TEP Talk - TEP Tunes: The Formative Years
Music and nostalgia go hand-in-hand. There’s always that one song that brings you back to a particular time, place, mood, or memory. In fact, the musical influences of our formative years speak volumes to our upbringing and audio preferences later on in life. And with what a smash hit our Ultimate Tech Square Playlist activation was this past June, we wanted to create another banger – this time, with a retro flair to it.
So, on Wednesday, August 18, we served up traditional and hard lemonades at Technology Enterprise Park (TEP) during our TEP Tunes: The Formative Years Cocktail Talk, where we asked our community members what their favorite songs of their childhood were.
Whether it was recollections from people’s first albums to their first concerts to songs their parents instilled in them at a young age, the responses came pouring in – and were wide-ranging!
Not to mention, the excitement in the air was palpable when attendees learned what activity they were participating in. And according to science, this type of reaction when it comes to recalling songs of their adolescence isn’t uncommon.
Recently, psychologists and neuroscientists have confirmed that songs from our formative years hold disproportionate power over our emotions: Researchers have uncovered evidence that suggests our brains bind us to the music we heard as teenagers more tightly than anything we’ll hear as adults – a connection that doesn’t weaken as we age. Musical nostalgia, in other words, isn’t just a cultural phenomenon: It’s a neuronic command. And no matter how sophisticated our tastes might otherwise grow to be, our brains may stay jammed on those songs we obsessed over during the high drama of adolescence.
Our host, Charlie Duprey Langlois, couldn’t agree more: “These songs of our formative years truly are tapped into our most profound recollections and memories. And it’s clear, based on the data, the individual relative nature of what is significant to our members, based on age differences and cultural upbringing. Activations like these serve as a space where people can share and voice the sounds that shaped, inspired, and carried them through the years, be it the sounds from The Who during the 1960s or Usher post-millennium.”
Speaking of our curated activations, nostalgia isn’t something new for us here at Tech Square ATL (TSQATL) Social Club. In honor of Mar10 (Mario) Day, an annual holiday recognizing the entire fan-favorite franchise, we hosted a Mario Party Coffee Talk back in March around the newest technologies in video games versus the retro OGs. We’ve also discussed the nostalgia around a toy with a great shelf-life, which ultimately turned into a Coffee Talk centered upon simple technologies and inventions that have stood the test of time.
Upon the conclusion of the event, Charlie created a playlist from the contributions of our community members to capture the musical memories. Check it out below and see if anything in particular triggers an emotional response!
What song reminds you of your formative years? Let us know in the comments below!