A Dash of Salt - Music's Influence on our Mood and Memory

Stacy McCracken and Sharon Maui discuss the impact of music on mood and brain function. They explore how AI is influencing music, citing Randy Travis's AI-generated song and Spotify's use of AI to curate playlists. They share personal anecdotes about songs that evoke memories and emotions, such as "Don't Stop Believing" and "Born to Run." They also discuss the role of music in workouts and meditation and introduce Mahjong as a new craze for mental engagement. The conversation highlights the emotional and memory-triggering power of music, and they invite listeners to share their own music memories.

Action Items

• [ ] Explore the game of Mahjong and find an online platform to play with the speaker's brother.
• [ ] Follow up with listeners to hear about their favorite songs that evoke memories.

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Transcript

Okay And hey, welcome, hi,

Stacy, you know it's good to talk to you again this week. It
is. It's great to talk to you as well. We are going to do something that's fun today. I'm super excited. We are talking about music and love music and just music and how it affects us and how it's inspired us and and what that looks like if you are just tuning in for the first time. Welcome. You are listening to a dash of salt by two salty women, and I am Stacy McCracken, your co host.  I'm a Midwestern girl, but I chased the sunshine all the way to Austin, Texas. And yeah, I love pushing the status quo, changing things up, making things better. That is, that is what I love to do. And I love people so awesome.

And I'm Sharon Mawet, your salty companion. I am a native Texan, and I have a knack for baking up big dreams or little scones, or everything in between. Sharon
is a great, great baker. She is and so and so. Yeah, thank you. Thank you for being here and music. Do you love music? Sharon, I
love music. Yes, so I do too. I do too. And, you know, I've seen more than one article lately about how important music is and how it affects our brain and and so, you know, I, you know, I turn it on for just about every mood, right? If I'm sad, I've got music on. If I'm trying to build up my energy, I've got music on. And you know, if I'm driving in the car, I'm probably sitting in at the top of my lungs, and I've got music on the only time I'm going to be singing anyway, because I'm not a great singer. 

But that's right, yeah. And then now, you know, a previous episode we talked about AI, all things AI a couple of episodes ago. And you know, AI is getting involved in music as well these these days. So one way AI is affecting music is, if you'll recall, if you're a country music lover, anyway, you'll be know all about Randy Travis, but he released a song last year, but he has not sung a song since he had a stroke in 2013 but AI created a song that he released last year that did really well, and recently, this last month, Wall Street Journal how to article about Spotify, how Spotify is using AI to Pro to provide these popular playlists on there to boost your mood or be the mellow mood. But they're using AI so they can include songs in there to help stream songs and interplay in there to be cheaper for them in the long run. So it's very interesting how AI is involving into our music and our moods as well.

Love that. I think that things that just seeing where AI keeps popping up and, you know, so them being able to use AI to curate lists around moods, but then also manage it so that it helps them on the financial side as well, and how they're what they're playing is super interesting. You know, the in the brain, right when we listen to songs, it releases dopamine, these feel good chemicals. But I think the really cool thing about music is it actually debates all of the different regions of your brain, which is why it's so powerful. And so, you know, it's our emotion region, it's our memory region, our motor function region, and so it just activates all of these different regions of the brain, which is what makes it so powerful and so as we talk through some of our favorite music today, I would not be surprised if there is music that evokes memories, right, music that makes you want to get up and dance, Right? Or that has that emotional connection to it, yeah. 

Stacy, yeah, so Stacy, what are the let's, let's get into our main topic, and let's dive behind more the science behind music,
absolutely. So I'm just curious. You know, Sharon, do you have a song that always lifts your spirits?

Um, I do. I'm trying to think, well, I worked out this morning, and heaven is a place on earth from the 80s. Belinda Carlisle, I think if I have the right name, I mean, I can just start dancing and sing into that song immediately, as soon as it comes out. That's
super fun. That's super fun. I always listen to so regardless, I was looking through my playlist as I was thinking about this episode today, and and so I have an energy playlist and a mindset playlist and a beach playlist. And there's one thought, there are actually two songs that show up on every playlist of mine. And so don't stop believing there you go, which is journey. And then Bruce Springsteen's Born to Run shows up on every playlist that that I have
like you're having some manifestation going on there with these songs, right?

