The Joy of Rediscovery
I’ve heard, on more than one occasion, that our musical tastes are established in our teen years. In fact, an article in the New York Times in 2018 claimed that, for men, the peak years that define our musical tastes are between the ages of 13 to 16. And, to some degree, I suppose I can see that. I mean, those were the years when I fell in love with Rush, and for the next 20 years at least, they were my favorite band.
At the same time, I must be some anomaly. While I have strong feelings for the music I listened to during those years (I like the Black Album by Metallica more than it deserves), my musical tastes are far more diverse now than they ever were at that age. Or, at least, far more diverse within the smaller scope of metal music I listen to.
16-year-old me would have crapped his pants if he heard much of the brutal death metal I gravitate towards now, 30+ years later. So, I take some issue with the idea that we often get stuck, musically, in our teen years. I find myself constantly listening to and checking out music that I never would have at that age.
But what I will wholeheartedly admit to is the power of nostalgia.
It doesn’t have to be back to my teen years. But there is something special to me in coming back to music that I discovered, enjoyed, and then didn’t listen to for a while. While I love finding new, exciting music, there is just something special in coming back and rediscovering something I haven’t listened to in a long time.
Case in point, I recently rediscovered the music of Psychotic Waltz and Deadsoul Tribe (both bands in which Buddy Lackey/Devon Graves is the vocalist, and more in the case of Deadsoul Tribe). Using the excellent Apple Music app, Marvis Pro, I happened to see the Psychotic Waltz album Into the Everflow in the “Forgotten” section of the home page of the app.
It is a delightful addition to the music listening experience. It will surface albums that I haven’t listened to in some time, and will actually say underneath the album art how long it has been since I played that album. I was leaving work, so I threw on Into the Everflow. I got home. The music continued. I was in love.
The music is excellent in its own right. But there was something special about listening to it again, after a few years, that connected me to the music. So I listened to more Psychotic Waltz albums. Then I dug back into Deadsoul Tribe. And the albums from both bands have now been in constant rotation this week since their rediscovery.
Both bands were discoveries of my medical school years. Those are not happy years. There were plenty of amazing and happy times, but on the whole, medical was not what I would consider a positive experience. I feared that the music would dredge up some of those feelings. And while, yes, it did transport me to that time of life, to some degree, it did so through the lens of having successfully navigated that experience, of having grown, and of now living the dream I had when I started that long and arduous pathway.
The rediscovery of those albums has actually helped to recontextualize some of those memories. Those negative experiences have been reframed in a more positive light due to the personal, and professional, growth I have gone through. The music recalls those difficult times, but I have been able to put a new perspective on those times.
Perhaps that is part of why I have been so enamored by these older albums. They lack the nostalgia of my teen years, but still recall me to a previous stage of my life, and do so in a way that has taken some of the sting of those years.
The rediscovery of the music has also allowed me to rediscover my self, at least to a small degree. Yeah, good music can do that.