Why Donkey Kong's Stickerbush Symphony Triggers Instant Nostalgia 

What are some songs that have made you feel nostalgia even though you've never heard it? I'm absolutely fascinated by this idea. Do you think it's inherent in the music or just triggering our own memories? Is it possible to feel nostalgia for something we have no experience with? Would that make it something fundamentally different from nostalgia? I HAVE TO KNOW PLEASE HELP.

You picked this song Wisely.

It’s not just nostalgia. It’s also melancholy. There’s also sadness of time that passed. That feeling is incredibly strong and to me music cuts right into that emotion.

That song’s truly the *_checkpoint_* of our times…!

Stickerbush Symphony is one of the greatest video game songs of all time. It evokes memories in me that make me wanna cry, but its a happy cry. Like a "you had a great childhood" cry.

Why do I feel like Minecraft have this feeling as well

Stickerbrush symphony is hands down the best music in all of videogames.

This song really DOES take me back to my childhood because it's the very first song I became conscious of actually loving. I paused the game for what felt like an hour to just sit there and listen instead of playing the level right away. It was one of the most serene moments in my life, probably the first of few truly zen moments where I felt at peace and everything was perfect. I was in the moment and dialed in.

ahh yes, the life-changing experience of discovering Stickerbush Symphony for yourself

Stickerbush Symphony is something F-ing magical. I can still remember playing DKC2 being almost a teenager and getting through almost all of the game, just enjoying my time playing Diddy and Dixie Kong... to then start up the level called Bramble Scramble, thinking "Ok, next level", to then be hit by this masterpiece. It felt like doing the ice bucket challenge, but the icy water was a warm blanket. It stopped me dead in my tracks having walked left for like a second, making me literally put down my controller after a few seconds staring slack-jawed at the screen, taking in all the harmonies and sounds Stickerbush Symphony threw at me. It might be one of the most beautiful moments of my life.

i think FM synthesis, in general, is really nostalgia inducing for a lot of people. it has a timbral quality that reminds us of both video game music, and pop from the early 80's through the 90's, which is why it is commonly used in "nostalgic" genres like vaprowave.

Smashing Pumpkins' 1979 is nostalgia encapsulated in music, making me feel nostalgic about something that I don't even know what.

There might also be an element of _saudade_ to this. That's a combination of a sadness for what you had and no longer have (usually a lived experience with someone who is no longer alive), mixed with not just happiness [for having had those experiences with that person], but also punctuated with the realization that you'll never again experience those feelings [with that person]. I don't know if any of the branches of the study of human history will ever be able to explain what exactly are the elements of both music and our brain chemistry that make it so that music (out of all other branches of art) tugs the most at our heartstrings, but I doubt that we'll ever stop trying to solve this most profound, intriguing and exclusively human puzzle!

Internet checkpoint song! For the uninitiated, there was a video on youtube a while ago with a japanese(?) title that was recommended to a lot of people, and it became the “internet checkpoint”. Nintendo eventually took it down (of course), and since it has been reuploaded by others. I miss the original, but i’m glad that there’s new videos keeping up the memory.

i'm in my house but i want to go home -not mine nostalgia and anemoia have to be the some of the best feelings and the latter is one of my favorite words, so glad you talked about it because as soon as you started talking about nostalgia from games and music that we haven't experienced, i immediately remembered that word, so rare yet so beautiful

My wife and I both grew up liking different things. She LOVED (and still loves) Pokémon and Legend of Zelda games. I was more into Star Wars and old-school Disney movies and MGM musicals. I also played loads of Nintendo, but not a whole lot of Legend of Zelda or Pokémon. We have a playlist that we compiled and play whenever we have a chill day at home or cooking dinner together, and it's full of orchestral renditions of our childhoods. Like I said, I didn't play a whole lot of Pokémon or Legend of Zelda - but any time selections from those games come on, I'm transported to when I would sit in my room and play Super Mario 64, or when I would take summer trips to Disneyland with my family. Nostalgia is a hell of a thing.

the track "Silent Light" from Chrono Trigger hits my nostalgia button too even though I never played it

