"Angry" music: why do some people find it relaxing?

[swordpath]

I always listen to metal. It doesn't make me feel calm, nor does it make me feel angsty or anxious. It just makes me feel awesome and I like feeling awesome.

 

[indra]

The perfect metaphor lies in harmonic resonance.

 

[Jaguar]

If I come across it on the radio, I tell it to STFU and switch the station.

 

[BadOctopus]

If I come across it on the radio, I tell it to STFU and switch the station.

That's what I do when I hear Nicki Minaj on the radio.

 

[Jaguar]

That's what I do when I hear Nicki Minaj on the radio.

Can't stand her voice.

 

[Bush]

I am not a patient person. I tend to lose patience with slow, presumably calming music. That makes it not calming to me.

With 'angry' music it's easier to kick back and lose myself (in a good way).

 

[EJCC]

One word: Catharsis.

If you really immerse yourself in angry music, the kind that expresses the exact kind of anger you've bottled up (or that you're currently feeling), the release is incredible.

Angry music is never appealing to me. When I am mad listening to something angry just amplifies it and makes it worse. That said when I am angry I do not want to listen to something calm, I will prefer something more intense.

Same here.

When I am angry or stressed, I do prefer slow, calm music. At the end of a stressful day, nothing soothes my frayed nerves as well as one of Mozart's piano sonatas. And maybe a cup of tea. And valium. (Kidding about that last part.)

If I listen to calm music when I'm angry, it doesn't make me feel better -- it forces me to bottle up the anger. Which makes things worse in the long run.

 

[GarrotTheThief]

final exam music.....tapping in to the tribal ancestorial spirit to pass an exam...

yeah catharsis but don't always take the words in the songs literal you know? They are metaphors for subjective states.

 

[Flâneuse]

One word: Catharsis.

If you really immerse yourself in angry music, the kind that expresses the exact kind of anger you've bottled up (or that you're currently feeling), the release is incredible.

If I listen to calm music when I'm angry, it doesn't make me feel better -- it forces me to bottle up the anger. Which makes things worse in the long run.

Yeah, for me it triggers a catharsis I would have trouble experiencing on my own. I find that music doesn't change my emotional state that much - instead it intensifies whatever I'm already feeling, gets the emotional currents flowing more strongly, which helps me work through and purge it.
Listening to happy music when I'm sad or tranquil music when I'm angry just grates on my nerves because it's the opposite of what I need at the moment. It just slows down the current and makes me feel internally stagnant and paralyzed by/trapped under the feeling.

I think listening to a song that "matches" my emotions also creates a feeling of being understood. Even though this understanding by something external is illusory (I think it's really self-understanding - people channel their own (sometimes previously repressed) feelings into works of art and then identify with them, like looking into a mirror), it's comforting anyway.

 

[Jaguar]

How could that relax anyone?

 

[SD45T-2]

I can understand that. And I understand how it can have a driving, stimulating effect. But calming? Every bit of research I've read, combined with my own experience, seems to indicate that the louder and faster the music is, the more of a taxing effect it has on the brain. It produces an adrenaline rush, and puts the nervous system in a state of excitement. That's why people get whipped into a frenzy at rock concerts, whereas that's much less likely to happen at a performance of chamber music.

Sometimes it's good for a laugh.

 

[johnnyyukon]

It's essentially because of what they feel at that time. I have noticed when I am hyped up, either in excitement or sexual or anger/irritation I am most likely to enjoy rap music at that time, and I don't like it if I am sad or tired or just peaceful/content. I honestly wonder if men like rap more because of testosterone (like how they're more likely to be vulnerable after sex because of a drop in testosterone).

I feel the same way about rap.

Not sure what you mean about testosterone drop in relation to it tho.

 

[Tater]

i can hear music coming out of my printer. i think the paper's jammin' again.

 

[Thalassa]

I feel the same way about rap.

Not sure what you mean about testosterone drop in relation to it tho.

Testosterone makes people more competitive and aggressive. Supposedly after sex men are more vulnerable because the drop in testosterone allows oxytocin bonding (therefore the stereotypes of women being more sentimental or romantic). I have long thought SP women may have higher testosterone making them more competitive in sports, business, arguments, fights, sex, etc.

In a completely unrelated note I decided today that "style" is the SP way of making reality more tolerable. Is it possible no type really has a better handle on reality? Se types use style to make reality more tolerable, to make the disturbing more bearable, the hyper real is actually a blend of Se/Ni, making the real too real to be real.

 

[Hive]

It's nice to listen to someone else scream furiously. That way, I don't have to.

 

[johnnyyukon]

Testosterone makes people more competitive and aggressive. Supposedly after sex men are more vulnerable because the drop in testosterone allows oxytocin bonding (therefore the stereotypes of women being more sentimental or romantic). I have long thought SP women may have higher testosterone making them more competitive in sports, business, arguments, fights, sex, etc.

In a completely unrelated note I decided today that "style" is the SP way of making reality more tolerable. Is it possible no type really has a better handle on reality? Se types use style to make reality more tolerable, to make the disturbing more bearable, the hyper real is actually a blend of Se/Ni, making the real too real to be real.

I put extra oxytocin in my smoothies.

 

[Hitoshi-San]

I don't have the answer myself, I've never noticed this in myself before.

But, maybe it could be the person sort of living through the band or singer, and that said band or singer is releasing all of that emotion and bad energy for them.

 

[melomania]

It helps them get the anger out.
Some people have trouble processing things like anger, and so an outlet that is not "threatening" or "shameful", such as entertainment, can help them surface the emotion and the dispel it.
They will feel calmer as a result, of course.

It's a similar effect to when someone validates you emotionally and empathizes with you. It can not only clarify a feeling (instead of a cloudy bad feeling, it is clearly "anger" now), but also help it subside so you can be more clear-headed again (the emotion releases, and now the trigger can be dealt with calmly).

I experienced this a lot during my high school years and up until I was about 20. Learning how to process anger is something that I've only been consciously doing for about 3 years. I recognize now that I had tons of repressed anger as a youth, but back then I didn't even realize I was angry at all, let alone what I was angry about... I just didn't recognize what the emotion was when I felt it in my body. I started listening to a lot of metal around freshman year of high school and I remember what I first loved about it (aside from some of the ridiculously impressive musical talent) was that it seemed to reflect all these deeply intense feelings that I had been feeling but wasn't able to express. It was like a weight had been lifted in that moment because it was ok to feel that way.

I'm 25 now and in a much more positive place emotionally. I still enjoy a lot of instrumental metal stuff but screaming/vocals annoy the crap out of me (I wouldn't have preferred screaming/vocals in metal songs before, but they wouldn't have hindered my enjoyment of the music either, like they do now). I think that I enjoy hearing some of those songs still because it makes me happy to reminisce about my childhood, but recently I've come to the conclusion that I just can't relate to that message anymore. I am very grateful to have had that music as an outlet at the time, and I am very grateful to not relate so much to it anymore as well, although I will always have a fondness in my heart for those days

 

[freeeekyyy]

Angry music doesn't "calm" me, but I often find it to be more complex, and thus, entertaining to my brain.

It just depends.

 

[freeeekyyy]

i can hear music coming out of my printer. i think the paper's jammin' again.

Dot matrix make the best music.