1977 - Big Hits: With Rod Stewart, the Jacksons, Queen and the Stranglers. Top of the Pops 1977: Big Hits airs on BBC Four HD at 9:30 PM, Friday 5 January. With Rod Stewart, the Jacksons, Queen and the Stranglers
I love the way millennials walk around town listening to their music on their branded headphones. They seem so utterly absorbed in it and happily shut off from their surroundings. I get the feeling they’re thinking ‘oh well, at least I have my music’. After all, “Music is the medicine of the mind,” American playwright John Logan once said. There has been quite a bit of research on music s power on the human psyche over the years and how it is intrinsically linked to our development. Why do we recognise certain songs at lightning speed? Why can a tear fall onto our cheeks during the first minute of a love song? We can barely grasp what happened to us in those split seconds, just that it felt mysterious and powerful at the same time. Why can a Madonna or Bon Jovi song make a middle-aged person leap onto the dancefloor? Why do those nostalgic feelings come flooding back when we rediscover a mix tape carefully compiled for us by an ex tapping into feelings that should b