The Super Nintendo was the first console to have a dedicated sound DSP back then and it was truly a revelation compared to the Genesis/ MegaDrive, many arcade machines and even home computers like the Amiga or the first Macs. I remember letting my characters idle in many games just to listen to the music and the DK titles were particularly good. As a 3D artist I also couldn't get enough of the rich CG backgrounds and characters.

any of the minecraft music makes me want to cry 😭 it’s definitely my own nostalgia but some of the minecraft music definitely has that melancholic sound that would make most people feel nostalgic i think

Im so glad you covered this song! It felt nostalgic in the 90s too! Its always been my favorite in the game. Such a classic

Amazing timing, I had this SAME experience with Stickerbrush Symphony just two days ago, and have been listening to it over and over and over since then.

I think nostalgic feelings are associated with something from your own past. For example, I went to a Queen + Adam Lambert concert because queen songs make me super nostalgic for my childhood, and I sat next to am older lady who said she went to all the best concerts in the 80s and 90s and was here reliving that expirience. I wasn't alive in the 80s or 90s, and my nostalgia comes from listening in the early 2000s on roadtrips with my parents. But despite our completely different age groups and nostalgic connections, we were both there singing all the words to the same songs.

as someone from just before y2k, a lot of stuff: film cameras, old tracker music, cassettes, etc. gives me "anemoia" as they are things from a past that i feel like i missed out on. or something that was still around, but i was too young to really experience before it faded away.

The comment about playing this game before going off to their grandmother's for Christmas almost put me to tears... that comment really brought me back because the Donkey Kong series was a beloved series that my stepmom and I played a lot... and it was mostly special around Christmas-time. Upon hearing this, I got some serious literal goosebumps. It's special music like this that will continue to captivate for generations to come.

For me, Boards of Canada definitely hits a nostalgic chord. It has a lot to do with the particular sounds they use and how they treat them. It always takes me back to my early childhood in the 70's.

Checkpoints pop up even when you’re not expecting them. It feels heavy a lot of days, but the durability of this song and what it represents keeps me hopeful and content. Great song, great video!

it doesn’t have to be the arrangement that you recognize - you recognize certain elements of the arrangement, from the timbre to common motifs to any sonic references bramble blast takes me back to when things were simpler, brings me to tears

This song brings back memories because a version of it is featured in a certain level of the SSB Brawl story mode

I remember back in '95 in middle school playing DKC2 for about an hour when I came across Stickerbrush Symphony, and after dying a couple times because the level is actually difficult, I just let it play for a good 10 minutes. Since then, it's been one of my favorite songs that I come back to a few times a year, pulling out my SNES and game cartridge just to hear it. I was overjoyed when I found out the internet loved it so much, and it is uncanny how so many of us are transported to a time from before, even when some of us never lived it.

A very subtle component to songs I've recognized as 'nostalgic' - slight detuning in harmony.

The Bon Iver shoutout was not expected but definitely welcomed. He’s the goat.

That song was perfect for those stages, it calmed you down for those frustrating stages.

I didn't play the dkc games back then and also have this nostalgic feeling. I can almost smell, taste and feel the memories i had in the 90s when i especially hear the dkc 2 OST.

Stickerbrush Symphony is easily one of the best pieces of music ever written. Chills EVERY time

the peak of videogame nostalgic music for me has to be the ocarina of time title screen theme, i still remember how strong the feelings hit even when i launched it for the first time, and now enough time has passed for it to start feeling like real nostalgia…

"Nostalgia for something that never took place at all." This is and has been Boards Of Canada for me. It has the nostalgia factor from hearing it in my youth, but it always felt like it was nostalgia for a parallel life too. Very weird feeling but it's some of my favorite music of all time. Turquoise Hexagon Sun is a good example of that feeling in their music. I'd love to hear your take on their album Music Has The Right To Children.

Trance 009 sound system dreamscape gives me RU-vid nostalgia. The "you wouldn't steal a car" psa music gives me early 2000s cinema nostalgia

This song felt nostalgic back when i first played dkc2. Most of the songs on both dkc1 and 2 osts have a melancholy feel but 2 was particularly strong

Woah. I put on Stickerbrush Symphony and was listening to it in my car right when he uploaded the video. Now I see this video in my recommended the next day, lol, that’s crazy I’ve never played DKC nor do I listen to its music; but the song was just stuck in my head all day

Sometimes I get nostalgic for times I never lived, and it feels almost like a grief of never being able to experience all that world history had to offer. Like imagine being on set for the filming of a Hollywood classic? Or seeing Ancient Rome in its heyday? Or seeing the pyramids being built? We may have photographs and ruins, but it's just not the same.

