was about 11 or 12 years old and I was just playing these songs like:
- Something I Need by One Republic
- Demons by Imagine Dragons
- Thank You by MKTO
- Pompeii by Bastille
- Clarity by Zedd, Foxes
These songs were anthems for me as I was leaving primary school and starting high school.
Now, whenever I hear them, I’m instantly transported back to that time.
Some honourable mentions are Wake Me Up by Avicii and Best Song Ever by One Direction. These songs feel like summer and being free, and just having fun.
Music That Got Me Through Difficult Times
Over the past few years, I’ve gone through a lot of change: moving through COVID, leaving home for the first time, studying abroad, and now living in the Uk for almost a year.
Being away from my family has been one of the hardest things I have ever had to do but I knew that it was something I needed for myself and my growth.
During this time I built a playlist called “been talkin’ ’bout the way things change…” (and my family lives in a different state); a lyric from one of my ultimate comfort songs Rivers and Roads by The Head and the Heart.
This playlist is full of songs about home, missing home, growing up, and trying to find comfort in music that understands what you’re feeling and experiencing.
Some of the songs in it are: Boston by Augustana, Vienna by Billy Joel, Night Changes by One Direction, End of Beginning by Djo, Ceilings by Lizzy McAlpine and Everywhere Everything by Noah Kahan.
These songs all have that same feeling of leaving, growing up, and not quite knowing where ‘home’ is anymore.
I remember listening to Matilda by Harry Styles on the flight back to the UK. It was one of the hardest flights I’ve ever taken. Even though my parents were visiting a few months later, I didn’t know when I would properly be home again, and I still don’t.
It has been a year since I have seen my brother, my grandparents and my best friends.
And that line: “you don’t have to be sorry for leaving and growing up”, completely broke me on that flight. It felt like someone had put to words what I had been struggling to say out loud for so long.
The Playlists That Defined Different Versions of Me
I have always found that if you look back on your life, you can trace it through the music you were listening to at the time. It was the soundtrack of who I wanted to become.
For me, in my final year of high school, I built my HSC (final exam) motivation playlist full of songs about growing up, moving on, and being excited about what the future would hold.
Since then, I’ve made so many different playlists and I’ve realised how much my taste in music shifts depending on what I am going through at the time.
The person I was at the age of 10, is certainly not the same person as I am now at 23. Life experiences change you, and with that, your connection to certain songs changes too.
Yellow by Coldplay is one of these songs where you can think and reflect on who you were and you are becoming. Dreams by Fleetwood Mac has that same feeling of slowing down and appreciating music differently as you get older, because you feel like you understand it.
Dog Days are Over by Florence + The Machine has such pure coming of age energy when you listen to it. It’s the kind of song you can’t sit still to, its where you can feel yourself growing up and reinventing who you are becoming
Then there is Taylor Swift, who honestly has made a soundtrack for every stage of our life. Her music defines generations with her storytelling.
Style makes you feel like your own main character, windows rolled down screaming the lyrics with your friends in the summer air.
Cruel Summer is such a high energy, chaotic song in the best way, especially that bridge where we will be screaming the lyrics.
You Belong with me is such a peak 2010s nostalgia song, it is yearning, it is romantic, it is an absolute banger.
August feels like summer at the beach, and that feeling of moving on and growing up, especially if you’ve watched The Summer I Turned Pretty.
Last but certainly not least All Too Well (10min version) is just emotionally raw memory in the form of a song. It is nostalgia, made for the hopeless romantics, but also heartbreak. Like how is it that she hooks us and gets us to memorise and feel the words to a 10min song??
When I look back on all these songs, I can picture exactly where I was when I listened to them: different ages, different places, different versions of myself.
And I think that’s what music really has the power to do. It doesn’t just define who we are, it really helps us become it.
The Songs That Feel Like Home
I think this is the category that differs the most for everyone because “home” means something different to each person.
For me, it exists in two different ways.
The first is those warm, comforting, nostalgic songs like Landslide by Fleetwood Mac, Home by Philip Philips and Somewhere Only We Know by Keane. They make you think about where you came from, the people you love, and the feeling of safety and familiarity.
The second kind of “home” is music that reminds me specifically of my physical home: Australia.
This morning, I woke up to a warm day in London because of the current heatwave, and immediately put on my playlist called, “take me back to summer in aus.” Summer has always felt tied to home for me.
There are certain songs that instantly transport me back to summer holidays, footy games, family BBQs and just everything that makes Australia feel like Australia.
Songs like:
- Khe Sanh by Cold Chisel is a top one
- The Horse by Daryl Braithwaite
- Down Under by Men at Work (of course)
- Run to Paradise by The Choirboys
- Chandelier of Stars by John Williamson
- I am Australian by The Seekers (gives me goosebumps still).
These songs span generations, but they’ve become part of Australia’s identity as unofficial anthems for who we are and what we represent.
To me, they don’t just remind me of home, they are home.
Why Music Becomes Attached to Memory
Music can never be just a song. It becomes attached to moments, people, and versions of ourselves.
A powerful song has that ability to transport you instantly. One minute you’re walking by the river, and the next you’re back in your childhood home, on a trip you took years ago, or unlocking a memory you thought you had forgotten.
I think that’s why I love making playlists so much. They become little time capsules of different periods of my life.
I still remember creating a playlist called “train tracks” while I was on the train to visit my friend in Canberra. At the time I thought it was the funniest and most clever title ever, and now whenever I listen to it on a train, I’m taken back to that exact moment.
That’s the thing about music, it holds memories for us.
The songs we love don’t just act as a soundtrack to your lives, they become part of who we are.
Talk soon,
-Soph xx
