Hello there guys!
Recently, I've had a discussion with a friend of mine, which was criticizing my music.
This person said, that when he listens to music, the music creates an image of a situation in his head, some kind of situational atmosphere, or something like that. He talked about one song - when he listens to it, he imagines himself driving a car on a highway during a night with his GF seated next to him, and he feels good. Thus he likes the song, because it evokes a nice situation in him. He simply likes all music that evoke comfortable situations, and, comfortable feelings in him.
The funny thing is that I completely miss this approach to the whole thing. When I listen to music, I listen to sounds. I enjoy the sound at its basis, I enjoy the many many sounds played together. It doesn't make an image of a situation, or a specific feeling in me. I just like some kinds of sounds and some combinations of them. As I said, I feel/hear/enjoy the sound as its basis.
This comparison kind of boosted my interest in this matter.
What do you feel when you listen to music? Can you describe it? Can you tell why you listen to a particular music genre?
Discuss.
Well, this is an interesting question, one that has actually bothered me before. Sometimes I don't even notice the music I listen to, some other times I focus on it completely. When I focus, I try to listen to all the harmonies, distinguish every single instrument, etc.
Some other times, when I'm a bit sleepy, I do have images in my head. I don't get the same images every time though. One I remember, for example, was the image of some kind of fortress and a wisp floating around. It's very weird when it happens, and I like it when it does. It's almost like I'm dreaming about those images, so whenever I catch myself seeing those it most likely all stops.
What's amazing is that it's far from just an "image", it's an actual situation. When this happens, I sometimes even hear the lyrics changed to fit that situation. Like, I hear the singing, but it means something totally different in my head.
Does anyone else have this weird experience?
Sometimes when listening to a certain song, I just weirdly break out into a grin. It's interesting how a certain song, without meaning to be funny (either in lyrics or in music) can get you laughing.
About images...'Everything You want' by Vertical Horizon always gives me an image of speedy car-driving. And 'Time After Time' gives me an image of playing the SNES Legend of Zelda.
I often have "images" in my head when listening to music- whole movies when the tune's right, and I really enjoy taking them and refining them, until I have a tiny flick that follows the music. Sometimes the connections are extremely odd too- "All the small things" makes me see dragons chasing.
I'm similar to Ghost. I make up little movies to go along with the music I'm listening to. I particularly make up little opening or closing sequences to movies and/or games, when a song seems to be suited to the job.
I don't think anybody can listen to music without visualizing something, random or otherwise.
Exactly, I think it depends on what kind of person you are for what you take away from listening to music. For me it's mostly about feeling and visualisation. I too can come up with entire movies when I listen to a song, like "oh this song would be perfect for a scene like ...". or just feel transported to a different place.
Quote from: LimpingFish on Mon 04/08/2008 20:55:00
I don't think anybody can listen to music without visualizing something, random or otherwise.
I can, most of the time I do. OK, some songs make me think about speedy driving, or a sunrise, but normally, I just listen to the sounds. Maybe there are some very very little image pointers, but it's definitely not something that I consciously know.
It's not really visualizing. And it works only with some songs.
I link music to actions I'm involved in when I listen to them a lot. System of a Down - System of a Down is linked to the Gabriel Knight book, so when I listen to the album, I want to read the book and vice versa.
There's a couple of albums that have a similar connection, and I even have specific music I like to listen to while I'm scripting PHP ;)
But I don't get images like you mentioned. I just look for music that fits my mood (or, in some situations, contrasts it), because it's almost always background music anyway.
I do imagine these "situations" every now and then, but it's actually very rare in my case. Defininitely not every time like LimpingFish says.
Sometimes, when I listen to music, I think about an activity I've often partaken in whilst listening to the music in question. For example, whenever I listen to The Offspring's Conspiracy Of One, I'll think of all the time I spent coding this over-ambitious noob-dream project while listening to it, my only music at the time.
Yeah, this happens to me too, but that's exceptional. Best to test the musical imagination is to listen to something new.
I'm usually reminded of games and (sometimes) novels or movies when listening to music. Freedom Call? Baldur's Gate. ASP or System of a Down? Planescape Torment. Napoleon XIV? Southland Tales. :=
It all depends on the song for me. I listen to a wide variety of music. Some songs do put images in my mind. For example, after watching the music video for "Hanging by a Moment" by Lifehouse, I always think of taking a roadtrip when I listen to it.
Some songs don't provoke mental images like that, but do provide other feelings...for example there are certain songs that if I hear while I'm driving...I just want to punch the gas...unfortunately this got me pulled over for speeding for the first time in my life...(*cough 25 mph over the speed limit ftw! cough*)...so I don't speed any more. I got off with a warning, but I don't need any citations...:=
Of course there's one song which I can't remember off the top of my head right now, probably with a techno beat of some sort, which invariably makes me want to breakdance fight a large group of people. Not that I can breakdance or fight...