I was born in 1992. I happened to listen to some synthwave music from 2020 and that made some specific childhood memories automatically pop up in my mind. And that's wild because it's 80's like music, and I wasn't even there in the 80s!!

I love your passion 👍🫵

song by cindy lauoer called girls just want to have fun is another nostalgia song for me. my mom did have red hair, but by the time the video is ending like easily a song that made me cry with nostalgia.

Yeah, this song is beautiful

I’m sure the soundfont and FM synthesis helps to make this feel very nostalgic too. It’s all just the most 90s sounds ever

I was there... I remember being awed by this game. The graphics were amazing for its time, and the music was enchanting as well.

Thanks for covering this song and Aquatic Ambience in your previous video. Both these songs have so much meaning to me and inspire me. I'm so happy to see you explaining the deep reasons both of these songs are so beautiful!

God I love how passionate you are about this

Sound waves have the ability to move matter. To assume that sound doesn't move matter in a way in our body that affects our mood would be bold. I think if studied enough, you'd find sound will make certain elements/molecules behave in different ways due to changing shape alone, not to mention undiscovered phenomena. Our ears are right next to all of these neurotransmitters, I would like to think they have a certain interaction on some level.

Excited for this video!

Great video! Thank you Charles

The fact that I heard Mario Kart 64 Credits music for the absolute first time yesterday and I felt exactly that is crazy. If you never heard it I highly recommend you do, I got instant nostalgia for a game I never actually played

14:40 The normal piano sounds like a normal piano. The mellow version sounds like distant echoes of the past.

As an 80s baby, the resurgence of synthwave has given me major moments of anemoia in recent years. First time I heard Midnight City by M83, and Resonance by Home, they made me long for memories of a life I hadn't lived, yet knew intimately.

Regarding your closing question, it's probably...a bit of both honestly. Music has so much power to set and influence mood intrinsically, and combined with the tendency of melancholia to make people dwell on the past, it's no surprise that tunes like Stickerbush Symphony evoke such strong feelings of nostalgia. The song Thirteen by Big Star still makes me feel super emotional to this day, even though it has been a long time since I was anywhere close to my teens. Please keep the video game music analysis content coming

Played the game in my childhood. I think that is the only game that I share a feeling of nostalgia with my siblings. They, although loved the game, were not much into games in general, but it is not rare that we remember this music together. I have a strong memory of playing a level with Stickerbush Symphony with all my family getting ready for a family party and my mom saying that this music is beautiful and apreciating my playthrough when brushing my sister's hair. That nostalgic feeling is powerful, and felt quite beyond my remembrance of my family and specially my mom being much younger, it speaks about our family ties beautifully. Something I would like to rescue.

I think your point about the different piano sounds explains why lo-fi hip hop works. What it accomplishes for me is very similar. I can put it on and just do other things. It’s like having my own nostalgic soundtrack while I do whatever it is I need to get done. Very similar vibes there

The last part of "Castaway", when To Hanks is at the crossroads is another nostalgia evoker.

I also felt that on mining melancholy, and hot head bop. But the feel of nostalgia in stickerbrush so strong im in tears the first time i heard it. Musician here too btw.

There are a lot of songs that stir deep nostalgia within me. And I think its a mix of the music both being inherently nostalgic, as well as making us dig for memories and times we never experienced. For me personally, nostalgic music both makes me remember the few good memories of the past, as well as long for the life i have never had.

One of the most nostalgic pieces of music from my childhood is the Lon Lon Ranch theme from Ocarina of Time, it makes me feel incredibly sad too but it's a beautiful piece. Kakariko Village theme and some of the ocarina themes like Bolero of Fire, that game is packed with amazing music. Any music that has a soundscape similar to this game will instantly make me feel the feels

This is one of my all time favorite pieces of music from any video game; quite literally every time I listen to this melodic masterpiece, I get chills

Japanese city pop makes you nostalgic for a time and a place you never experienced.

