The sound of nostalgia / music as a bookmark of the past human experience
Imagine your body is a spaceship speeding towards the unknown in the universe which is life and at the back of your mind, you'll know the spaceship will someday coming to halt and uncertainties is a bitch. The only temporary comfort you can find in the eternal uncertainties is remembering the pocket of times and memories which already became certain in the past.
Some of the music that evokes nostalgia and a sense of longing like looking into the tropical rain cleansing the world by the window holding warm chocolate drink, getting lost in the visual fields of mirage of the neon city lights.
Way way back i often question why some of the people i've come across like to put on same old music over and over again, and guessing why they seemed trapped in a pocket or bubble of time and evidently some hint on the clothing they wear. Later sailing through life i noticed i too have a collection of music that evokes a sense of longing and familiarity when played it feels like reclaming the youth, the energy or the previous innocent form that we use to have. Music that served as a bookmark to how we feels at a certain time in the past where when its played now, its like time travelling back instantly back at the same spot, same tangible memories that hold the truth of our life and existence in this time and age. Music that evokes nostalgia and a sense of longing. Everyone should have a different kind of music that they come scross that they remember and bookmarked. What's yours?
When i was growing up living in Malaysia/Melaka/Ujong Pasir/Kuala Lumpur. i felt lucky to have been exposed to many cultures, including local ones, pop cultures of different neighbouring and far countries and their exports (cultural practise, language, subconscious propaganda). Early 80s american, british, japanese, hong kong, china, india, indonesia, thailand. Their cultural products in music, tv series, radio programmes, cartoons, anime.
Japan has always been a soft spot in my heart. I dont know how to say but the word 'nostalgia' is the one word best to describe the energy i felt from her. When i get the chance to go there for my research in 2014, one thing that i think miss doing is kissing the groud when i landed there like an old friend that i knew who kneel and kissed the ground when he reach Vietnam airport as if he use to be born and lived there in his previous life.
I also get to make few good friends and again when Genmai san played a few songs for me with his guitar, the nostalgia feeling buzzing like a phone on silent and vibrate mode.
Same sense tingling when visiting Nakano broadway that serve as an archieve of old and new Japanese manga and anime. Sound and visual. Heaps of nostalgia. Going through Yoyogi park on Sunday, you will find the usual Rockabilly dancers showing off their moves. Probably their sense of nostalgia towards American pop culture or the romantisizing of it, like i romantisizing some part of japanese culture and music. Probably it has to do with what i want in my culture when i was growing up, where everybody respect each other but instead i was surrounded and growing up in a masculinze, tough, crass environment, language and behaviour which is quite ok too. Probably too much of it that i felt my surroundings need to be a little bit more zen hence the feeling of longing and nostalgia and i find comfort looking at the rain cleansing and give birth to a new world again. Pluviophile is the word i discovered later recently to describe this sense of being.
Some music that discovered later also evokes some sense of nostalgia, not just 80s, 90s but later in 2k.
to be continued...
Genmai san mixtape:
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