Oh yeah, forgot one very important example of how music affects me:
Whenever I hear Flo Rider's "Low", I get the urge to hurt people, break things, and ultimately stop that infernal trash that EVERYONE seems to like for some reason.
Whoops, double post, sorry!
Quote from: monkey_05_06 on Tue 05/08/2008 18:35:15
Some songs don't provoke mental images like that, but do provide other feelings...for example there are certain songs that if I hear while I'm driving...I just want to punch the gas...
Yeah, some music does this to me aswell! I don't really get reckless, I just wanna go fast!
Quote from: LimpingFish on Mon 04/08/2008 20:55:00
I don't think anybody can listen to music without visualizing something, random or otherwise.
I beg to differ to this, even if I bellong to the music creation bunch of people.
I can't visualize anything, I very rarely do.
There are two personalities that kick in depending on the situation, and circumstances.
A. The academic/teacher/student kicks in and I start analysing. It sucks but some times I can't help it. Or critisising the playing of a performer, even worst... :(
B. The searching for a familliar feeling. It feels, usually, like a ride of some sorts. I'm waiting (if the song is right), for fammiliar feelings to make me breathe out all the air I have inside in an attempt to make the moment last. Or something anyways...
I don't visualise anything at all! I do search for the fammiliar and for what will trigger emotions though. Just not visual. When the movie/ or pic/ or situation comes into mind, then we are talking for very specific music and very specific feeling.
Dunno if it helped... :-\
I'm the same as Nikolas - if I picture anything, which I rarely do, it's people playing the music. It's an emotional or, if it's in a teriffic context, a physical experience for me.
Hmm, interesting, by me it does not create any physical feeling at all. There are "images" rarely, but no physical feeling.
I too tend to analyze the song, sound by sound. I just enjoy some kinds of sounds that hit my ear, that's the feeling I enjoy. But I can't tell it's physical, though.
I feel most fo the music flow through me, but I can't really describe it. At the moment I'm listening to Lemur Voice - All of Me, and it kind of makes me want to jam along. The best way of listening to good music is just jamming along, whistling, playing the guitar on it, drumming the table, just grooving about. I can get images of some songs, especially if I've seen the music video, that's why a good music video is really important, and bad one ruins the experiense. But, I don't get these images unless I try to. Anyway, if you spot me table-drumming to a bad song, it doesn't mean I like it, it just means that there's a rythm. If the music is really good, then I get carried away. That has happened a lot of times, especially listening to the solo in Firth of Fifth by Genesis (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ksoDr3Ip_w)
Quote from: Oliwerko on Wed 06/08/2008 09:27:37
Hmm, interesting, by me it does not create any physical feeling at all. There are "images" rarely, but no physical feeling.
I too tend to analyze the song, sound by sound. I just enjoy some kinds of sounds that hit my ear, that's the feeling I enjoy. But I can't tell it's physical, though.
It's extremely rare for me to get the physical thing if I'm not at a live show, but sometimes, you hear the music and you just have to move.
If I do listen to anything, it's usually when traveling from one point to another, most likely to work or back. At work, di.fm always plays, but from co-workers computer, and it's too quiet to hear.
And at home, any additional noise is the last thing I need. I do turn music on sometimes when it's weekend and I'm in creative mode. But those cases have gotten rare... No matter what, at home, I ALWAYS wear headphones, even though I rarely listen to music... Some kind of escapist/isolation issue?
When listening, I usually imagine some sick shit, like high-speed jet fighter chase or some weird stuff, like everybody moving in slow motion or backwards. Or sometimes, when driving a bus, I imagine a laser beam emitting from bus side and cutting everything bus passes. Not in violent and bloody, but for sure explosion-filled and steel cutting way...
I listen to progressive trance, mostly. And have loads of unused imagination.
Quote from: InCreator on Wed 06/08/2008 19:43:39
I imagine a laser beam emitting from bus side and cutting everything bus passes.
And I thought I have weird things going round in my head! Now that's what I call true fantasy. ;D
Maybe these imagination things depend on a music genre? I don't know.
Anyway, I have found out that I have a few sound types that I really enjoy.
Most of them are pure synth ones, especially the ones that sound like when you are waving with a 0.5x0.5m piece of metal very fast. I don't see a particular image, but hearing this 80s synth sounds just makes me feel good. For example the very beginning of "Send me an angel" is one of these cases.
Thinking about it, I do actually imagine alot of things when travelling, like InCreator. Loads of destruction and rampage everywhere!
Does any one of you try to reverse engineer the music in their mind, like, split it into channels?
If it's a song with lyrics I quite often have the actual words running through my mind's eye, as though on a sheet of paper, and if there is a particular line or word that I can't make out by listening to it, this often appears as either a blank space or a scribbled out black smudge... the smudge is code for "something something something", and is telling me to look it up on the internet... haha.
If I have seen the official video of a song then I may sometimes remember the video if I hear the song on it's own and scenes from the video will play out in my mind's eye.
