This is an All Ears English podcast episode 1293, how music brings you back to connection.
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In today's episode, we show you five phrases to use when you reflect on a song that brings you back to a place in your life.
Find out how effortless connection can be when you have the right phrases to get this conversation going.
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Hey, Jessica, are you listening to anything these days?
Always.
I love music so much.
James and I have been digging the soundtrack to Guardians of the Galaxy.
We listen to that Spotify playlist all the time because whenever we listen to it, we can remember like
The exact scenes of, like, when that song happened.
And then we get to talk about the movies and what we like about it and stuff.
So, yeah.
What about you?
Right back.
Oh, man.
Let me see.
You know what?
I'm such a podcast person.
I was coming back from skiing yesterday listening to, like, a political podcast.
So, not a ton of music going on.
But...
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
Yes.
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Right, Jessica?
We're talking about how to compliment people.
Is that right?
Exactly, guys.
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People want to talk to you if you're nice to them.
That makes sense.
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Yeah, you will be warmed up and ready.
So one more time, guys, go right now to allearsenglish.com slash no fear.
All right.
Awesome.
We'll see you there.
Okay.
Let's get back to music though because, you know, one of my favorite groups personally is Cruden's Clearwater Revival.
Oh, my God.
I love CCR.
Oh, they are awesome.
They are awesome.
And I love them because I used to listen to them with my dad in the car coming back from skiing.
Actually, the same time, same moment in life is you're coming back from a nice day on the slopes with your, with your dad, and you're in the car.
You're in an old beat up 84 Volvo and CCR comes on the radio.
You know, it really sends me right back to that moment in time.
Oh my gosh, me too.
Except a different memory, of course.
But same band.
My dad had a whole bunch of really cool vinyl.
And so I would listen to records in the morning.
And my parents worked, so they weren't at home.
Usually they'd already gone to work.
This is later what I was like in high school, right?
Yeah.
So I would wake up and put on a CCR album and get ready for school, eat my breakfast.
So yeah, still today.
Oddly enough, when I hear CCR, it sends me right back to the kitchen counter and the huge breakfast that I used to eat.
You're a growing girl.
You needed the breakfast, so that's okay.
When you're a teenage athlete, man, you can eat whatever you want.
It's true.
I think I ate a lot in high school.
It's true.
It's true.
Well, I love this.
So today, you know, I think this is such an important connection skill that we're going to show our listeners today right,
Totally.
Music is part of us.
It's part of where we put meaning in our lives, right?
Where meaning comes from.
And you need to be able to communicate that, guys, with people around you to connect.
Yes.
I mean, I just connected with an IELTS student the other day, actually about the Beatles, because he could see a Beatles poster on my wall behind me.
And so we had like a great conversation about the Beatles, guys.
Amazing.
Music is such an amazing way to connect with other people.
And it's really cross-cultural, too.
I mean, you don't need to be from the same city, state, country, neighborhood, income level.
You can be from all sorts of different parts demographics, parts of the world, and you can connect on this one song or this one group.
Or this one lyric too, right?
Exactly, exactly.
So guys, you are going to learn phrases today to use in these connections, right?
To share what this music reminds you of from your past.
How do we talk about those memories with other people?
Those are amazing conversations.
Just like Lindsay and I have totally different memories connected to the same music and sharing those stories.
Those are the best.
They're the best.
They're the best.
And we could go on and on.
But let's give our listeners some very clear, concrete phrases that they can kind of put in their pockets to take out into the world to make those connections.
What do you think?
We fill our listeners pockets with so much English.
We really do.
I hope you guys have really big pockets.
I know.
You need some fanny packs and backpacks to carry more English.
We're so nerdy.
We're so nerdy.
Because we say that on the IELTS side as well, like phrases you need in your back pocket for the speaking exam.
Right.
Guys.
Yeah, if you don't know about the IELTS Energy Podcast, you are missing something huge and exciting.
Right, Jessica?
Oh, my gosh.
Yes, guys.
We publish new episodes three times a week.
Yes.
I'm on there every time.
And the co-host changes, Lindsay and Michelle and Aubrey.
We have amazing experts over there, guys.
You have to be listening to IELTS Energy.
Definitely.
All right.
So let's throw out the first phrase.
So this is the one I like.
So this music brings me back.
And you may have already heard this phrase, guys, from one of us so far in the episode.
Yes.
So, just like, as soon as you hear this piece of music in your mind, a memory pops up, like immediately.
Like you can feel yourself in a specific place and time just by listening to this music.
Like if I hear Sublime.
Yes.
If I hear music from Sublime, I'm immediately sitting in my 1984 Toyota Tercel hatchback my first car and like blasting this music.
Oh, what is it about 1984 cars?
My first car was an 84 as well.
Like I said before, it's so funny.
I don't know what that's about.
That's strange.
Anyways.
We have such funny, like, crossovers in our memories.
Yeah, we have weird parallels.
Yeah, yeah, yeah.
So, yeah, guys, that first phrase, this really brings me back.
That's so great.
And another phrase you could use, these all come up. kind of introduce the same ideas, right?
But they're just different native ways of introducing these stories.
So we could also say, like this calls to mind something.
Or like If I hear a song, I'd be like oh, this calls to mind that time that I was surfing in Hawaii.
Yeah, I love that.
Calls to mind sounds a little more, it doesn't sound formal, but it sounds different.
It's interesting.
It might be something different than other students may not be using or other English speakers.
So go for it, guys.
You want to try to use like three out of five of these today.
Get a little variety.
