The Sound of a Place…
Do you ever hear a song, and it brings you right back to a specific moment in time? Perhaps it’s Mariah Carey’s “Hero” and you’re immediately brought back to that time in 7th grade when you asked your crush to slow dance for the first time, and you both stood arm’s length apart, looked beyond each other’s shoulders and didn’t make eye contact or talk the entire time, all while swaying awkwardly off beat? Or maybe it’s seventeen year old you, Dashboard Confessional’s “Screaming Infidelities” cranked up as loud as you could handle, driving alone in the 1989 GMC S15 pick-up truck that you shared with your older brother, driving through the country roads on the outskirts of your small midwestern town, windows rolled down on a summer night, pining over boys you barely had the courage to even speak to, singing at the top of your lungs. Or maybe it’s New Order’s “Temptation” that you and your friends always requested when out dancing all night in your twenties at dive bars in Seoul, always running to find each other in sheer joy to pull each other to the middle of the dance floor as soon as the first few notes dropped.
I have a sneaking suspicion that music is deeply connected to memory. As I’ve gotten older, the bands of my youth are beginning to tour, playing the albums I played on repeat in my teens for 20, even 25 year anniversaries. And the shows are packed with those, including myself, high on the nostalgia of our youth (for all of you still in the throes of your youth, your favorite band’s anniversary tours will be here before you know it). It is because of this that certain songs, albums, or perhaps even genres of music, remind me of places I’ve traveled.
Seoul is New Order, Future Islands, Beach House, LCD Soundsystem, and Otis Redding.
Dongdaemun Design Plaza
Scotland is Tom Petty, Radiohead, and the Pixies.
The Quiraing, Isle of Skye.
Tokyo is basically the soundtrack to Sofia Coppala’s “Lost in Translation” (original, I know).
At the very famous (and very worth it) Robot Restaurant in Shinjuku.
Every place has a soundtrack. When I hear a song, I’m often transported back to the place where it dug its claws into me, branding itself on my soul to forever bring nostalgia and longing any time I hear it. I wouldn’t change it for anything.
At some point, I will happily share playlists for each place, but to get your mind buzzing about music and places, here is a playlist I made with some of my favorite songs about travel. Enjoy!