What does music do for you on an emotional level?

SteveG wrote: A fantastic post Greg! My feelings exactly, including your choice of music.

Thanks so very much Steve, very much appreciated. And I think this is a really terrific idea for a topic.

Psychedelic Paul wrote: Logan wrote: Much of the loungey music that I like might seem bland to many, but I like some muzak in my music. What bland to one... It depends on what resonates, what one identifies with and the associations it makes in the psyche. I commonly like to listen to music that fits and resonates with my mood. That can lead to a sense of euphoria or mild well-being.   If I'm feeling particularly depressed, then I often listen to melancholic music (think Nick Drake's "River Man", Robert Wyatt's "Sea Song") but also often brings me an element of joy and acceptance out of the sadness (think David Bowie's "Dollar Days"). I find beauty in those. If my mind feels like a maelstrom, I might like chaotic music, or at least chaotic and frenetic in part (e.g. "A Plague of Lighthouse Keepers"). If I'm feeling energetic or frustrated, then I might go to certian things by the Cardiacs. Standards like Art Zoyd for me work on a range of my emotions. If I'm feeling dead inside, I like that music can bring me a range of emotions. Something like the second movement of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony usually resonates. Albums, and even individual songs, of course, can take me through a range of moods, and while I don't always like the feelings I have (say a sense of desperation and alienation), ultimately I like to feel and find beauty in feeling. I want music that I can accept with my emotions and I sort of feel accepts my emotional state. I don't use music specifically to throw off my emotions, but music that helps me better to contemplate them, accept them, sometimes moves through them into other emotions, and even find a sense of joy or serenity in the emotions. Affirmation is important, and I appreciate music that I feel affirms my states of being so that I can better accept and even appreciate those states. I've been going through a loungey phase too during the late evenings. These are just some of the crooners and songstresses I've been listening to over the last couple of months:- Julie Andrews; Paul Anka; Burt Bacharach; Tony Bennett; Brook Benton; Carpenters; Vikki Carr; Perry Como; Ray Conniff; Percy Faith; Engelbert Humperdinck; Jack Jones; Nat King Cole; James Last; Michel Legrand; Henry Mancini; Dean Martin; Matt Monro; Frank Sinatra; Caterina Valente; & Andy Williams, to name just a few. They help me get to sleep at night.  On the subject of David Bowie, I've just finished listening to his entire discography of 49 albums (including live albums), only to discover how depressing and disappointing his final Blackstar album is.

I love the Carpenters and some Bury Bacharach, but my loungey music tends to be more on the exotica and tropica side.   And I love people such as Serge Gainsbourg, and many art pop and jazzy loungey acts -- music mostly from the late 60s until now (quite a bit from the 90s when retro sounds were becoming quite popular). There's a fair amount of French loungey-pop stuff from the 60s that I like, and loungey instrumental music.

As for Bowie, depressing I can relate to quite well (he made that when dying of cancer and those themes come through very clearly), but disappointing is totally at odds with how I receive the album. I find it to be an incredibly poignant, and actually a life-affirming album. To me it's more bittersweet than depressing, if you get my meaning. I think that it's a triumph. I see strength in making it and addressing uncomfortable things (frailty, mortality), and it is my favourite album of modern times and may well be my favourite Bowie album (before that it was probably Hunky Dory, which I still love just as much). Words fail me in trying to express just how much that album spoke to me and has meant to me. I think it explores a variety of moods, is quite nostalgic, draws on and reflects on his different periods. It resonates with introspective me. It's an album that I can relate to and relate to my experiences. If it doesn't speak to you or speak to you the way you would like, that's fine too, of course. I adore Blackstar. What an album to go out on, I would say.

I'm reminded of your not like Robert Wyatt's Rock Bottom. In that case Wyatt was dealing with the trauma and paralysis from his accident, and again I see it as life-affirming and so poignant. The circumstances make the album all the more special to me, and generates an empathetic response in me. That said, I loved Rock Bottom before I even knew the history behind it.

rogerthat wrote: It's very rare for me to directly relate the emotions in a piece of music to my own.  At times, mournful songs, especially about death, may break through if I happen to be grieving the loss of a near one right at that moment. But otherwise, I relate to music on an aesthetic and visceral level.  So if a singer or a musician renders a part magnificently, that gives me joy.  Likewise, I respond to the groove, intensity, dynamics, etc of the music, its pulse, so to speak.  But definitely, angry music doesn't make me angry.  I am usually laughing my ass off when I listen to Mustaine gritting his teeth on a Megadeth song in the sense of marvelling at how angry the music is.

I'm mostly in the aesthetic camp too, except for the times when my emotions overwhelm me. Then I listen for non aesthetic reasons or, sometimes, not at all. But that's rare.

Edited by SteveG - August 31 2021 at 08:35

It's very rare for me to directly relate the emotions in a piece of music to my own.  At times, mournful songs, especially about death, may break through if I happen to be grieving the loss of a near one right at that moment. But otherwise, I relate to music on an aesthetic and visceral level.  So if a singer or a musician renders a part magnificently, that gives me joy.  Likewise, I respond to the groove, intensity, dynamics, etc of the music, its pulse, so to speak.  But definitely, angry music doesn't make me angry.  I am usually laughing my ass off when I listen to Mustaine gritting his teeth on a Megadeth song in the sense of marvelling at how angry the music is.

Logan wrote: I want music that I can accept with my emotions and I sort of feel accepts my emotional state. I don't use music specifically to throw off my emotions, but music that helps me better to contemplate them, accept them, sometimes moves through them into other emotions, and even find a sense of joy or serenity in the emotions. Affirmation is important, and I appreciate music that I feel affirms my states of being so that I can better accept and even appreciate those states. This all could be so much better expressed.

I think this part was great, and resonated with me profoundly. 

Shadowyzard wrote: ^ I don't take anything as "bland" for granted. There are loads of soft and simple passages/songs in prog that I find soulful or amusing, or vice versa.

Gotcha! I misunderstood your statement.

Shadowyzard wrote: Bland soft music is sickening for me, so is mindless violent/loud music. I like simple tunes, if they are soulful or amusing. I also like sophisticated tunes, it they are not mindlessly chaotic. Music is awesome!!! Life would be unpleasant without it.

Interesting. How about softer melodic passages found in prog rock? Still bland and boring?

Simple question. For me, aside form the joy I get listening to music, I can also feel calm with softer melodic music of any type. When I'm angry, certain metal bands like Slipknot seem to exercise how I feel with me being able to throw off the anger or frustration. Some people have the opposite effect with calm music soothing anger and vice versa. How about you?