Music — The Soundtrack Of Our Lives
Radio and eight-track tapes, preferred mediums for 70s teenagers.
I’m listening right now to 105.7 The Hog, Tennessee’s Classic Rock Station, headquartered right here in Crossville. The mix of popular music largely suits my taste, spanning, as it does, multiple decades and mostly landing in the 70s and 80s, my coming-of-age years.
I’m like most people in that regard — music is a powerful gateway to our memories, especially those memories from around ages 10-30, a phenomenon that researchers call the “reminiscence bump.”
Scientists classify human memory into three broad categories: 0-5 years old, where we remember nothing, or very little; 10-30 years old — the “reminiscence bump” — where most of our accessible memories reside; and our adult lives, where life sort of beats us up and our memories are more scattershot.
Those ages 10-30 represent when most of us are experiencing things for the first time, when we experience many of life’s “firsts.” First kiss, first beer, first cigarette, first time living away from home — the list is endless, as are the triggers and the memories. It’s not just “firsts” — I think the passion of youth figures in as well, as least for me. I was more intense when I was younger.
(I used to wonder what rock stars would do when they got old. Remember Pete Townsend of The Who famously singing, in the 1960s, “Hope I die before I get old”? What’s Townshend up to these days? He’s alive and rocking and on tour. And he’s not the only one.)
Fans are still rocking too. I had the opportunity to see Little Feat, a 70s band, in Knoxville a few months okay. I’m not sure anyone in attendance was under 40 but there was a lot of “reminiscence bumping” going on that night, along with lots of dancing and swaying of raised arms. Geritol, gray hair and good vibes were one in the Tennessee Theater that night.
The fog of time can distort music-related memories. I was no fan of disco in the 70s — I was pretty firmly in the “disco sucks” camp. But these days I get a big “reminiscence bump” when I hear disco, which peaked when I was in high school. You couldn’t escape it back then — it’s pretty much the soundtrack of Generation Jones’ high school years. I don’t hate disco now because it’s fun and it makes me feel good. I don’t seek it out but I don’t tune it out either.
(So as I’m sitting here at my desk, listening and working, I hear “Every Little Thing She Does Is Magic,” 1981, by The Police, a song dead square from my Air Force service in England. I’m cosmically transported back to that time and place, specifically a buddy’s cottage near RAF Mildenhall that was party-central for a while. The Police in general are a trigger for that time but that song is specific.)
The Hog and the music it plays are especially meaningful memories, Station owner Kirk Tollett and I grew up together and were good friends in high school, CCHS class of 1978. We spent a lot of time riding around (that’s what we did in those days), talking and listening to the radio. It’s almost jarring to hear a song now on Kirk’s radio station that I know I first heard in his car.
(In my head I keep hearing Bob Welch’s “Ebony Eyes.” I wonder if I’m having a virtual “reminiscence bump” …)
We talked about all kinds of stuff back then, the kind of stuff teenage boys talk about. Girls. Cars. School. The future. Kirk’s future was always in radio. He had business sense beyond his years, and he worked hard even then making his material wants happen. He was able to buy himself nice things.
He was still in high school when he was hired as a disc jockey (DJ) at WAEW, one of two local stations in those days. He would study how DJs operated on-air and mimic what he liked. He was a quick study — quick enough to realize that the real money in radio was in sales and management, and eventually ownership. Good for him.
We talked again recently, the first time in 40 or so years. Crazy that it had been that long. I told him how much I liked his format and how I’ve heard others say the same thing. He appreciated it and said he’s constantly adding to the music library and occasionally adjusts the formula — never anything big, just smaller tweaks.
Not to worry, he said. Hog listeners let him know when he goes too far
Sounds like Hog listeners have a handle on their “reminiscence bumps.”