[ENFP] Music Moves The Mind (and Body!)

[SillySapienne]

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE MUSIC AND DANCING!!!

I LISTEN TO MUSIC 50% OF MY WAKING HOURS, I DANCE, BY MYSELF OR IN THE COMPANY OF OTHERS WHEN THE MOOD STRIKES, (WHICH IS OFTEN )

I ALSO SING, (AWFULLY).

Sorry for the caps.

Anyhow, my preschool teachers wrote in my progress reports that I had an obvious affinity towards/for music.

If i couldn't listen to music, or dance...

Life would no longer be worth living.

In high school, being a dancer, and in our dance company was the only respite from my horrible, slit-my-wrists-adolescence.

Not to toot my own horn, but whenever I go out dancing, I get complimented on the "way I dance", which I guess is sorta unique, highly expressive and 100% sincere.

The best instrument I play, so to speak, is my body.

 

[Lacey]

I've been dancing since I was 5 years old.

Dance, for me, is not about creating pretty lines in space.

It is about the music. All about the music.

So, yes, music is pretty essential to my life. It's still a painful thing for me, actually, that I never learned how to make music myself. I mean, I'm a tap dancer, but I've never really learned to play any "real" instruments. I've learned a little guitar, but of course I wish I would have started when I was younger. I might actually be good by now...

I'm not into clubs. Maybe because I'm an introvert. ha However, I can turn on music in my room and dance for hours.

I'm an F, but I don't usually "feel" a whole lot, unless I'm listening to music. For example, I can listen to a song that I think is beautiful/epic, and feel all this power flowing through my body. I'm usually a dead battery, with no energy, but music changes that.

 

[Gloriana]

1) Do you LOVE music? Like REALLY love it? Is it your drug of choice, do you have a huge playlist, were/are you a dj or regular jazz club/dance club patron? Does music seriously activate chemicals in your brain and make you feel good and/or calm?

YES!!!

Music has always been like a medium for me, and a muse. Whatever I choose to turn on at any given time, it's like this cluster of connector cables that plug me directly into my imagination, my desires, emotions, aspirations, dreams and so much more. It's like it yanks any masks or pretensions right off me and shows me who I really am, who I really want to be, where I want to go and what I want to create.

Music does seem to set off chemical reactions in me physically, for sure. So much so that I can be one of those people that annoys others because certain music WILL just change my whole mood because of moods in the tones/melodies/tempo and I will ask to change the station. Like I know people who can listen to Beethoven and not bat an eyelash, and I'm like "How the hell do you DO that?" because I'll just FEEL it right down to my bones.

Music has always been the drug of choice. I never did drugs and I didn't drink, if I needed escape or just something to get me through, it was always music, movies, or books. Mainly music though, it just has this way of shedding light on bad situations, or helping me see the truth in myself, or helping me see the truth in others, etc. It just makes me feel ALIVE!

2) What music do you like? And this goes beyond a generic listing of bands and genres but really asks WHY do you like it? What turns you on about it? Or off?

I lean toward music that has an overall mood of positivity and hope, whether it's flat out "Take life by the balls baby!" in tone or whether it's "These are the pains of life, but you know it's worth living". That spans a whole bunch of genres for me, it's that theme that most attracts me whether it's alternative or techno, rock or pop. I like it because it's how I view the world I suppose; the world which is painful, challenging, and at times confusing but no less beautiful, rewarding, and lovely to be in.

BUT, my heart and danceable body belong to evocative music, to music that really makes you feel something, and to music that is very authentic and real.

I love to dance too, it just makes me happy! I love dancing by myself and always have, I just listen and go with it. I love dancing with other people too, but I love it most when I'm dancing with people that genuinely LOVE to dance rather than seeing dancing as a medium for appearing impressive or to attract mates, lol. I don't really care how I appear when I dance, I just love DOING IT. I love dancing with people who feel that energy and happiness from it like I do.

Also if I like a song, I can play it on repeat and listen to it AN HOUR or more.

Me too! Especially if it sparks my imagination for a particular scene or theme for my writing. I will play a song on repeat over and over while I write and each time it will paint some new element for me to write about. I love when that happens!

So I'm curious to see how much of this is an NF thing and how personality reflects your relationship to emotional/physical stimuli?

I'm very emotionally connected to stimuli like music, movies, art, and books. Sometimes I think it might be a very INFJ thing where I'm attempting sometimes to experience something from a safe distance without too much personal risk. That can definitely be an element, sort of like enriching the inner world that much more.

It's also just the desire to feel the experience of something with more immediacy. Not sure if anyone else is like this, but sometimes I have a hard time getting my head around how I feel about any given experience until after it's over, by reliving it in my head to process it all. Sometimes music can be like this glue that binds my experiences together into one big picture with a bigger meaning, if that makes sense. I enjoy that.

The drawback of this is definitely that sometimes (for me) music can paint such a glorious feeling and picture inside me that the real world can pale in comparison! In recent years I've tried to bridge that gap and bring what I have found in the REAL world into my imagination more than trying to twist the world to suit my imagination, if that makes sense!