So talk about the and I love to talk about Born to Run, because I actually have a really funny story that you may be able to relate to, all right, but I was going through a season of of burnout, like, just incredible, incredible burnout, and I honestly, like, I knew I was burned out, but I didn't understand, like I was just I had made a playlist that just like calmed me when I listened to it. But the funny thing was, was it was full of running songs. So my playlist was born to run. It was running to stand still by you two. It was banned on the run. Which Britney song? I'm not making this up. It was running on empty. Which Jackson Brown? And then it had the dog. Days Are Over by Florence and the Machine, but there's a line in there that is run fast. And so it was all about running. And then the only other sign in that list was considerably numb. 

And well, you'll be numb after running that much, probably, but
yeah, so just made me laugh. Because as I realized one day, and I think it was kind of as I was starting to recover a little bit, I just started laughing, because I was like, I'm running away from something. I am running towards something. I don't know, but I'm no, I'm just exhausted, right? And and so it's kind of my running, my running season. 

So there you go. Love it. I have a similar but it can, yeah, music, really, you can dive in emotionally and connect with the songs I know, like during, I'm sure many people during the pandemic, I struggled with several things, you know, the whole pandemic issue, like everybody's doing, being lonely. I had things going on in my family. Personally, I lost my father during this time. So it was a very heavy, emotional time for me, and the rise up by Andrew day and head above water by Avril Lavigne, I think if I have the artist right, those spoke to me about hope like that, there is a tomorrow like this is just a moment in time, and we will get through it, and it will be okay. But yes, you have to have those songs that really pull you along, right?

I love that Andra Day's song, rise up. I love that song. It is absolutely on one of my, one of my playlists, right? One of my and I actually have two versions. I have rise up by her. And then I think, Imagine Dragons. Also have a version that's a different, Rise Up, check it out. And so it's just kind of fun to to do that. And I'm curious, you know, we talked about the memory centers of your brain and being activated. And so I grew up listening to music because I was a baton twirler and a dancer, and so we weren't always having to curate new routines and new things. And so I just grew up listening to music all the time for the purposes of trying to pull together a routine or do something. But. And so there's a lot of for me, I can hear songs, and I can remember routine I did to it, or I can, you know, remember kind of where I was, you know, I I did several baton routines to Beach Boys music. And then there's a Beach Boys Christmas album. And when we were young, very young dancers, we knew that we were getting older when we were allowed to do our Christmas show to the Beach Boys Christmas music because it was kind of fun and peppy. So I'm curious for you, like does? Does? Like? Is there any music that sort of takes you into that reminiscing mode or evokes memories for you?

Well, as soon as you said Beach Boys, I mean immediately two or in Christmas, two memories popped up immediately for me, Beach Boys, trying to remember the song that came out, like in the 90s or late 80s. I'm going to think of the name later, but I was with my older brother and his friends. They allowed me to tag along for their you know, outing. But the song came on as soon as we had parked the car in front of our house on our way back from an activity, and all, like, five or six of us climbed out of the car. And, you know, I'm dancing with these people. They're, like, four years older than me, and I thought they were the bee's knees, right? And we're all just jamming to this Beach Boys song. I can still remember the sidewalk and the evening and whatnot. The other one the Christmas you know, of course, I love Mariah Carey, the famous Christmas song, but I listened to her Christmas album on repeat while on vacation on a beach over Christmas, and that was just, yeah, I can just hear the waves and picture the exact beach scene in my mind. So, yeah, I love that. It brings back very specific and detailed memories. Music can do that's your brain working hard, right? It builds so many more connections when you tie them to music because it it just launches all those different libs of your game. 

