Rocking out

It's Friday morning and I'm in my office working on a report. I'm streaming Last.fm (thanks to Squint) for the first time. I like the music, but it is taking a back seat to the numbers I'm crunching.

Then it happens.

Supervixen by Garbage.

I crank up the speakers (I'm usually the only one in on Friday's before 9) and don't even close the door before I start doing my "Bow Down To Me" bump-and-grind dance. Friday gyrations are serious business.

After the song ends, I think back to the article I read last month about picking a theme song and singing it to boost confidence.

Outwardly, I scoffed. But secretly, I knew it to be true. The first notes of one of my faves always brings out the sexy, in control me - the one who walks taller, moves better, smiles more, and knows that the world wants me.

So why do we need a soundtrack to choreograph our lives?

This is not a new question, or a new concept. Music is more than just entertainment, it is a respected field of study. Click on any of the links here and see what scientists and industry say.

Music does make your brain happy. And that happiness translates directly to a spring in the step, a smile on the face, and out of control grinding and shaking on the dance floor.

When I think of my theme songs - admit it, you have them too - they invoke a feeling that equates to my most powerful moment - my undergrad graduation.

On that lazy Tacoma Sunday, the sun peeked through the clouds - a golden backdrop for nebulous clouds and a shining beacon in my nebulous future. My hair was afrolicious for a white girl, the humidity sparking ringlets amid wild frizz, and I was in great physical and intellectual shape. As I crossed the wide stage, amid cool sprinkles of rain, hope and power were tangible - firmly settled in my palm.

I don't remember what song was in my brain that day - there were several I played in my mind and let slip from my lips that year that I was 21 and knowing. But that day the soundtrack began to change from innocence to experience.

And when I hear one of my theme songs now, those palpable feelings from that day return.