feeling music

a not so simple question.

do you think some people feel music more than others?

my whole life, as far back as i can remember (5 or 6 maybe), i can remember vividly really listening to music with my whole being. it can drastically alter my moods, give me chills, make me cry, make me aggressive, etc.

i'm sitting here now, listening to stevie wonder's blame it on the sun for the third time in a row. it is a wonderful song, i can hear it, i can feel it - down to my toes. it is making me feel warm, and i almost have to struggle not to kind of groove and move to it.
i've certainly known people who would have listened to it and said, yeah, that stevie wonder has a heck of a voice, and then proceeded to start talking over the music about something inane like world politics.

so, my media player really wants to prove my point...
it just switched to portishead's scorn a very dark and crawling version of their glory box single. the second it came on, i felt a change, even as i was typing about the last song. my body wants to move in a different way, i felt my eyes narrow a bit without thinking about it. this song, and thus me are now bad *** (self-censored).

of course i can draw back a bit and think about the music. what do these lyrics mean? hey, did i hear that progression in another place on this album? hmm, this sounds exatly like a combination of the flaming lips and slint fronted by a female beck! this is totally indicative of 1994-96 alt-rock and highly influence by the pixies, no, wait, the melvins. etc.
but i most enjoy, really feel it, when i have a chance to listen at moderate to loud volume in isolation (or with good ear-muff style headphones).

and the odd thing is, i'm not a musician - though i've always had an interest, and i don't dance. i do sing when i'm alone though (albeit poorly).


how about you?

Some pieces bring a shiver up my spine and my scalp raises too (I can see my hairline go up).

I used to listen to music to either accentuate a mood I was in or to blow it out of the water completely and change it, depending on what I wanted. Nowadays I just don't have the time or I don't feel comfortable is listening music this way in our present environment: we will be moving this summer and hopefully in our next apartment I will feel more comfy there.

I find that to listen to music you have to feel comfortable and safe mentally. Man this is hard to explain... I don't feel unsafe (like for being robbed) where we live at the moment. It's just that we had a neighbour come and complain about the music once, right after we bought our hifi system and ever since I have felt a sour taste in my mouth about listening to music on it... Needless to say it has made me feel very self-conscious every time I switched it on from that moment on, so that takes out all the fun for me. And I have never heard quality of sound like on this system so I bleed inside from not using it.

Anyway. I hope the new apartment is more sound-proof. Not that I like blasting the music out till my ears start bleeding but I do like to feel like I am alone and enveloped by the music. Doesn't mean I crank it up to 11 just maybe 4 or 5. :girl:

I think that some people don't have that type of sensitivity though. I used to try to explain to people what I felt with certain musical pieces and they would look at me really strangely, so I stopped.

Join a small club I think.

Have always been there myself. Think this has to do with why I believe the only way to "listen" to music is at the volume at which it was originally played. Without this you just can't hear everything that is happening and truly feel all that has been injected into it. And I think, why a lot of my favorite musicians are probably not so mainstream.

Whenever friends would come over and I had just discovered a new musician, would say "listen to this". My intent was to sit down, say nothing, just let the sound envelop you. But not most people. They would hear the first few bars and then continue on with whatever inane stuff they had been talking about.

Have had a couple of friends tell me this is why they enjoyed coming to my house though. They could come in, sit down, listen to the music, be at home, relaxed, not have to worry about having to carry on a conversation or be "doing" something.

Maybe it has to do with some people not being able to shut down their thoughts. Even have one friend who says this is impossible. As far back as I can remember, have always been able to just turn off my mind (so to speak). Then the sound has the ability to wash over your mind, body and soul, and carry your being to another place.

I can't (or don't want to) carry on a conversation while I'm really "listening". I'm just not here in the same place, I'm some other place; mind, body and soul. And then I'm thinking "you want to bring me back for that?" "Not a chance" I say silently. Guess it would be pretty hard to be carried to another plane if you can't let go of dealing with your everyday stuff.

I did take the time to learn to play 13 instruments. Though I play by notes, don't think I have a creative bone in my body to make the type of music I craved listening to.

MHC, I don't spend the time doing this as much either. Maybe we forget as we get a little older. Or maybe we just let our time get filled up with other things. I don't know. I've been thinking about this of late though. Thinking I need to take the time to just sit down and listen again. Be carried away to that other place once in awhile. And if you enjoy music in this aspect, think you would find a really good pair of headphones for those occasions now, might be one of the best investments you had ever made.

Music affects me a lot as well- I think that many people now are over-stimulated with so many movies, songs, games, etc... that they don't feel that much any more.

We have Sennheisers, HD 570 but it's not the same as when they come out of those awesome speakers we have, a pair of JMlab Chorus S 726.

I think as we get older, things do get in the way. Like for instance, one thing I didn't do way back when was type away for hours on a computer: I didn't own a computer back then.

And just like you guys, the music I listen to and appreciate is not tunes that play in the background and you go on doing something else. Sure I like light music too but for the most part, it's music I have to stop and really listen to. Just sit down and get into it.

In fact, if I have iTunes playing sometimes I just can't concentrate on my typing and have to shut off the music: it interferes!

i love music. i can sit for hours and just listen to it. It changes my mood aswell. if i am listning to an aggressive song i become aggressive.

All i do is listen to music. I listen on average about 7 hours a day.