So I'm curious. You know, when you think about, we've talked about, kind of the the memory aspect of it, but you know what? What falls onto your top 10 playlist, like 10 songs that you're just going to hear over and over and over again? Or do you have to do it more by category?
I do, category I'll listen to, like 80s or country or Sunday mornings I'm listening to praise and worship. My kids joke about it. And even the AI tool, like in Spotify or Amazon music, it'll kind of populate it'll know today's Sunday, and it'll be like, well, you typically listen to this music on this day you should, or at this time you should be listening to this. So I find it very interesting how AI is playing a role, but I find it hard to I alternate, because I can listen to one song on repeat for hours, annoying my kids during the pandemic because I had there's two songs, one of them being Kelsey ballerinis a hole. There's a hole in the bottle. Every day during the pandemic, I would cook dinner, turn on that song, have a glass of wine, and like, repeat. My kids were like, can you listen to the same song for an hour, and I'd be like, This is my therapy right now. This is how I'm getting through this isolation.

That's so good. You said there were two. What it is, what's the other one? Do you remember?
It was a Brett Young song, country music, something about dancing, because it would just get my feet moving, literally dancing in the kitchen. Yes. How about you? 

What are your top now, I my playlists are usually really mixed up, like, really eclectic, because I'm going to have Queen and Foreigner and Journey, but I will probably, and I'll have you two and Bruce Springsteen, And then maybe some Beatles and Elton John
and some country, you know, and so I just love to have a great mix. 

Like my beach playlist tends to be really eclectic in that way, because I love, you know, some indie artists. as well, and so is it Maggie Rogers. There's a song Light On that, I think, is just an amazing song. And then there's another one called, this isn't by her, but like Dancing in the Kitchen, and it's just kind of a fun, sweet song. But then at the same time, you know, I like Modern English, and I'll stop the World and Melt with You. And, yeah, if I turn on Meatloaf, Bat Out of Hell album, you know, I'm immediately taken back to, like, road trips with my best friend Julie. And, you know, driving all over the country, you know, with the songs all cranked up, singing all of those story songs that he wrote. 

And, yeah, well, it's the same, like, I love, you know, there's certain songs, like, then by Brad Paisley, or Forever and Ever Amen, by Randy Travis. I mean, it makes me when I hear some of those songs and my husband's nearby, I'm like, you know, I could fall in love with him all over again just by invoking these songs and bringing you know, us back together. So yeah, it's always great. Though, I do find, you know, going back to AI and creating the playlist. I do find it difficult to create playlists, so I found, like Amazon music, AI will learn my preferences a lot quicker than a Spotify playlist. I feel Spotify keeps songs on repeat, and I'm like you where I need to infuse a different song in there so I don't get bored with that playlist. And so Spotify playlist frustrate me, because I'm like, okay, yeah, well, I'm past Kelsey Ballerini. Now I need you to bring in some more George Street again, or Brett Young, or, you know, some of Lainey Wilson, some of the newer artists. And I get frustrated with that, so I'd love to know how to create a good playlist.

Yeah, I love for our listeners, if you've got a great way to create a good playlist, because I don't do Spotify, but I do do. I have an Amazon Music list, and I it does pretty good job of, you know, curating lists once I've created one that I, you know, it's kind of a foundation, and then it does a pretty good job of of creating them from there could be even on Spotify, it's because they're maximizing their revenue, that's right, they're squeezing in those Cheap songs in between. 

That's right, exactly, exactly. That's super funny. That's super funny. Well, I'm curious. You know music is great for working out, right? It's great for pumping up your energy. If anyone's ever been, I don't know, have you ever done a Tony Robbins event?

I have not been to one of his events. So, so Tony
Robbins infuses music into his events better. I've only done one event with him, but he infuses music into his events better than any other sort of conference or activity I've ever been to. And you know, there is music for when there's reflection. There is music for when he's trying to bring the energy up. There is, I mean, I found myself jotting down all of the songs while we were going through and it was masterful. And I think, as we think about, you know, just how important music is to the brain and and and how important it is in seating and helping you remember things. It makes perfect sense, right? And so you know, as you know, if you're trying to sit down and maybe do a reflection or meditate, and you think about when you do yoga or when you go to a spa, and the sounds and the music that they have playing, I think that maybe creating some music, right? 