I mean, really, none of these are being used by most students, guys.
Yeah.
Whatever phrases you like from today, you should be using for sure.
So calls to mind.
What's another phrase we could use?
Okay, so this one is really common.
So you know, for example, the Beatles reminds me of sweeping the floor in my kitchen with my parents, for example, cleaning the house.
Okay.
Oh, that's awesome.
Yeah.
Here's another random music thing.
So James and I were making a box fort the other day, which I posted on Instagram about.
But we made this like huge fort in his room out of cardboard boxes.
And we were listening to a Beastie Boys Pandora station, his choice.
He's cool.
And Rage Against the Machine.
And Rage Against the Machine reminds me of also cleaning.
Isn't that funny?
It reminds me of cleaning my room in high school and my mom coming in and being like why are you listening to this music?
And just...
Yeah.
Classic sort of teenage memory.
Oh, I love it.
I love it.
Yeah, it's true.
It's amazing.
I think music is unique in that.
I think smells can do this to us too.
Totally.
Scents can bring us in a very visceral and strong way, but music does it too.
It really sends us back to a moment in time.
We can see where we were, who we were with, who we were talking to.
It's incredible that that can happen.
The power is amazing, right?
It's not just words.
It's not just sounds.
It's all of these things together.
It's this magical combination that is one of the most powerful triggers that nothing else is like.
Like, really.
Like...
Yeah.
Music triggers the strongest memories in me that nothing else can accomplish.
Yeah.
And I mean the cool thing about this when it comes to connections, the connections that you guys want will be there when you throw something out there.
We've done episodes about this before.
I think with Michelle, we talked about this.
When you put something out there about yourself, You become a little vulnerable.
You share something.
That gives people something to grab onto, to connect with.
Yes.
Right?
Exactly.
Exactly.
Guys, that's what connection is.
You cannot... have a real connection unless you are a little bit vulnerable.
You have to take a risk.
Yeah, yeah, exactly.
And a good example of that is in this episode, Jessica, how would I have known that?
How would you have known that I had an 84 car?
My first car was a 1984 beat up car, unless I had shared that.
I'm a little embarrassed about that car.
It was ugly.
It had a hole in the floor.
It was an awful car, but I shared it.
And it turns out you had a car from the same year and we could connect on that experience.
So that's just an example.
Exactly.
Guys, we didn't play on what stories we were going to tell.
All of this is spontaneous and in the moment.
All of these things that we're finding in common.
Guys, we didn't know before.
We had these conversations about music.
All right.
So those are the three phrases.
What's the next one, Jessica?
What would you say is number four?
Yeah, so there's a couple different ways you could say this.
You could say it sends me right back to high school, or it puts me right back in such and such a place.
Like Soundgarden.
All the music I'm talking about is from the 90s guys, because I still listen to my favorite bands that I had in high school.
Yeah.
I listen to more than just that, but that's where it sends me back to you, right?
So Soundgarden, guys, oh my gosh, it totally puts me back in high school, like right away.
That's so funny.
For me, I listened to a lot of Guster in college.
Did you ever know Guster?
Guster?
No.
Who's that?
It's kind of a niche band.
They're actually from the Boston area, I think.
But they were kind of popular in, you know, I guess in 2003 and 2004.
I listened to them all the time.
So Guster sends me right back to you know, living off campus in my house in college, with my friends and parties and senior year memories.
You know what I mean?
Oh, gosh, the band Cake.
If I hear anything from the band Cake, it puts me right back in the snack shack on the Madrid campus of my first year in university.
Because we just listened to cake all the time when we had to do like work study programs, right?
That's so funny.
So when I worked in the snack shack selling sodas, I would be listening to cake.
I love that.
I love that.
And that gives some information for the person next to you to say, oh, I studied abroad too.
And I remember I used to listen to this.
And then all of a sudden you know, and then we don't need to overthink getting that connection going, because the material is there.
And then it takes on a life of its own.
Exactly, guys.
I mean, it's not about using the perfect words or the perfect grammar.
I mean, these are stories you know.
They're your stories.
For sure do.
What we want you to do is be able to share those stories in English with other people, right?
I mean any of the initial memories Lindsay and I share today.
Any of them could have started a whole other conversation.
No doubt.
No doubt.
And at that point guys, you can just enjoy that moment of connection and you don't need to overanalyze and overthink your mistakes.
Like Jessica just said, it's not about being perfect.
It's not about grammar.
It's about connection.
So I think we've hammered that home now.
Yes.
All right, Jessica.
Oh, I did want to remind our listeners.
Guys, we know this is All Ears English and we have another IELTS podcast.
But if you are taking IELTS this year and if you're taking computer IELTS, we are about to launch a new course to help you specifically with computer IELTS.
Right, Jessica?
Yes.
Yes, guys, I am hard at work on this when I'm not recording.
So this is super exciting, guys.
This course is amazing.
There is no course for computer IELTS right now.
We are the only ones.
And so you have a chance to help us to maybe test out some of this stuff and be the first person in the course.
If you sign up, go to allearsenglish.com forward slash computer.
So you could be the first person to know when this course is available.
Exactly.
That gets you on the special insiders list so that you will get an announcement.
When we launch it, you'll also get our special introductory price.
Like our early bird price, you will get a chance to get that special price, guys.
Okay.
Yes.
All right.
Very cool.
Jessica, thanks for hanging out on the mic today and talking about music.
Oh, anytime.
One of my favorite topics.
Thank you.
I'll talk to you soon.
Have a good one.
Thanks.
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