Istvandity/The Lifetime Soundtrack, 1. Assembling an Interdisciplinary Approach to Musical Memories

This chapter has two principle functions: firstly, it will provide the reader with a thorough overview of autobiographical memory and its relation to music. It will prepare the reader for the analysis chapters by outlining our current understanding of musical memory through reference to sociological, cultural and scientific literature. The second function of this chapter is to explore new concepts that are central to the following chapters, including ideas pertaining to the Lifetime Soundtrack, cloud memories, emotion, and the use of music and memory in everyday life. These original ideas encourage a more considered approach to understanding musical memories, providing theoretical frameworks through which the topic can be comprehensively explored. In this chapter, I will argue that musically stimulated autobiographical memory can provide individuals with a way of understanding their life experiences as meaningful, and that everyday listening provides opportunities for engagement with mnemonic processes.