Hey there hominids!
Recently I've been thinking about emotions and music. I haven't yet read Musicophilia but I'm interested in the themes it brings up. Like many people I didn't really get into music in a major way until my teens, when I suddenly discovered that melodies and sounds could make me feel emotions completely detached from the situation I was in at the time. I first felt this when I was still going to church - at the time I thought that, perhaps, something spiritual was happening to me. During the time when I was beginning to seriously question the religion I had been raised in, one of the last things that made me believe in some kind of supernatural realm was the effect music started to have on me. Even when I knew I no longer believed in god, music still had the effect of making me feel like I did.
Of course later on I discovered that the same effect could be gained from secular music as well. The songs didn't have to be about god to make me feel this way. However, still, to this day, the only feeling I would ever (and only hesitantly) describe as "spiritual" is the one I get from listening to music. Obviously not just any music, many songs, normally the kind of dross you see in the charts, have no effect on me whatsoever, but there doesn't seem to be much of a pattern in terms of genre for what does make me feel this way. My tastes in music seem to vary wildly from folk-pop to obscure black metal, to electronica, to prog rock to whatever genre Radiohead is. I have yet to really discover what it is about certain songs which has such a profound effect on me.
I should probably try describe this feeling. When I am listening to a piece of music which I love, like the solo from Comfortably Numb, it makes me want to move in odd ways, not really dancing, just as some kind of cathartic release of this kind of electric tingling I get all over my body - the hair goes up on the back of my neck and I get shivers up my spine, after particularly intense songs, I sometimes feel exhausted. From what I've been told it's pretty close to the feeling that people get on Ecstasy. I have no idea why this happens, but I'd be interested to hear if any of you have any similar reactions to especially intense music. How does it make you feel? How do you feel afterwards?
A friend of mine linked me to the website of an app which is currently under development called Emotional Music, which will allow users to arrange their music collections into emotional playlists, depending on the emotional effect they want to feel. I really like this idea, as for me, it doesn't make a great deal of sense to arrange my music alphabetically or chronologically. Usually I'm looking for music to put me in a certain mood, or more often to act cathartically to release feelings or tensions I myself am only dimly aware of, it makes sense to me because to emotional impact, that cathartic release is what music is all about, and so why organise it any other way?
Not the most clear-headed post, but a fairly murky subject to begin with. Please do comment if you have anything to share about this. I'm going to try and move my posts more towards cultural subjects, and less about the politics, so expect more stuff like this, only better.
Peace and ear-gasms.
Gabe
