Summary: A recent study shows that the acoustic qualities and energy level of songs influence the emotional tone and characteristics of the autobiographical memories they trigger. More acoustic, lower-energy tracks tended to evoke memories marked by calm, romance, and sadness, while louder, high-energy songs more often prompted memories of social fun, excitement, and amusement.
Memories tied to self-selected tracks were reported as especially vivid, meaningful, and personally significant when compared with memories evoked by popular-song excerpts. These results deepen our understanding of the music–memory connection and have potential implications for reminiscence-based therapies for people with memory disorders.
Key Facts
- Acoustic Songs: Often associated with calm, romantic, and vividly detailed memories that contain complex emotions.
- Energetic Songs: More likely to trigger social, exciting memories that tend to be recalled quickly.
- Personal Songs: Self-selected music produced memories rated as more unique, positive, and important than those evoked by popular tracks.
Source: PLOS
In an open-access article published in PLOS ONE on August 20, 2025, Safiyyah Nawaz and Diana Omigie of Goldsmiths, University of London, report that high-energy, less acoustic songs tended to evoke memories characterized by amusement and excitement, while lower-energy, more acoustic songs tended to evoke memories marked by calmness, romance, and sadness.
Often a few seconds of music can instantly transport a person back to a specific moment—perhaps a childhood birthday, a first date, or a familiar walk through a neighborhood. Previous research has shown that music is a powerful cue for retrieving vivid autobiographical memories, which in turn play a role in forming identity and shaping life narratives.
However, relatively little was known about whether particular musical attributes—such as acousticness, loudness, or tempo—consistently relate to specific emotional or phenomenological qualities of the memories they evoke.
To address this question, Nawaz and Omigie ran an online survey with 233 adult participants. Each participant identified a self-selected piece of music that evoked an autobiographical memory and then responded to questions describing that memory. Participants also listened to excerpts of popular songs from their childhood and early adulthood and reported details about any memories those excerpts elicited.
The researchers extracted objective audio features for each song using the Spotify Web API and used principal components analysis and linear mixed-effects modelling to examine whether song features predicted qualities of the music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs).
Their analysis revealed a main auditory component defined by low energeticness and high acousticness. Songs scoring high on this component—examples include solo piano pieces like Debussy’s “Clair de Lune”—were more likely to evoke memories characterized by aesthetic appreciation, adoration, calmness, romance, and sadness. These memories were also described as less social but more vivid, unique, and important.
By contrast, songs with lower acousticness and higher energy—illustrated by upbeat contemporary tracks—tended to evoke memories high in amusement, excitement, and general energeticness. Memories tied to these songs were typically retrieved faster and were more social in nature.
Across conditions, memories linked to participants’ self-selected songs were consistently rated as more specific, vivid, positive, arousing, unique, and personally important than memories triggered by the popular-song excerpts.
These findings expand our knowledge of how musical stimulus features relate to the emotional and phenomenological qualities of autobiographical memories. The results could inform practical applications such as reminiscence therapy for individuals with memory impairments, including Alzheimer’s disease, by guiding song selection to elicit desired emotional or mnemonic responses.
Safiyyah Nawaz commented that many people experience immediate, vivid recall upon hearing a familiar song, and that her team’s results show how characteristics like acousticness, loudness, and overall energy level are linked with the emotions and qualities of those memories. She noted that more acoustic songs tended to produce memories that felt more vivid and unique and carried complex emotions such as romance and adoration, while louder, energetic songs were linked with socially oriented, high-energy memories recalled more quickly.
Nawaz added that the research involved collecting and analyzing over 1,400 musical memories, a process that highlighted how each song can hold countless individual moments for different listeners. Inspired by this work, the team has started an online archive of musical memories to broaden the representation of experiences beyond the predominantly Western samples common in psychology research.
Diana Omigie emphasized that musical features are only part of the story: personal factors such as how much a listener likes or is familiar with a song also shape the memories it elicits. She suggested that future research should examine how objective musical elements interact with subjective preferences and familiarity to produce strong, meaningful autobiographical recollections.
About this music and memory research news
Author: Hanna Abdallah
Source: PLOS
Contact: Hanna Abdallah – PLOS
Image: The image is credited to Neuroscience News
Original Research: Open access.
“Qualities of music-evoked autobiographical memories are associated with auditory features of the memory-evoking music” by Safiyyah Nawaz et al. PLOS ONE
Abstract
Qualities of music-evoked autobiographical memories are associated with auditory features of the memory-evoking music
Research on music-evoked autobiographical memories (MEAMs) confirms that music is a powerful cue for retrieving vivid, personally relevant memories. What has been less clear is whether the objective features of music—its acoustic profile, energy, loudness, and related attributes—systematically predict emotional, phenomenological, or retrieval-related qualities of those memories.
In this study, 233 adults identified a personal piece of music that brought back an autobiographical memory, described that memory in writing, and rated its emotional and phenomenological features. Participants also listened to ten popular-song excerpts from their childhood and early adulthood and reported details for any memories these excerpts evoked.
Audio features were extracted for all songs using the Spotify Web API and reduced via principal components analysis. The primary auditory component that emerged—low energeticness paired with high acousticness—predicted several memory qualities. Low-energy, highly acoustic songs were associated with memories characterized by aesthetic appreciation, adoration, calmness, romance, and sadness. High-energy, less acoustic songs were associated with memories higher in energeticness, amusement, and excitement.
Phenomenologically, memories linked to low-energy, acoustic songs tended to be less social but described as more vivid, unique, and important, and they were generally retrieved more slowly. These results demonstrate, for the first time, the extent to which musical stimulus features can predict the qualities of MEAMs.
By also considering subjective factors related to the memory-evoking music—such as how much a person liked or recognized a song—the study offers new insights into potential mechanisms behind music-assisted memory encoding and retrieval. The authors discuss implications for the interplay of perception, emotion, and memory and suggest directions for future research that could broaden and deepen this area of study.