Whether you're trying to get in the flow of work and not be distracted, or you're trying to work out that that there's some goodness, and there's some good science behind why it's worthwhile, right? To make yourself a playlist.
Yeah, because I find I've been doing a lot. We've talked about this before in a previous podcast, but walking a lot more. But, you know, I've been trying to be like, walk with purpose, as opposed to just enjoying the outdoors. So I love a good playlist that will get me walking on a three to three and a half miles per hour, you know, hit list, because that. You know, I love working out to a beat, whether it's on my peloton bike or out for a walk, but that brings me the most energy and working out if I can hit a. Beat, right?
Absolutely, absolutely, right, and that, and then it doesn't feel like work so much. 

Yeah,feels like you've hit in a goal, like I've hit my target. I'm achieving. I'm going for it. So, yeah,
absolutely, absolutely, anything else that comes to mind, if you think about music and just, you know, the role that it plays in kind of your your day to day or, um, for you?

Um, no, I think we've covered most topics. Um, the only other things I can, you know, just memories that go back. I could keep going on and on about those. But I think we'd love to hear from, you know, our listeners, what song evokes, what memories for them that would be, that would be great. 

You know, as we're moving on to salt's kitchen, I wanted to ask you talking about playing games, you know, doing exercises. So I won't have a recipe for you today, but I've jumped on the bandwagon of the latest praise. You might have seen it in the New York Times in the last week or two. There was an article about mahjong. Have you heard about it? Stacy
about Mahjong, and you know, it is actually, isn't that the game that we're playing in Casey Rich Asians at the end? Yes. And so are you going to help me understand this game and how it works? Because it looks complicated, but it's, it's now there's communities and folks getting together playing module.
It is popping up all over the place. There's been a bunch of Instagram I live kind of a little bit on the very, very far suburb of a lot, you know, Dallas, Fort Worth, metroplex, and they are popping up all over the place. Open play. You can go meet people, and it's a good game. It's a somewhat strategy though. I was talking with another friend of mine who I tried to, you know, got her to go with me to learn the game. And she actually, we had a conversation about it a couple of weeks ago, or after we learned how to play, and she thought it was kind of boring. She's like, where is the strategy in this? And I was just like, well, I find it interesting because it keeps my mind engaged, and I really have to think about how I'm pairing things up. And plus, you know, I love that. It's a new craze now, because, as we mentioned before, the art of making friendships as an adult is hard, and so this is a great way to go out and meet people in the community, as well as keep that brain working as we get older. So I'm really loving it. And there's a lot of, you know, open plays you can do in person. There's digital online communities introducing the game to a lot of people. My brother and his wife have taken it up. So I look forward to we're trying to find an online platform that we're both going to participate in, and so that'll be a way for me to keep in touch with my brother, who lives, you know, a few hours away from me, so I look forward to that. So let us know. Listeners, if you play Mahjong, what you think about it? Do you love it? Do you think it's boring? Or tell us about your favorite game that you'd love to play.
Sharon, I'm gonna have to check it out. So the I mean, I'm I know that, but I don't know the rules. I don't know how to play, but it would be, it would be fun for me to check out. So I appreciate that. That's awesome. That's awesome. And play some music while you're learning your mahjong and and it can, you know, help you with your strategy. So thank you so much being here at the end of another episode of a dash of salt with two salty women. Remember, we are not angry, we are not upset, we are not salty in that way. We are simply trying to add a little spice and flavor to your podcast playlist. So thank you for tuning in. That's
right, and don't forget to subscribe and visit us at two salty women.com for more flavor in your life, and we can't wait to talk to you next time.
Absolutely take care you.