Music & Family

When I asked my mom who grew up in the countryside in France, to talk about her relationship with music, her face instantly lit up. “Music has always been a part of my life,” she said. “It’s like a thread that runs through every memory.”

The first musical experience she vividly remembers was when she was about seven years old. Her parents had a small record player in the living room, and on Sunday mornings, her father would play old French songs: artists like Jean-Jacques Goldman and Francis Cabrel. “I can still smell the coffee and the warm bread while "Il suffira d’un signe" played in the background, that song will always sound like my childhood.”

As a teenager in the 1990s, her taste started to change. She discovered international pop and rock: the Spice Girls, Nirvana, and especially U2. “Music became a way to express myself and when I listened to "With or Without You", I felt like the world was much bigger than my small town.” Her first concert was in Paris when she was sixteen: it was a French rock band called Indochine. “It was magical,” she said. “The lights, the crowd singing every word… I felt free. It was such an incredible moment !” (probably because she went to this concert with her best friend).

Music also played a big role in her relationships. When she met my dad in Chicago, they quickly bonded over their shared love of 2000s pop-rock. Their “song” was Yellow by Coldplay, which they used to listen to on repeat when they first started dating. “Even now,” she said, “it takes me right back to those early days.”

When I asked her how she used to listen to music as a kid, she laughed. “We didn’t have streaming! I used cassette tapes, then CDs. I would spend hours recording songs from the radio, always trying to stop before the DJ started talking.”

Her taste has evolved over time. She still loves French classics but now listens to more pop, and sometimes even the music I play at home (she almost admitted that she really liked some of the songs in my playlist).

Before we finished, I asked her what song reminds her of me. Without hesitation, she said, “every music of the rapper Jul or Aya Nakamura's song because you aaaaaaaaalways listen to them !”

Talking to my mom made me realize that music doesn’t just mark time but it also connects generations. Her memories, her culture, her emotions... everything live inside the songs she loves, and discovering a little more about my mother and the songs she likes made me feel more connected to her.