The Lifetime Soundtrack - Music and Autobiographical Memory - Lauren Istvandity
Recorded Music and Memory: Capturing, Indexing and Archiving the Past
The Lifetime Soundtrack - Music and Autobiographical Memory - Lauren Istvandity
Lauren Istvandity [+]
University of the Sunshine Coast
Description
This chapter conceptualises the link between music and autobiographical memory through comparison to philosophical ideas of the archive. Within, I propose that elements pertaining to music listening experience are able to effectively capture and store personal memories, which can then be retrieved upon rehearing salient music. To support this theory, ideas comparing the fidelity of music technology and the fallibility of human memory are examined and expanded upon. The chapter argues that musical elements such as lyrics and sound, as well as the para-musical elements of listening technology and physical entrainment produce an effective archive system due to the complimentary properties of both music and memory. This chapter is supported by the particularly unique ways participants described their connection with music; the typically ineffable nature of music perception is emphasized here through the range of ways interviewees perceived their relationship between sounds, lyrics, movement, and technology.