Every Love Has a Soundtrack

From ancient songs carved into clay to modern-day love songs, we continue searching for ways
to express what words cannot.

This month on Roominate with EmilyRose Nulty, I explore why love songs continue to resonate with us in my latest article, Every Love Has a Soundtrack.

Through personal reflection and a small look at the history of love songs, I explore why we continue to write and listen to them, how music helps us express emotions that can be difficult to put into words, and why every listener connects with songs in their own unique way.

Listen to the accompanying audio here:

Lately, I’ve been listening to music more; it’s something that I unfortunately stopped doing, and I’ve been getting back into it. I’ve always listened to a variety of genres, and naturally, love is a central theme. One thing about me is I love, love. It’s one of the most universal parts of the human experience and an incredibly vulnerable emotion, yet there are millions of people who express it through different mediums. It isn’t just romantic; it can be familial, platonic, and it’s unique to you.

It’s beautiful to witness love and to experience it – to see moments of love daily, when you pass someone in the street, hear a conversation amongst friends, or see an owner and their pet. To quote Hugh Grant in Love Actually – ‘love actually is all around’ – and I think that’s an accurate statement.

Love songs are one of the most popular ways to express love, and the oldest love song dates all the way back to 4,000 years ago. The words were embedded into clay and were found in the Ancient Kingdom of Sumer, which is an area found in modern-day Iraq. Even back then, songs explored love and connection.

From Ancient Sumer to the Romans, expressions of love have continued to evolve. In Ancient Greece, ‘love’ had many meanings – these meanings evolved and changed over time. ‘Agape’ comes from Ancient Greece, pronounced ah-GAH-pay, and it basically means ‘got your back’ with a lot of depth.

Over thousands of years, the way we understand and express love has changed, but the desire to capture it has remained. Music has always been something that connects us. It got me thinking: if love has inspired songs for centuries, why do we continue to write new love songs?

Growing up, I listened to love songs a lot too, and through films and reading, I discovered more and more. I remember hearing The Nutcracker and feeling really moved by it as a kid, and after that, many soundtracks became my favorites. I was watching them just for the music because of how they made me feel. It’s interesting how certain songs stick with you.

Before falling in love, I listened to love songs because I was trying to connect my current experiences to a song or to that feeling that a lot of people always hope to feel. Now that I am in love, I feel like I understand the lyrics more. I do connect to the overwhelmingly delicate yet powerful feeling that love evokes.

I still can’t find a song that puts all of my feelings into words, and I can’t even express them, even if they are just feelings I process for myself. That’s also part of the love I feel towards my family and friends. I think that’s why we keep writing about love and creating love songs; we feel more out of control when in love because love is indescribable. It can be scary, but connecting with others who have experienced similar feelings, and connecting to an artist’s lyrics while making them your own, is powerful.

Music captures emotions differently and also shows the complications of being human and experiencing life for the first time. Each listener’s experience is completely individual. Songs become a part of stories; a song shared, a favourite of your dad’s, one your Mam hummed, one heard on a first date.

But love songs are not only about experiencing love; they also help us process the moments
when love changes or is lost.

Heartbreak is something that is also widely shared and loved. Often, songs that may sound like love songs can be devastating once you listen to the lyrics. It’s another way to process and, again, to relate. I think sometimes the movement of a song can overtake the heartbreak element and make it heal in a weird way, working through it slowly.

According to the L.A. Times interview, research has found that listening to heartbreak songs can be beneficial. Bill Thompson, a psychologist featured in this piece, expressed that “songs function to affirm their [our] emotions”. He also said that love and heartbreak songs may be in our genes, as music may have been used by our ancestors to court someone and beyond that, in nature, many animals and those alike serenade each other to attract partners.

To answer why we continue to write new love songs, I think it’s because humans are always evolving. Society shifts, lifestyles change, and we are constantly trying to capture that overwhelming feeling of love. Love changes as we do, and one song can hold a different meaning for every listener. Songs are open to interpretation, and we process our own emotions through music, subconsciously or not.

Every love is different, and that’s why we continue to write and listen to love songs: we are always searching for new ways to express it.

Isn’t it beautiful that we have love for people that we can’t explain? That’s what makes us alive. Love.

Written by EmilyRose Nulty

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