If old school country music gives you that good buzz, now you know why.
According to a therapist with the Sims Foundation — an organization that provides mental health and substance use recovery services — listening to music from your high school days “binds to brain” more than anything you hear as an adult.
So, that’s why your high school playlist still rocks — “neural nostalgia” is the term, and it’s a good thing.
The therapist suggests if you need to reconnect with yourself, just blast a song from the past. Some good ole George Strait might be all you need to wake up and get motivated on the day, because it’s taking you back to those feelings you had as a teenager.
“Well … I’m CONSTANTLY listening to all the old stuff so you’re saying I’m stuck forever in that nostalgia to feel better?!? – it’s working. I’m not complaining. I just feel a little attacked,” one user says in reply to the Instagram video posted by Sims.
“If you‘re literally screaming the lyrics to your nostalgia you get bonus points,” adds another.
“How I pulled my Grandma out of dementia,” states one user, seemingly verifying this therapist’s claim.
“And people wonder why Taylor Swift has brought in so much money. Girl PLAYYYYYS to our nostalgia,” another chimes in.
If you graduated in the past 10 years, chances are you may be “knocked out of your funk” just by blaring up Kane Brown or Morgan Wallen. If your graduation was back in the ’80s or ’90s, you may need a quick escape with Clint Black or Shania Twain.
The proof is in the research: Country music is medicine for the heart and soul, especially if you pick an artist from your good ol’ days.
See the Most Played Country Song from the Year You Were Born
Who had the most played country song during the year you were born? This list is a fascinating time capsule of prevalent trends from every decade in American history. Scroll through to find your birth year and then click to listen. Some of these songs have been lost through the years, many of them for good reason!
Gallery Credit: Billy Dukes
See 50 Essential ’90s Country Songs
If you call yourself a real fan of ’90s country music, you probably need to know the words to all of these hit songs.