I was sitting at the desk of my new job the other day, listening to music on my headphones. When one particular song started playing, I found I was smiling and pleasant memories connected to my life around the time the song was released began to surface. My shoulders relaxed, and my outlook was lifted; just by the sounds of a piece of music no longer than five minutes.
During my varied career, I've held many positions in the workforce. One my husband and I attempted was working in a retirement facility catering to 'active' seniors. A major component of their time was directed to music; playing, singing or just listening to those songs that brought joy and happy memories back to them of times when their joints didn't ache, and they had their entire lives ahead of them.
Studies have shown patients in Alzheimer homes who may be unresponsive to other outside influences will perk up and show some animation when familiar music be it swing, jazz, classic or religious, is played.
With such strong responses, music should be a critical key to connecting characters in a novel. The problem with using specific song titles and artists is the copyright issues. However, many of the popular songs can be hinted at and a few words used, the catch phrases, within a story to bind the characters together.
Movies use between four and sixteen bars of music to increase tension and direct the watcher to action about to happen. I'll bet you can hum the music to Jaws right now. Everyone who hears that will know EXACTLY what movie you are thinking of.
Could work terrifically in an audible book... just saying.
Sable Angel
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