VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — I want you to think of some of your favorite songs. If you're over the age of 35, it's a good bet that music isn't the latest Beyonce or Taylor Swift song. It's probably a song from your teens or maybe your twenties. And it turns out, hearing those songs can actually boost your mood.
I caught up with the guys who sang some of my favorites back in the day to find out if music really can make you happier.
"It's really amazing that we get this opportunity," Jordan Knight of New Kids on the Block told me.
Knight, along with fellow NKOTB bandmates Donnie Wahlberg, Danny Wood, Jonathan Knight and Joey McIntyre are celebrating 35 years together. (Yikes—I'm getting old.) The group is set to release a new album later this month. But they also recognize their hits from the 1980s and 1990s keep fans coming back to their shows year after year.
"The things that happen in your life are associated with the songs that you hear," Knight told me. "When you hear those songs again, you're just flooded with feelings and images... from when you were young," he added.
Fellow "New Kid" McIntyre agrees about music's ability to bring back good memories.
"It brings you right back to those moments and those magical sort of warm... life experiences," McIntyre said. "To know that our music does that for our fans is very cool."
It's more than just a feeling, though: there's science to back this up. I reached out to Nicole Drozd, a board-certified music therapist in Hampton Roads, to make sense of this.
"A lot of it has to deal with the fact that our brain is developing so much during that time in our lives," Drozd told me. "Music has a way of imprinting on the brain, especially if something significant is going on. So, think about what it was like when you were a teen or a young adult and all of these rapid changes are happening."
Drozd tells me it works for good memories—and the not so good ones too.
"When you're a teen, you really feel the good, the bad, the ugly, the beautiful, the horrifying. All of that and the music really helps imprint that, for better or for worse," she said.
So, be careful. Pick songs with happy memories. You could be in a better mood in no time. Jordan Knight agrees.
"It's good to just like, get away, dance, let loose, laugh. It's very important," Knight adds.
New Kids on the Block will perform at the Veterans United Home Loans Amphitheater in Virginia Beach in August. Tickets for the concert, also featuring Paula Abdul and DJ Jazzy Jeff, are on sale now.
