Unfortunately, science has not yet found a way to teleport me from April 2010 back to February 1995 to watch my second grade class' Valentine's Day play where I starred as the mail carrier who slips on ice (some things never change!) and mixes up all of the valentines. I can't go back to our annual family vacation to the Cape in August 1996 where I met one of my best friends and we spent hours playing spit, manhunt with our brothers and sisters, and fishing to catch THE bass. And sadly no matter what I do, I cannot travel back to 2000 to change the fact that I had the thickest eyebrows and was the tallest girl, if not person, in the entire seventh grade. However, there is different way that we can go back in time: we can listen to music.
It's funny because with all of the music I have heard in my lifetime, there are only certain songs that I will hear and be instantly brought back to my fondest memory of the tune. The other day I heard Gwen Stefani's "Hollaback Girl" while in the shower and the whole time I was thinking I was driving down Atwood Ave. in Cranston, on my way to get my hair done for senior prom blasting that song until my speakers blew out. I want to go back to 1993? I will listen to Ace of Base's "The Sign" because my best friend made me a copy of her cassette tape. I treated that tape like it was gold.
Choose any song off of Mariah Carey's Music Box album and it will take me back to 1994 and 1995. That same best friend and I would change into our "dress up" clothes, mine being a hot pink bikini top and a short navy blue skirt from Gap Kids (totally not appropriate for a seven-year-old!) and we would dance around her living room blasting that album. Our favorite song being "Hero" for which we had special dance moves, i.e. flaunting our muscles when she sang "look inside you and be strong"....clever, I know.
Travel back to that summer on the Cape? I listen to "Now and Then" by Susanna Hoffs. We played that song on repeat every day while laying out tanning in the bog. Or I could also listen to "Chantilly Lace" by the Big Bopper because my friend's brother would lip-sync to it which is amazing blackmail. Or maybe even "Splish Splash" by Bobby Darin because my friend also danced to that. I believe there are too many songs that bring me back to that vacation.
What about the later years? 2002? "Keeping It Gangsta" by Fabolous and "Batter Up" by Nelly because my brother and I listened to those every day while he drove us to high school. 2004? "Cha Cha Slide" by MC Lite. While driving down to Washington D.C. on a school trip, my friend and I listened to this and acted out the entire dance to the whole bus. "Dare You To Move" by Switchfoot was also out in 2004 and brings me back to when I was crushing on the guy I went to every dance with who got me into the band in the first place.
The other day while I was on the elliptical at the gym "What A Feeling" by Peter Luts and Dominico came on my iPod. All of a sudden I felt like I had been transformed into a huge, crowded space, with lights shining to the beat of the music and dancing and singing on stage with my closest college friends. I was at Toads Place in either 2007, 2008, or 2009 since that is a standard song played at Toads. If I want to go back to Hula Hanks in the fall of 2007 right after I came back from my month long mono hiatus, I listen to Wyclef Jean's "Sweetest Girl" and Kanye West's "Good Life." Of course I listen to "I'm in Miami Bitch" by LMFAO and I am instantly transported to the front seat of Mike's white BMW convertible driving down Collin's Ave on spring break 2009 in Miami.
There are so many songs that can bring me back in time that there is no way I could even list them all! I think songs help our memories though. Music will always be around, but our memories will not. If we can relate the good times in our life to a song then the chances of us remembering will be greater. For this, I am very thankful for the music in my life.
Sing on. Dance on. Remember on.
