The Songs That Outlive Us
By Avi Bullock ’29
Graphics by Katy Su ’28
Music is our most reliable time machine. One small snippet of a song can bring us back to moments from our childhood or a specific summer vacation. Songs play as emotional time capsules that can bring us back to a feeling we have had. Nowadays, those emotions are being played with by social media platforms such as TikTok.
Music can connect us to memory through strong emotions. In a recent study conducted at Durham University in the UK, researchers explained that “when music draws our attention, this increases the likelihood that it will be encoded in memory together with details of a life event.” The study goes on to argue that music is able to serve as an effective cue for remembering an event years later. This theory explains how specific tunes can trigger strong reactions in the brain. A few notes can bring back the nerves before an event. Each song carries a unique emotional mark personal to each individual.
However, on TikTok, that individuality disappears. Songs can still be emotional, but their meanings change with every post. A sound clip can now become a meme, a dance, or a rumor that has been stretched farther than its origin. For example, old songs such as “Someone To Call My Lover” by Janet Jackson that were made in the early 2000s have started to resurface on TikTok and have become a nostalgic moment for older generations online. The TikTok trend uses the song to create a feeling of “being excited for love without…[stress]” as Genius described. Social media can bring songs back to life, but at the same time, it also flattens them by turning personal emotions towards the public. This is what gravitates people towards social platforms such as TikTok, which have become graveyards and delivery rooms for forgotten memories. A song’s emotional weight becomes part of a unique algorithm that is forever used according to whatever is trending at the moment. Each trend may seem like a permanent meme, but algorithms are made to disappear once the next trend shows up. Viewed this way, TikTok becomes a garbage cycle where trends are created and then quickly discarded.
Just for a few seconds, thousands of people may be able to share the same sound and relate it to their own feelings. The same song can be used to symbolize traveling, family, or even Christmas dinner. Each social media influencer can take a small piece of the song and reshape it to their own personality.
Music will forever be a memory time capsule, but social media can change the type of memory it is associated with. TikTok does not save moments like a journal would, but it captures how our emotions felt back then. In earlier decades, songs often felt more personal, but today they can be interpreted through the lens of different people. Somehow, they still find ways to express our emotions to the world. That might be the point: music will always find a way to outlive us.
Footnotes
Durham University, “Why Does Music Bring Back Memories? What the Science Says - Durham University.”
References
Durham University, and Durham University. 2023. “Why Does Music Bring Back Memories? What the Science Says - Durham University.” Durham.ac.uk. March 10, 2023. https://www.durham.ac.uk/research/current/thought-leadership/2023/03/why-does-music-bring-back-memories-what-the-science-says/.