Music that impacts some collective folk/cultural memories

I’ve never been a great one in believing there is such a thing as collective memory however this song carries such emotional heft for me, a city born boy, that it cannot be explained by my own memories.

.sjb

Qobuz: Gortatagort by Christy Moore
Tidal: Gortatagort by Christy Moore
Spotify: Gortatagort by Christy Moore

Anyone have songs that similarly have an effect on them, that outwardly seem to make little sense.

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If I understand it right I can say this: I listen about 15% own memories related. The rest I just keep looking at new music just to find exactly the ones that carry emotional heft not being possible to explain by my own memories/experiences. If I find something like this once or twice a week I’m happy.
I guess both types of relating to music are a kind of contemplation like a daydreaming but when you are not bound to your own memories it is more abstract. Maybe I’m wrong. Nice song.

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Not sure I understand your @Sloop_John_B reference to ‘collective memory’ in regard to this track, although I do get that music can be one of those things that maintain a groups identity & of its overall importance to both past & present connections.

Not certain I’ve ever thought of my music in such light. However, I do really like the track you’ve selected so much so I’ll have to seek out some more of Christy Moore (& I do mostly like Irish folk). Actually, I might revisit his brother whom I never really liked, although perhaps in the late 90’s/early 2000’s (height of his popularity?), I wasn’t really listening to folk.

Cheers.

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I probably haven’t explained myself very well. This song stops me in my tracks, brings me close to tears and has a huge effect on me and in actual fact it’s just a list of fields and the story of a locality – I don’t understand why this would have such an emotional impact on me, so I was just surmising that this might be a case of collective memories or folk memory or some such term that I have heard psychologists and philosophers using.

I’m not talking about a song that brings back memories to me of where I have heard it before or a time in my life filled with emotion. I have no memories associated with this song.

I suppose this thread came about as I was asking myself listening to this “why am I nearly crying?”

.sjb

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