Music has always defined my life and its stages. In my mind, songs create sensations that capture the exact place in which I found myself at the time I first listened to them. This is often a good thing. For example, “Backwater” by The Meat Puppets reminds me of a trip I took to a special place in March 2019, one that made me feel welcome and rejuvenated, because the song happened to be playing on the radio when I took a video of this place‘s impressive landforms during the car ride there.
However, this ability is also bad. I never cared for Twenty One Pilots at all, but I especially can‘t listen to “Ode To Sleep” without feeling loss and the absence of closure. This is because a very close long-distance friend, one who ghosted me the day after we met in person, showed me that song. Another song that just makes me cringe is “My Name Is Jonas” by Weezer. When I hear that song, I hear the voice of a toxic person who used to be in my life. He used to parody the song by replacing “Jonas” with his own name and the following lines with his relation to me, which I prefer to not think about.
Does anyone else do this? Some songs make me feel like I’m reliving whatever was occurring the first time I heard them.
hoo boy, i have a few. the first one is “golden” by travie mccoy & sia; back in 9th grade, i had my first ever girlfriend. she really wasn’t that great of a person but with my newfound experimentation of my sexuality after years of thinking i was straight + her being pretty, i ignored all the red flags and proceeded to date her. then, she cheated on me and i had to find out through tiktok (musically at the time), with this song playing in the background. i know this is a bit silly but despite no longer having contact with this person, i still can’t listen to this song without thinking about how naive i was back then, which is a shame since it’s a good song aha.
on a less specific note, there’s a few of my mom’s favourite songs that i can’t listen to, either. i can’t remember all of them but the main ones are “i can only imagine” by david guetta and “so close” by alex clare. my mom would listen to these in the car when driving me to school and so, i can’t listen to them without remembering just how anxious i would be about going to school; i still struggle with school and anxiety, now, but everything just felt so much more intense and scary back then aha c’:
Maybe I'm kind of a masochist but certain songs ｂｒｅａｋme but I still listen to them. Pretty much all of Hospice by Antlers brings up some v heavy stuff for me but I will still put it in and cry solidly throughout. Also went to see them perform the album live a short while after my first major surgery and it was great and so cathartic bc everyone was crying.
i used mysic to cope w mental illness and some of the songs i listened to heavily during my worst times are hard to listen to now. two i can think of are sweater weather by the neighbourhood and something real by blackbear. weirdly, i also listened to in bloom by wy an extreme amount when i was Very Suicidal and i can still listen to it now without feeling too bad
Actually yes! Deftones. My ex husband’a favorite band. But, it’s been years now and I’m over it, I still listen to Deftones and thoroughly enjoy them-and the new album!
I used to have trouble listening to “Sunlight” by Hozier for a similar reason. I used to play that song in the period after my first accident when I started driving again.
alot of visual kei and like, indie jrock cause i blasted em kinda hard in a meh part of teens.
also some dire straits/mark knopfler stuff cause my dad played them to death.. and most deep purple for same reason.. i still like child in time and some songs but yhea.