In general, I think my passion for music, movies, art, and books does come from the type of personality I have. They're not just background distractions or entertainments, they feed my imagination and my desire to unravel the mysteries of things bigger than what lay on the surface of things.

 

[Charmed Justice]

Yes, music is my anti street-drug.

Music has a strong impact on my emotional state. I'm not usually a crier, but some music can move me to tears. Hmm, I like most music, except for loud, thrashy, angry music of any genre. For the most part, I'm not into harsh, angry lyrics, or yelling and screaming. I usually use music to relax, or get into a mellow, feel goody, mood.

So, I like most rock. I like Britpop(80's+), urban, soul, reggae, conscious rap, jazz fusion, country, tribal fusion, New Age, Down Tempo, international, classical, some techno, some Christian(progressive Southern gospel and alternative), and folk....


I drive people crazy with repeating songs, not for hours, but for months. It's like, every time I hear the song, I hear something different. Like those crazy people who watch the same movie over and over to see something different.

 

[Gloriana]

I drive people crazy with repeating songs, not for hours, but for months. It's like, every time I hear the song, I hear something different. Like those crazy people who watch the same movie over and over to see something different.

Ahahaha!! I never see the same movie twice, hee hee!!

 

[WoodsWoman]

I prefer silence - broken only by the sounds of nature: wind, birds, etc. I'm very glad to live in the woods.

 

[Happyman]

A very cool thread!

1) Do you LOVE music? Like REALLY love it? Is it your drug of choice, do you have a huge playlist, were/are you a dj or regular jazz club/dance club patron? Does music seriously activate chemicals in your brain and make you feel good and/or calm?

I love music, I mean: TOTALLY. I could probably just sign under what CC wrote:

I ABSOLUTELY LOVE MUSIC AND DANCING!!!

I LISTEN TO MUSIC 50% OF MY WAKING HOURS, I DANCE, BY MYSELF OR IN THE COMPANY OF OTHERS WHEN THE MOOD STRIKES, (WHICH IS OFTEN )

..but for me it's rather 70%.
I believe music is a total "mood-setter". I love going to a club and letting go of everything, just 'flowing' in the music and dancing. Hell! I catch myself dancing with my eyes closed, sometimes!
It's also one of the biggest inspirations for my writing.

I had one really tough year in high school and it really helped me back then. I remember waking up with Sex Pistols's "Nevermind the Bollocks" for 10 months straight.

2) What music do you like? And this goes beyond a generic listing of bands and genres but really asks WHY do you like it? What turns you on about it? Or off?

That's good I don't have to enlist all the genres I like! It would be a long list. I played bass guitar in a band, so I looked for inspiration EVERYWHERE

I love the most all the 'very passionate' music. Like Jimmy Hendrix, Janis Joplin, some of the Doors, Rolling Stones. If I'd have to choose the 'element' representing the music I love, it would be 'fire' - strange metaphor, I know..
To get what I mean listen to: Jimmy Hendrix - 'Crosstown Traffic', The Rolling Stones 'Stray Cat Blues' or The Clash 'Janie Jones'.

Hrm... that's not all. I love the music that means something, goes from the heart like Johnny Cash, Velvet Underground, even Radiohead.

What turns me off? Pop music! Ugh... Oh, well I still like dancing to it, though.

 

[Skyward]

1) Do you LOVE music? Like REALLY love it? Is it your drug of choice, do you have a huge playlist, were/are you a dj or regular jazz club/dance club patron? Does music seriously activate chemicals in your brain and make you feel good and/or calm?

I don't REALLY love it since I dont REALLY love anything. FPs got that covered D). I have over 6000 songs, though, most of it being different kinds of metal. Not the 'typical' headbanger metal, most of it is powermetal or other kinds found in Europe. The music has to feel well constructed, and I like effective use of samples and synthesizer.

As for non-metal, I listen to 70s-80s rock a lot (The Beatles, Grateful Dead, and Queen).

But in the end, I like any sort of music if it's well made and if I'm there live, it's much more awesome.

2) What music do you like? And this goes beyond a generic listing of bands and genres but really asks WHY do you like it? What turns you on about it? Or off?

It changes often, but the last song I loved a lot was 'The Islander' by Nightwish. The subject matter and how it was constructed just clicked with me at the time.

I sometimes find the simple weirdness of Gorillaz to be all I need, and other times I just need some skullblasters like Dimmu Borgir or Turmion Kätilöt. Lately, though, I just want some upbeat metal ('Trollhammaren' by Finntroll or 'Wenches and Mead' by Alestorm repeated to infinity usually)

Lastly, the artist Arjen Lucassen, and particularly his more recent Ayreon work, is idiosyncratic and superbly constructed. I just like listening to it for the same reasons 'aristocrats' listen to symphonies. I even spent the 40$ to buy his latest work under the band Guilt Machine (special edition and signed even. The wait is just too long!)

So I'm curious to see how much of this is an NF thing and how personality reflects your relationship to emotional/physical stimuli?

For me, my mood is affected by music, and my mood affects music. If the music matches the music, it's soothing or exciting. Otherwise it tends to be skipped.