Japanese City Pop does this for me. It reminds of days and late nights with friends, watching anime and playing games, without a care in the world. Man… those were better days.

In this particular sense the combined sense of the Nintendo square synth really adds to this compatibility. Older systems were required to have video games essentially preform music live on the cartridge so using 4 different instruments Nintendo cracked down and helped support the phrase. Limited resources equals infinite creativity. So happy you did a video on DKC aquatic ambiance would be another hard hitter that’s used in pop hear recently too.

Ooooh man that Bramble Blast soundtrack bring back so many memories. You haven't played the song yet, I just saw the image and I've already sang it my head as if I heard it yesterday. That was more than 20 years ago. Amazing song.

Melancholy is what you feel, if you're not truly nostalgic about something.

Spiritfarer is a fairly recent game, but it has a very melancholic soundtrack that evokes feelings akin to nostalgia and anemoia. Since the game is about solving spirits' pending issues before taking them to true afterlife, the music is written in a way that translates to the characters' personalities and what they did when they were alive. It's one of the biggest emotional rollercoasters I've ever experienced in gaming.

This is one of the best videos you ever put out.

This game´s entire soundtrack is golden, My favorite is aquatic ambiance even on top of this one, the song even makes me feel cool temperature on a hot day... nostalgia plus synesthesia.

I used to play French Horn in band. I picked up other instruments in HS, one being piano. I played but got so frustrated for years so I slowly just… stopped. I found this channel recently a couple months ago and now I find myself ENJOYING when I play. Even if I’m just practicing scales. This channel helped bring back the nostalgia of playing the piano for me. Thank you so much for all you do!

I think you should make a video about tom brier and how he improvised all the video game music when he was sight-reading it

I didn't realise that the word anemoia existed and I was just calling it nostalgia. The difference being, anemoia describes the feeling better. The feeling of nastalgia of a future that never came to be, the idea of what the 70's 80's and 90's thought the future would look like. I feel like I've been there, I've lived in those worlds. I suppose that is the power of music, especially when paired with appropriate themed imagery.

One music that always gives me this vibe is Lady, by Modjo.

I'm so happy to see this channel keep on spreading love for video game music

Hah! I knew it was going to be this song immediately. It's a nostalgia bomb to be sure. I enjoyed the game as a kid but it wasn't one of my top titles but the song brings me back a ton. I'd love to see some Bomberman 64 songs talked about as they have a similar feel for me. The songs impact me so much more than from games that I played much more like Mario or Pokemon.

The song that started my love of music to begin with

Thanks for explaining how this music made me feel even *during the time* I was playing the game as a kid. It already felt nostalgic and I was experiencing it in real time!

Went to my old school recently. Haven't been there since I graduated 8 years ago. Was mildly nostalgic to put it litely. Had a little bit of sensory overload the first minutes, seeing the kids run around and have fun like I used to. Can't anymore sadly due to medical conditions. Seeing old teachers of mine. And I remembered the friends for life this building gave to me. Was a really odd experience.

Lately I've been feeling nostalgic for pixel art & animation from video games and cd-rom games of the 90s and early 2000s. I think it's for a lot of the same reasons.

I love how you gave the actual video nostalgic background music. Very meta. And also a very soothing video to watch. To answer your question though, I don't think music can really be inherently nostalgic. Like you said, it draws us towards thinking about memories and feelings of nostalgia. There are songs with completely different vibes than Stickerbrush or Bon Iver that give me nostalgia based on my own experience. However, hearing that plagal cadence always hits me deep. It's just such an emotionally stirring sound.

I just recently described a song the exact same way. "Nostalgic even though I'd never heard it before." The song is Chilly Gonzalez's piano composition "Kenaston". It's also very moody and melancholic. Definitely one worth checking out. After analyzing it a bit further, I realized it's kind of like an adult version of "Heart and Soul". It has the same basic harmonic structure but is simultaneously much more complex. The fact that this song (Heart and Soul) featured so prominently amongst my earliest childhood memories makes perfect sense as to why the Chilly Gonzalez song felt so nostalgic upon first listen.