Occasionally songs will remind me of a particular situation that I was in when I heard the song. For example I've got a whole playlist of 'Japan Songs', that remind me of being in Japan, even if they are old songs I already knew, such as 'California Dreaming' (which I sang at a memorable evening of karaoke).
Also the entire album of Muse's 'Origin of Symmetry' reminds me of playing Skies of Arcadia on DC, because I used to listen to that album while I played the game.
Quote from: Lionmonkey on Thu 07/08/2008 13:05:13
Does any one of you try to reverse engineer the music in their mind, like, split it into channels?
Well, I do this always. Maybe all musicians do that? I don't know. But I can't listen to a song without hearing it as single sounds, single melodies added together to make up a whole song.
Quote from: Lionmonkey on Thu 07/08/2008 13:05:13
Does any one of you try to reverse engineer the music in their mind, like, split it into channels?
Occasionally I make an effort to listen to individual instruments in a song, but not usually, for two reasons: first, I really enjoy music with a loud, full, complicated, diverse sound - aside from spoken word tracks, almost half of my iTunes library is instrumental bands or bands with lyrics in languages I don't speak, and I don't pay a lot of attention to the lyrics on those tracks that have them (actually, a lot of my favorite bands that have lyrics have a greater emphasis on the instruments, making the lyrics difficult to understand; I even have a couple of CDs with lyrics so distorted and underemphasized that I completely honestly do not even know what language they are in). Second, sometimes when you split apart songs like that, you find things that you don't like. You know the song that played during the Kill Bill trailer? I tried listening for the bass line of that song, and it is one of the most irritating things that I have ever heard; it pretty much completely ruined the song for me.
QuoteMaybe these imagination things depend on a music genre? I don't know.
I'm ready to eat nails for belief that it DOES depend. It works so strong for me.
But then again, my favourite genre happens to be most
emotional genre in a world of
electronic dance music (synthetic emo?), being mostly extremely sad (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJ0CiTxMJl8&feature=related) and melanholic (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7PJJqJ_wmoo) (if there's no minor scales, wrong genre), yet controversially being stamped with stereotypical club-party-fun sign.
Maybe it isn't so with some other genres..?
QuoteDoes any one of you try to reverse engineer the music in their mind, like, split it into channels?
Guilty as charged...
Quote from: Makeout Patrol on Thu 07/08/2008 19:29:35
I tried listening for the bass line of that song, and it is one of the most irritating things that I have ever heard; it pretty much completely ruined the song for me.
It's fascinating, how human ear can reconfigure itself in order to listen to specific noices and split them aside from all others, just by the user's wish.
But it seem that musicians want you to concentrate on one concrete channel and keep the others as a background. And like Stupot has noted, it sometimes doesn't seem to work properly.
So, how do you make people concentrate on a specific channel of your choise?
Quote from: Lionmonkey on Thu 07/08/2008 20:52:11
Quote from: Makeout Patrol on Thu 07/08/2008 19:29:35
I tried listening for the bass line of that song, and it is one of the most irritating things that I have ever heard; it pretty much completely ruined the song for me.
It's fascinating, how human ear can reconfigure itself in order to listen to specific noices and split them aside from all others, just by the user's wish.
But it seem that musicians want you to concentrate on one concrete channel and keep the others as a background. And like Stupot has noted, it sometimes doesn't seem to work properly.
So, how do you make people concentrate on a specific channel of your choise?
By emphasizing the channel you want them to be listening to, and reducing the emphasis on the background channels. Basically, the foremost channel will be louder, less predictable, and more complex; the background channels will be quieter, simple, and repetitive. A great number of rap songs are just the lyrics, which are constantly changing, superimposed over a one-measure drum beat that is repeated the whole time with only minor changes.
Also you will probably notice high-pitching sounds much more than low bass ones, even when they are equally loudly played. Perfect example is rap, like Makeout said. When you listen to what is behind that lyrics, you find out usually one bass and one drum layer, which is constant. But you don't really notice it at first. Imagine having a high-pitched sound playing the bass rap layer at the same volume. You wouldn't concentrate at anything else. So the instrument/frequency does matter.
As for me, I enjoy being able to listen to individual melodies in a song. Many people can't do that. And so far I haven't heard a song that has had one bad channel that ruined it, as Makeout said. I have heard channels that I would normally miss, and that channels were marvelous. I would really miss not to be able to concentrate on them. In some songs, I listen mainly to them, because they are sometimes better than the rest of the song playing.
EDIT: To give a proper example, watch this (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj_zXwDJEMQ) (ignore the sucking quality, it's the best one I could find) and scroll to 3:50. When I heard the song first few times, I automatically concentrated on the lyrics and drums. Then, I realized the beautiful electronic melody that runs under it. And that's what I like about this portion of the song.
When I´m listening to music, I really enjoy trying to separate de different instruments in my head. It´s also funny sometimes when you listen to a song you hadn´t listened for a long time and you recall what you were doing back then.
Diogo
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