Some songs make me feel kinda weepy and nostalgic, nostalgic for experiences I never even had. And that makes me love them when I’m in the right mood.
For example:
“Landslide” by Stevie Nicks/Fleetwood Mac
“Life in a Northern Town” by Dream Academy
“Jack and Diane” by John (Cougar) Mellencamp (Can’t believe I just admitted to that one)
“Annie’s Song” by John Denver
Ok granted they are all ballads, but it isn’t just the lyrics. If I read them they really are all kinda shlocky or something. It is the sound of the songs that gets me right through the heart.
I know jack about music, but I think it must be that they are all written with a certain sound or instrument something. Is this indeed what is going on? If not is it something else that can be pinpointed…or am I just a sap?
Finally, anyone have suggestions for other pop songs that might fit well with these 4 songs? I want to make a mix for my blue days so I can listen to it over and over and use up a box of kleenex and wallow in self-pity.
I get the same way, only it’s not with those songs, but with songs with what I term the “New Wave Whine”. Oddly enough, it was first found IME not on a New Wave song, but on Eleanor Rigby. It’s hard to describe, but it’s a sort of reggae-flavored falsetto-ish high notes interspered in an otherwise only moderately wistful tune that make me very nostalgic for something I’ve never experienced.
Other candidates for Nostalgic New Wave Whine:
Starry Eyes, the Records.
Several songs by the Police.
Tempted, Squeeze
Heya, where you goin’(heaping helping of ???), the Bangles
Best Looking Boys, the Promise Ring.
I get nostalgic during certain songs too but they’re generally ones that you’re expected to do so on… ones that you would hear played at a high school graduation, for example. The two best examples I can think of are Green Day’s “Good Riddance” and Eve 6’s “Here’s To Tonight”.
The weird thing is, even though this are meant to be nostalgic (and obviously are), I have NO reason to feel that way when hearing them. Neither song really describes any sort of situation I’ve ever been in.
It might also be because of the context that you heard the song in. Penny Lane for some reason used to bring back movies.
I don’t have any memories with Something, but that one’s fairly nostalgic sounding.
The Beach Boys are very good at this sort of thing IMO, but that may be because my dad has always been a big fan of theirs.
I agree that it is often more the context the song gives than the song itself. If I hear ‘It’s Too Late’ or Anticipation’ I am immediately back into the seventies or thereabouts.
“In My Life” by the Beatles will send me into a quagmire of nostalgia.
I’m also very deeply affected by the Eurhythmics “Sweet Dreams Are Made of This” and Don Henly’s “Boys of Summer”, but I know these songs both send me directly back into the emotional state I was in when I first heard them - I drift away to the happier life I was living every time.
But then there are purely instrumental songs which still sound very nostalgic. Take the Old Republic Theme from Star Wars, for instance. Yes, obviously, it’s supposed to sound nostalgic, and it succeeds, but how? Are their particular chord progressions that do that? Particular keys? Tempo, dynamic? What is it?
