Summer Deep Dive: “Time After Time”

A Series Finale, Musical Nostalgia, Dotted Notes, and Miles Davis

Musical Nostalgia and the “Summer Deep Dive” Series

The essays in this series have been some of my most popular. I thank you, dear readers, for your attention and your kind words.

The series began in midsummer with Hall and Oates’ “She’s Gone,” followed by “Lowdown” by Boz Scaggs, Mumford and Sons’ “I Will Wait,” Sheryl Crow’s “Run Baby Run,” Frank Zappa’s “Willie The Pimp,” Taylor Swift’s “I Bet You Think About Me,” Peter Gabriel’s “Don’t Give Up,” Khruangbin’s “A Love International,” Jimmy Buffett’s “Margaritaville” and “Come Monday,” and Emily Zeck’s “Trailer Park Tiki Bar.”

The most read were the Jimmy Buffett and Hall and Oates features, each song about a half century old. This is explained, at least in part, by the deep emotional power of musical nostalgia.

Music lights up our brains like little else. Mark Joseph Stern explains this well in a 2014 essay:

To understand why we grow attached to certain songs, it helps to start with the brain’s relationship with music in general. When…