Comments on: Do you have a musical memory? http://www.prosody.co.uk/2006/09/16/do-you-have-a-musical-memory/ Games. Music. Life. Words. Tue, 06 Jan 2009 09:43:09 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.7 hourly 1 By: James http://www.prosody.co.uk/2006/09/16/do-you-have-a-musical-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-1620 James Wed, 11 Oct 2006 23:18:23 +0000 http://www.prosody.co.uk/1970/01/01/do-you-have-a-musical-memory/#comment-1620 Good point - the music for Summer Olympiad reminds me of many hours on skeet, fencing and my all-time favourite, the high dive! What prompted me to reply was a song came on my mp3 player, "The Best Thing" by Savage Garden (hey, I'm not ashamed!). Suddenly it was Christmas Day and I was playing Samurai Shodown on the NeoGeo Pocket Colour. I find it absolutely amazing how that happens, and it brought a huge smile to my face. I can see those amazing cinematic finishing moves now, with enemies flying high into the sky and into the distance. That's honestly made my day. Good point - the music for Summer Olympiad reminds me of many hours on skeet, fencing and my all-time favourite, the high dive!

What prompted me to reply was a song came on my mp3 player, “The Best Thing” by Savage Garden (hey, I’m not ashamed!). Suddenly it was Christmas Day and I was playing Samurai Shodown on the NeoGeo Pocket Colour. I find it absolutely amazing how that happens, and it brought a huge smile to my face. I can see those amazing cinematic finishing moves now, with enemies flying high into the sky and into the distance. That’s honestly made my day.

]]> By: Phil http://www.prosody.co.uk/2006/09/16/do-you-have-a-musical-memory/comment-page-1/#comment-1564 Phil Wed, 04 Oct 2006 16:28:10 +0000 http://www.prosody.co.uk/1970/01/01/do-you-have-a-musical-memory/#comment-1564 For me, just about every game tune has a memory attached to it. One soundtrack that stands out in particular is the one from "Guardian Heroes". It always reminds me of the crazy days when we played it for hours on end, battling so many enemies. Just flicking through all my game music brings back so many memories, and it amazes me how much information my brain has stored. There's a complete range of games, including Buggy Boy, Summer Olympiad, Lemmings, Robocod, IK+ and Bubble Bobble. Hearing each tune instantly flashes the image of that particular game or menu into my mind, and all of the related memories. It's quite amazing considering I haven't played some of these games for at least ten years. I think music plays a huge part in memory, and I recall reading an article on the BBC website some time ago that suggested recovering drug addicts could relapse just from hearing a song that reminded them of the drugs. It's also been recommended that one should associate positive mental imagery with songs, so that hearing the song will trigger the positive emotion. That turned out slightly longer than expected... For me, just about every game tune has a memory attached to it. One soundtrack that stands out in particular is the one from “Guardian Heroes”. It always reminds me of the crazy days when we played it for hours on end, battling so many enemies.

Just flicking through all my game music brings back so many memories, and it amazes me how much information my brain has stored. There’s a complete range of games, including Buggy Boy, Summer Olympiad, Lemmings, Robocod, IK+ and Bubble Bobble. Hearing each tune instantly flashes the image of that particular game or menu into my mind, and all of the related memories. It’s quite amazing considering I haven’t played some of these games for at least ten years.

I think music plays a huge part in memory, and I recall reading an article on the BBC website some time ago that suggested recovering drug addicts could relapse just from hearing a song that reminded them of the drugs. It’s also been recommended that one should associate positive mental imagery with songs, so that hearing the song will trigger the positive emotion.

That turned out slightly longer than expected…

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