How do you experience music?

[hjgbujhghg]

I wonder how do you guys feel when listening to music?

When I listen to music, all of my emotions are the strongest. I feel such an emotions with such a strength, that I could never experience doing anything else. For me it's stronger than love, or sex...stronger than anything. It can evoke all kinds and all tastes of moods and feelings in me, it can make think differently and feel differently. Nothing has a stronger impact on me than music... It's really stronger than any other experience I've had so far in my life. Anyone else experiencing that during listening to music? (I know this is probably weird )

 

[á´…eparted]

I experience similar, if not the same. Music has a powerful and profound effect on me, and is an immensely important thing in my life (despite not being able to play any instruments). I can go into detail later about what it does, but I do not have time at the moment.

This is not unique either, or weird. I'd say it's a completely normal human experience. Granted, I don't know many people who share the same level of response that I have to music, but I do know several. Many many people have a very strong visceral response to music they connect with, resonate with, relate to, etc. If it has some kind of meaning, it can illicit a strong emotional response. It all comes down to how our brains are wired. As a slight tangent, there exists some people with a "condition" called amusia, where they are unable to "hear" music. In effect, it is nothing more than noise not much different than the sound of someone going into the kitchen, opening the cubbards, and dumping all the pots and pans on the floor. In many cases they'll find music to be an irritation as it is a jumble of sound.

 

[Kullervo]

This depends a lot on the music.

I experience all music on a rational level due to my instinctive ear for music, training and resultant understanding of musical harmony, structure and orchestration. I also have an aesthetic desire for good form and directionality which must be sated. There are a number of very specific things I look for in a piece of music to satisfy my reason, and I try to apply these in my own compositions.

In addition, music often profoundly effects me emotionally; i can become substantially more content, bold, depressed or irritated than previously depending on the nature of the music I listen to (compare https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=55mYRCYVm4Y, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbGV-MVfgec, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m5qeuVOIbHk aaand https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q1umkAEoajw (fuuuccck!!!)). Sometimes I can have an entirely new outlook on the day, and everything around me, due to what I've just been exposed to. Listening to music is the main way I tone down unwelcome emotions and put myself at ease.

To an extent, rousing speeches and poetry have the same impact, and the way they are delivered has a significant effect on me as well (I am very aural).

 

[kyuuei]

Depends. Sometimes it's just background noise.. something to make things not quiet. I have tinnitus and it's particularly annoying in silence. I like a little noise.

Sometimes I like it because I can sing along to it. I think singing is great exercise for the lungs, and an easy replacement for when I can't swim (which is all the time) so I sing in the car pretty loudly even though I'm bad at it. I do think it's fun to sing along too, but I started the habit out of exercise-like goals.

Most of the time, I'm daydreaming when I listen to it. I like walking while pretending I'm somewhere else, with someone else, doing something else.

It can move me emotionally. It can make me feel better when I was angry.. or melancholy when I would have otherwise been sad or distraught. Or it can be a positive channel for my sadness, and calm me down instead of being hysterically upset. Or I can meditate. I'm not an awesome person that can meditate in complete silence.. but with the right music, I can meditate and clear my mind.

I listen to all kinds of music, and I like multicultural tunes. I can only listen to certain types of music in certain settings though. I don't mind country music when hearing it at the rodeo, or at a redneck party.. but it wouldn't be on my radio ever willingly. I wouldn't mind bluegrass at an outdoor festival or something similar with contra dancing, but I'm not a fan otherwise. I can't listen to metal when I'm in a cheery mood, nor can I work out to slow low music.

 

[Evee]

Music takes me to a place I have been to, and even places I haven't, like cubist castles at dusk, and California.

 

[Kingu Kurimuzon]

It depends on what I am listening to. Sometimes music can evoke thoughts and feelings in me which are difficult to channel or find otherwise. Sometimes it simply has a calming, zen like effect on me after a stressful day. Sometimes I listen to music which reflects my current mood. I never really understood how some people can listen to happy music to cheer themselves up out of a bad mood. If I'm in a shit mood, I will listen to some dark, somber shit or angry music and take my mind off of everything else. If I am listening to something from a film score, then I will sometimes be flooded with images from the film.

 

[Flâneuse]

...Uh, I'm not even sure how to explain how I experience music. Listening to my favorite music (my Holy Quadrinity is Tori Amos, Radiohead, Kate Bush, and Bjork) can be a sacred experience for me, and that's not hyperbole. If I tried to explain why right now, I would end up saying some mushy-gushy crap like "It makes me feel more connected to myself and to life itself, exposes me to new ideas, expands my mind and my soul, makes me feel intensely alive, etc."