Why the cure might be the best soundtrack for middle age | members only

It’s as if lead singer Robert Smith is sitting next to me in the waiting room. I feel a little less alone in my stress bubble. The anticipation surrounding the new album sent me back into a

deep Cure listening phase. I loved the band in my teens, but they fell off my radar in recent decades. _Songs of a Lost World _was just the excuse I needed to revisit their discography.

These songs — and others from our favorite artists — still resonate because of how our brains are hardwired. “Listening to a very familiar piece of music can be rewarding for the reason that

our brains love making correct predictions,” says Susan Rogers, Ph.D., a director of the Berklee Music Perception and Cognition Laboratory, and author of _This Is What It Sounds Like: A

Legendary Producer Turned Neuroscientist on Finding Yourself Through Music_. “When we know that a crescendo or a favorite solo is coming, we enjoy anticipating it and then experiencing the

dopamine release when it finally arrives.” An appreciation for music when you’re 50 or older tends to get downplayed, but recent research has suggested that older adults are turning to their

favorite songs to help with everything from isolation to depression. It can be used to unlock memories, keep our brains healthy, and even mark important milestones in our lives. A recent

University of Michigan survey found that two in five (or 41%) adults between the ages of 50 and 80 considered music “very important” to them. Three-quarters of them said music helped them

with stress and relaxation, and 65% said it helps their mental health or mood. And those positive effects aren’t just because they’re remembering their carefree youth. “Our relationship with

music has to change as we reach 50, because we’re different people,” says Dr. Joel Howell, M.D., Ph.D., a professor of internal medicine at the U-M Medical School who worked with the poll

team. “We impose meaning on (our favorite music), but the context can change over time.” That's not just true about the songs but the people who sing them. Robert Smith, the Cure's

lead singer, has aged perfectly. He looks constantly disheveled, like he’s just dropped off his kids at soccer practice and he’s dreading having to talk to other parents. He looks exactly

like I feel — exhausted, a little annoyed, trying to keep it together, wondering if it’s too early for a nap.