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In a new study, high-energy, less acoustic songs evoked personal memories featuring amusement and excitement, while lower-energy, more acoustic songs evoked memories characterized by calmness, romance and sadness. Safiyyah Nawaz and Diana Omigie of Goldsmiths University of London, U.K., present these findings in the open-access journal .

One might hear just a few seconds of a song and be transported back to a memory; perhaps a childhood birthday party or walking the dog in one's old neighborhood. Prior research supports the potency of music in evoking vivid memories of one's past, and autobiographical memories are known to help shape identity and self-development.

Few studies have explored whether specific auditory features of music, such as acousticness or low tempo, tend to evoke autobiographical memories with certain characteristics, such as a sad memory or a particularly vivid one.

To investigate, Nawaz and Omigie conducted an online survey study in which 233 participants answered questions about personal memories evoked by music: a self-selected piece alongside excerpts of popular songs from their childhood and early adulthood.

The researchers used statistical approaches called principal components analysis and linear mixed-effects modeling to determine whether any particular qualities of the songs were strongly associated with any particular qualities of the memories they evoked.

The researchers found that more acoustic, lower-energy songs (for instance, Debussy's Clair de Lune) tended to evoke memories characterized by feelings of aesthetic appreciation, adoration, calmness, romance, and sadness.

Memories evoked by such songs were also reported to be less social and more vivid, unique, and important. Meanwhile, less acoustic, higher-energy songs (such as Fetty Wap's Trap Queen) tended to evoke memories of amusement, excitement, and high energy. Memories evoked by such songs also tended to be recalled more quickly.

Compared to memories evoked by popular songs, those evoked by the self-selected songs tended to be more specific, vivid, positive, arousing, unique and important.

These findings deepen the understanding of music-evoked autobiographical memories and could help inform such applications as reminiscence therapies for people with memory impairment conditions such as Alzheimer's Disease.

Safiyyah Nawaz adds, "We all know of the experience of hearing a song and being transported back in time to a vivid memory associated with that song; as it turns out, the properties of the music itself—characteristics like acousticness, loudness and energy—relate to the emotional and phenomenological qualities of the same musical memories.

"Among many interesting findings, we discovered that more acoustic songs were associated with memories that were more vivid, unique, and characterized by complex emotions like romance and adoration, whereas louder, more energetic songs were linked to social, exciting, high-energy memories that were recalled faster."

"In this research project, we collected and analyzed over 1,400 musical memories, a process that was as humbling as it was thought-provoking. I saw how each song carries as many moments of life as there are listeners of that song, adding a new dimension to my personal understanding of music as something that is truly timeless."

"Generated by the data and inspired by the research, we have begun building an online archive of musical memories at . Some of the memories analyzed in this project—shared with the consent of participants—are available to read now, and we aim to expand the archive beyond the predominantly Western samples that have traditionally shaped psychology research."

Diana Omigie adds, "Our in-depth analysis showed that it's not just the musical features that influence memory, but also how much a person likes a song and how familiar it is to them. We hope future research will explore how musical elements interact with such personal elements to bring about the deep and meaningful memories that people experience in everyday life."