The 'How Does Music Affect You?' thread (in association with Shard)

i can relate so much to lots of that! That soundtrack thing. In the Nineties, Doctor Who carried  on off screen via a run of books called the New Adventures. Then later they carried on under bbc in house branding but with Paul MCGann’s Doctor.  Anyway, while I normally read them in silence, there was one book - Human Nature (later adapted for the telly and in my own ‘canon’ both versions happened to the Doctor at different points in his life) that I got at a time when my parents (returning from Austria) had gifted me a Best of Mozart CD. I played it softly in the background on repeat and the mood shifts of the book just seemed to keep landing in exactly the right moments that the most appropriate music was playing. Light and hopeful, wistful and regretful. Etc. 

sidebar: that book ends with my favourite ever closing lines from a novel. ‘But if it wasn’t for the snow, how could we believe in the immortality of the soul?’ ‘What on earth do you mean?’ The Doctor smiled. ‘Do you know, I haven’t the faintest idea’ And just for a moment, far overhead, before they dissolved into mist, two snowflakes were the same. Long ago, in an English Spring’ there was some beatiful music playing when I read that, I’ll never forget the moment. I was in bits. 

Later on, I decided to make Jean Michelle Jarre’s nineties albums the soundtrack to one or three of the McGann novels. It worked pretty well. 

Hello, mate, it's very good to see you around. Superb post too.

Your final section reminds me a little of a chapter in the brilliant book 'Ways of Seeing'. In it, the author asked readers to look at a photo of a painting by van Gogh. Then he asked us to look again...as he told us that this was the last picture Vincent painted before his death. The difference was remarkable - what formerly looked simply like the picture of a field now appeared as a dark testament of doom, angst and misery. Perception at work.

Really interesting topic, you have a knack for them! 

love that KB song and video btw, she had so many good ones. 

Not sure if I’m doing the topic ‘right’ but when you talked of changing or sustaining moods, I’m not sure that I’m very good with the former. Seeking out a cheery song when I’m in the swamps of sadness will not help me. Instead, I’ll sustain by listening to… well something like The Swamps of Sadness from The Neverending Story. Or, to subtly shift but still mood match, maybe a stoic anthem (or one that feels that way to me). Like this…
https://youtu.be/fXo47CIUuFg

or this 
https://youtu.be/dexagddSZUw

But another thing I get is that I have music days where listening to music seems an inevitability and a necessity. But I might overdo it, feel too intense an emotional high or melancholy low from it, and then the next day the idea of a single bar of music becomes slightly nauseating, and I know it’s going to be a spoken word (podcasts, the news, audiobook) day exclusively. However, this sometimes leads me to think ‘wouldn’t it be sad to die on a non-music day?’ Somehow that seems worse to me. To die in palette cleansing mode or the neutral middle ground retreated to when music has burned me out. And yet those days are just as precious to me - more of a rich tea than a bourbon when the former is all one’s aural ‘taste-buds’ can handle. 

interesting  that you mention getting the ‘wrong’ visual image. There’s a song by The Divine Comedy called The Certainty of Chance.https://youtu.be/3HQ8IC--4ko When I first listened to the section between 3:50 and about 5:00 I got this image of something like the opening sequence to a Poirot era murder film  - all black and white, rain pouring down on an old fashioned black car wobbling its way over the last cobbles on approach to the roped off scene of a crime, then panning over to follow the car-exiting detective to where the rain soaked aftermath lay. The grounds of a large estate maybe. Of a back alley. Can’t recall which. 

But I later saw someone online say that they Ioved how the same section captures the arid, shimmering feel of a desert- all dry sounding flutes and things. And it was so the opposite of my mental picture that I kind of inwardly recoiled at it, then finally conceded that that probably or possibly was the intended ‘grammar’. But… my version still sticks with me as the ‘proper’ one. Silly,subjective, but it is as it is. I can no more change it than the weather. Hadn’t listened in a long time until just now. I’m having an in between day, where bits of music but not too much are what I can handle. 

I find some music relaxing. I often listen to quiet music before bed which helps me to unwind. I can remember short repetitive lyrics, but not whole songs so sometimes prefer instrumental. Also I struggle with seeing pictures in my mind.

If it is busy around me I sometimes listen to music with headphones to zone out of the busyness.

I like lively music when ironing or decorating as it helps the time pass.

I can't usually concentrate on written work or calculations with songs in the background. However recently whilst working at home when I had a complicated task and my neighbours were doing DIY loudly, the only way I could concentrate was by putting on headphones with instrumental music.

Music can do a lot for me, as can the moments when I deliberately choose not to listen to it. It can also bring back memories and experiences.

Music makes me imagine things, different scenarios where I can actually be the person I’d like to be. It’s nice for a little while.

It can help me process feelings too, if the sounds match.

Music can also be motivating. Iron Maiden and Trivium got me through a really intense workout earlier. But up until that point, I had not listened to either for a very long time. It wasn’t right until today.

In triggering memories, I listened to Bad Religion’s The Empire strikes First album when I was reading Christopher Paolini’s Eragon for the first time and now I associate the songs with the book, almost as if it was the official sound track or something. I think my wedding songs will be an even more wonderful version of that.

One thing to add though, and it really is an unnecessary side point, but I really get angry when bands hold a single note for seemingly hours on end at the end of a song. It just seems so ridiculous to me. It’s rage inducing to me! Some of my favourite songs are like it and I have to be ready to skip!

We problem-causers hold meetings, and you're never there; therefore, you are *not* the problem. 

Taylor's lyrics are deeper than they first appear, I think. 

I could never listen to music, when working, as I would be too engulfed in the music. 

I do play LPs, however, when doing housework. It was like the Halcyon days of the Nineties, when CDs were played while the listener was out of the room. (usually showering, before heading out) 

Mariusz said:

Young Padawan Simon

I laughed like heck over ^that^.  It's *so* fitting. Thank goodness I have wise and patient mentors on this board.

Your description of your Albinoni image is perfect and apt, I think.

Steven said:

I was unshakeably convinced

You must learn Young Padawan Simon, apparently it was spared you at achool during literature classes, I was failing those over and over, but now I know, the failure wasn't mine, but the teacher's unable to accept a new interpretation.

It's a classic problem, autistic is expected to guess interpretation expected, comes with own one, and ends up ridiculed for being foolish, because everyone knows what the interpretation is, except poor autistic.

But those interpretation were made by someone else and not the autor, so who says that those are correct ones and others are not?

To the point - Simon for you it was ship cutting the ocean, and that's what it is. The greatest pieces of art allow receipents interpret them to suit their needs, and that is what I think about interpretations. That is why saying ''If you're bad at something you might get a chance at teaching it'' came to be.

When I listen to Albinoni I can see wide open space filled with green fields, and a blue sky hanging over my head, lagoona blue, nobody anywhere in my field of view, yet I can hear a shepard's flute from a distance. Reminds me of blissful childhood days.

Music can make me feel lots of things - sadness, happiness, depression... I can also picture things when I hear lyrics and songs. Like the Walk of Life by Dire Straits I always imagine people doing lots of walking lol :p 

Some songs I can picture certain memories, things that were happening at the time I heard the song.

Music can also be an eye opener. I listen to Taylor's song Anti-Hero a lot - some of the lyrics are,

"I should not be left to my own devices

They come with prices and vices

I end up in crisis (tale as old as time)

I wake up screaming from dreaming"

And,

"It's me, hi, I'm the problem, it's me"

It's totally me and it leaves me feeling sad that I'm like it but also like I'm not alone. I love how songs have powers to make you feel and think and imagine ^^