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MUSIC plays a powerful part in our lives. Every major occasion from cradle to grave takes place to a backdrop of music. Experience means that our reaction to some pieces of music changes as time goes by. What was meaningless to a child can provoke a range of reactions from an adult.
Playlist for Life, the charity founded by the broadcaster and journalist Sally Magnusson, has demonstrated the powerful link between music and memory, thanks to its amazing work in developing personal playlists on donated iPods for those living with dementia. The musical memories evoked by the playlists have demonstrated a profound improvement in the daily lives of those dealing with dementia and the charity has called for everyone to develop their own personal playlists for the future. A recent BBC documentary, Our Dementia Choir, provided further evidence of the importance of music, when a choir of a group of people living with dementia-linked conditions was formed and improvements in their daily lives were experienced and measured.