This is a chewy reading. So chewy in fact, I almost broke a tooth. Although what parts of this article I could intellectually chew on were quite interesting.
The section I most enjoyed and related to was the one entitled Signs of Experience and Emotion. The section discussed how one musical sign could contain a lot of different meanings in a single sign. They use the example of a romantic couple’s “our song”. When the song first occurs, during their first dance perhaps, it’s a meaningful and emotional sign. Then every other time they hear it while still in the relationship it may have taken on additional objects to go with the new occasion. Then if the couple breaks up and one of them hears the song it will continue to have a powerful emotional effect. The old memories of that first dance, times together and the heartbreak that followed will all be felt simultaneously creating a complex contradictory meaning. I can completely relate to this, not necessarily in a romantic sense, but in general.
I am a very musically minded person. The article states that “Indices often carry personal meanings, and thus our emotional investment in them tends to be higher than for general signs, especially when attached to significant aspects of our lives.” I couldn’t agree more. For me, almost every song I know I have something connected to it. If I hear Bleeding Love I think about the summer I spent at Disney World. If I hear anything by The Fray I think about Red Rocks. If I hear I Won’t Say I’m in Love from Hercules I think of my friend Alyssa. And most of them make sense to only me. I can’t just listen to music: music is an emotional experience for me always tied to memories. So in this instance I am living breathing proof of this theory.
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