Another really nostalgic video game track is Endless Mine from Sonic 3. I'd play that stage over and over just to listen to it. Stickerbush Symphony was always my favorite track in a game full of incredible tracks. This game will always be a part of my childhood.

Probably two effects at play here: 1) Over time, cultural exposure has led us to associate certain sounds with certain environments (e.g. the desert, space), actions, and even feelings. Those sound associations are not inherent across time and space, but they are ubiquitous within a culture group. The DKC soundtracks do a fine job of utilizing this...a track like Aquatic Ambiance will have the same associations now as it did when it was first released. That means any sound generally connected to sadness that is used in a track like this will have its typical (for us) effect. And since nostalgia is a subset of sadness in general, any "sad" sound will have the capacity to create the impression of nostalgia despite not been specifically connected to it. 2) Any media is a product in part of its time, and thus a sound track created in the 1990s will often include aspects (often subtle) that reflect the soundscape of that time. For example, the bops from the SNES Jurassic Park game have some pretty distinct 1990s influences that will lead me to feel a memory-based connection to some similar pop music, even if it's music I never heard at the time. My nostalgia may not be for that given piece of music, but it is for some aspects of it, e.g. tempo of chord use or instrument use or all sorts of other things. Throw in that the specific sound of the SNES itself will reflect wider electronically-produced sounds from the era, and any given person who never heard a note from an actual SNES likely still at some point in the 90s heard a similar sound from a different source...sounds that, if not so common today, will draw a strong connection. So one could easily be nostalgic for aspects of a piece of music despite one never having heard that specific piece itself, and naturally any piece of music that we culturally associate with general sadness can be taken for nostalgia specifically. Put the two together - a sad piece of music from a past era - and you have easy nostalgia for something that to a listener is technically "new".

I've been wanting you to make a video on the music of Donkey Kong for so long. Most things by the great composer David Wise are absolutely brilliant. This is probably already my most nostalgic music I know and I hold this series near and dear to my heart.

Ohhhhhh that Bon Iver comparison.... The self titled album cuts me to my core, even though I can't fully remember the lyrics each time. Thank you, Charles - love your videos

such calming music for a stressful level.

a song that created instant nostalgia for me the moment i heard it is fittingly called "last train home". songs from the 80s will sometimes just have this style that takes me back there, even though i wasn't even born for it.

I've listened to this whole soundtrack many times, it's all good and this one's my favorite.

I feel hopefulness as a constant underlying energy. So what I miss in this discussion here is that ALL nostalgic songs have Hope. Something we might lose throughout the years.

@CharlesCornellStudios I'm 41 now and continue to still hang in there! Thanks for such a great vid, DKC music hits the nostalgia hard, really transports back to those fun childhood days., it's a real stress reliever when the strains of adulthood get their claws in. Keep up the great work mate :)

nice music. thanks charles!

Thanks for your videos!

A super interesting video as usual! I don't even play any instruments, though I did a tiny bit as a kid, but the approachable breakdown of music theory you do is always fascinating!

I'm a guitarist, but I found this page whilst looking for videos on games from my childhood. I absolutely love the channel, maybe I'll start learning piano! 😊

The whole OST of that game is INCREDIBLE and hits right in the feels. God it takes me back

This is a topic I have wanted somebody to explain for SO LONG. Thank you for this.

Smells trigger nostalgia the most for me I think. Like there is a certain smell that reminds me of my great grandparents. Im in Japan right now and when I was hiking in the mountains, the smell of wood and moist air was very nostalgic even though I'd never been to Japan before.

I knew instantly what song you were going to pick just from the title alone. Something about this song makes me feel like I'm right back in the 90s watching my brother play games on his SNES (even though we had DKC1, not 2) and sneaking into my other brother's room at while he was away to play his PS1. Pair this up with cozy liminal space images and I think you might explode with nostalgia.

The thing about all of this is: the past is nothing but memories.. Our memories are the only trace of what we've experienced in life.. And that's beautifully sad, just because we can no longer access that feeling.. We're unable to live those memories again because we only live in today's time, that's all we have, and they cannot be in today's time.. And Stickerbush Symphony triggers this sensation very much, as well as Aquatic Ambiance, Life in The Mines (both from DKC, the first title), and many others..