I want you to open your media player of choice and make a new playlist titled ‘My Life in Music’. Now think back to your childhood and add a song to that playlist that immediately comes to mind. Continue this process until you arrive to the present.

Throughout our lives music has constantly been fed into our minds, and whether you realise it or not, our brains take note. One moment of our lives can instantly be revived by a musical masterpiece or by a one hit wonder piece of garbage.

One of my earliest memories is recalled by Agadoo by Black Lace. In the summer of 1984 I was 5 years old, the Radio 1 Road Show was on Weston-Super-Mare’s beach and I was dancing around to this monstrosity without a care in the world. Will I add this to my list? Hell yeah! This playlist should not just include your favourite songs, this is a journey we are taking and when we reach our destination, you should feel emotionally drained. Music not only recalls memories, it recalls feelings, smells and even taste.

Demons Be Gone!

Listen to some old favourites, and even if they remind you of some bad times, add them. No story is completely full of happiness, that would get boring, and you would be lying to yourself. Another example of one of my choices would be Freak on a Leash by Korn. This track is one of my personal favourites but it also tears me up inside and almost brings me to tears. I made a huge mistake with one of my best friends and it destroyed me, I found myself driving to work and with the volume at full blast, I screamed my lungs out to this tune. Who needs a shrink when you have Korn!

The song you choose may even not be from the time period of the memory, it doesn’t matter. If it wakes up memories deep from inside you, that’s all that matters. Back in 2009 I saw Slipknot at Donington Park (Download festival), the last song they performed was from their first album recorded 10 or so years ago. During the song, Spit It Out, Corey Taylor got the whole audience to sit down on the ground and when the song restarted everyone was to jump up onto their feet and go fucking nuts. Listening to this 10-year-old track now always reminds me of that time, the ground rumbling beneath my feet, Joey’s drum kit rotating at a 90-degree angle and my love for that band grew three sizes that day.

Don’t rush this list and you don’t need to make it too long. Order the songs so that the memories are in chronological order and if you have something you want to remember which is recent, don’t force a song to recall the memory, it will happen naturally. If you want, share your list on the forums but keep the reasons for the selections to yourself. This is your list and no one will or should understand what it means to you.

This is what music should do, as with all forms of art, evoke emotion. It is also, for me, the best form of therapy. So for your own sake, make this playlist and help surface those buried emotions that may someday cause you to suffer needlessly.

[rokbox title=”Slipknot – Spit It Out” thumb=”http://talkingship.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Picture-20.png” size=”854 505″ album=”demo”]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTxhn5yVCUw[/rokbox]