Simple. Listen to THAT track…
Just one song can lift your mood instantly—or drop you right back into a memory that makes you feel alive again. We all know it. And we’ve all felt it.
But why does this work? For most of us, the answer sits somewhere between science and soul.
And both matter more than we think, not least in the workplace and especially in the context of team building that uses music to supercharge work cultures.
Researchers call it neural nostalgia— the reason the songs we loved as teenagers and young adults stick so fiercely in our minds.
The Association for Psychological Science explains that our brains bind us to the music we heard as teenagers more tightly than anything we’ll hear as adults. It turns out the hormonal soup and emotional highs and lows (peak moments!) that caused havoc with our emotions in our late teens and early 20s provided the perfect ‘imprinting’ moment for our biology, and the rest of our lives.
So, neural nostalgia is not just cultural. It’s neurological.
That’s why the music of our youth feels like home. It reminds us who we were, who we’re with—and what connection really feels like.
At IMEX America in Las Vegas recently we asked people to share their 21-year-old song memory to celebrate 21 years of SongDivision, and 21 IMEX shows. The response was wonderful.
Every story—every lyric, every laugh—proved what we already know: when people connect through music, they connect more deeply as humans.
And that’s where the connective power of shared music-making goes beyond nostalgia.
Music is a shared language
In workplaces everywhere—remote, hybrid, global, or just emotionally stretched—belonging can feel like it’s slipping away. Music helps bring it back. It’s one of the few shared languages that bypasses hierarchy, culture, age and distance. It reaches people where they are, reminds them they’re part of something, and helps them feel seen again.
That’s why we use it not just to entertain teams, but to re-tune them—to restore trust, spark energy, and rebuild the rhythm of working together.
One study in Sage Journals demonstrates the difference between singing alone and singing in a group, “Group singing elevates mood, increases social bonding, and regulates stress.” When people sing or move in sync, their heart rates align and their brains release oxytocin—the “bonding hormone.” Even animals use rhythm and sound to strengthen social bonds. When we share music, we’re doing something deeply ancient: creating a peak emotional moment that embeds itself in memory. That’s why the feeling lingers long after the last note fades.
The songs that shaped us don’t just belong to the past. They remind us how good it feels to belong.
We heard everything from early Beyoncé to Arctic Monkeys to Nirvana at IMEX! Now it’s your turn—drop your 21-year-old song below (bonus points if you tell us why it still hits). Maybe we can build a playlist of connection together?