Does anyone here listen to the same song over and over and over? I do this a lot. One of my favourite times to listen to music is just before I go to sleep. Complete darkness, music through the earphones, images through my head. I do a lot of dreaming to music. It affects my mood. It affects my life. I couldn't live without it.

kman445 said:

i love music. i can sit for hours and just listen to it. It changes my mood aswell. if i am listning to an aggressive song i become aggressive.

All i do is listen to music. I listen on average about 7 hours a day.

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Same here, I REALLY love music. When I am not in class or sleeping, there is music going on around me either sitting in my room listening to it, in the car listening to it, around campus with my iPod. Its always there, kind of seems to run my life. For me music can be anything, depressant, pick-me-up, etc. For example, before getting ready to go out to a bar or two I listen to some type of techno music (cascada, alice deejay, etc.) to kind of get me in the dancing/club mood. Gym, completly the same, listen to hard rock to kind of get me in the aggresive and pumped up, ready to lift mood. Throughout the day if i recorded every song i listen to, people would think I am crazy becuase I hit every type of genre throughout the day, anything from jazz to techno to country. Overall I love music and really could not imagine life without it.

Absolutely true. Music is a wholistic experience. I don't understand people like my kids who listen to music as a background while doing five other things. I want to be able to focus on good music and really experience it. I want to sit still and just enjoy it totally. I really don't like music playing just for background noise. I feel that I am almost doing it a disservice. Music is art, and it needs to be appreciated fully.

Like MHC, I pick music to fit my moods as opposed to change my moods. I am all over the place in musical tastes, but there is good music out there for every mood and every time.

A world without music would be truly depressing.

I agree. Some of my favorite experiences in life were laying back eyes-closed at concerts in Red Rocks Colorado just listening as the bands play on, taking it all in. The crowd noise, the lyrics, the instruments, the cool wind, is almost a spiritual moment.

On the other side of the token, music has really helped me through the trials of life. Being able to stop everything, put my feet up, turn-up some great tunes and simply forget the trouble at hand is a wonderful, welcomed gift.

Like a "dream to insomniacs", listening to music is a part of my life that I always look forward to.

+REP to whomever can name the Band, Album and Song title of the "Dream to insomniacs" (song lyrics) reference.

I love music. I really like unique music that is not produced specifically to become a radio hit. I like true artistic music with a message or an emotion that the artist is trying to get across.

I used to do alot of drugs and during that time all I would do was listen to music, mostly really really wierd electronic stuff and it really taught me how to listen to music, not just listen to it but experience it.

I don't do any drugs now but i've learned to listen to music and appreciate in a differnt way.

Agreed with all. I have been listening to and loving music since around 3 years old. It's always moved me. I can have the worst day ever and listen to some of my favorite music and forget it all. Music is a part of me and always will be!

RIDE said:

+REP to whomever can name the Band, Album and Song title of the "Dream to insomniacs" (song lyrics) reference.

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Is this the song your looking for, highlighted in my iTunes library (it says it just about that time too)?

OK, somewhat controversial I am sure, but I have always felt that anyone who wasn't moved in some way by some form of music has no soul... they are flawed humans in some way. Music speaks to the depths of the human spirit in my opinion. If your spirit isn't moved by some form of music I have to wonder if you are whole. Please no flames, just an opinion!

People always think I'm weird when I enjoy my music the way all of you have described. Just the other day I was sitting in a cafe and listening to a live band playing and I just closed my eyes and immersed myself into the music flowing from their instruments. While I was working on a paper the other day, I had my sound-isolating earphones in and a really moving song started playing. I noticed my fingers moving as though they were playing the piano rather than typing on a keyboard :black:

I feel as though experiencing music is like a spiritual event. I feel as though my soul is experiencing something divine. I like to put in my earphones, setup a playlist on my iPod, and just lie down and feel the music course through my body.

I really enjoy music and my audio hardware purchases have reflected this sentiment. I have spent a couple hundred dollars on a sound card and powerful speakers for my PC (this was in my pre-Mac days) and a couple hundred on a really good pair of cans for private listening and a pair of Shure E2c earphones for my iPod (which I now use with my Macbook).

The 3 minute song is one of the quickest ways to touch someone's emotions.

Yeah music gets to me. I used it differently this week though.

I like my work, I like programming tough things. On Thursday I began a 2 day programming run on 3 hours of sleep. I tuned into XMRadio, Channel 82, The System. Trance, electronica. Whether you like that type of music or not, it's constant high energy. Aural speed. Cloistered through Bose noise cancelling headphones. Do that for 20 or so hours over 2 days and you stay up and in The Zone. Well I did anyway. That music did more for me than all of the caffeine I had. Thursday night I indulged and got 5 hours of sleep, enough to get me through the second day. Afterwards I felt great. A day later, I still do, I'm just a little tired.

I couldn't listen to The System today, barely listened to any music at all. I needed to come down. Yeah. Come down. Spent an intense night w/ iWeb. ^_^

Presently I'll tune out for the night, listen to some music, not sure what yet, but I'll listen to it fully.

Mathogre I do the same thing with the same kind of music whenever I have an important deadline.

ste6168 said:

Is this the song your looking for, highlighted in my iTunes library (it says it just about that time too)?

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That's it!!!! Great job. That is a fabulous song. The "unplugged" version is one of my favorites.