xMusicMan

Sounds just like me, I think music is always somewhere in the background no matter what I do.

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Jackson

I agree, I go through different phases I guess. I've been listening to a lot of jazz lately and rap.

SGR

You guys who can listen to music at work are lucky!

VEGANGELICA

I never become obsessed with a band or an album, although I occasionally experience a keen interest in a genre for several days.

However, I do become obsessed with particular songs. My song obsession most closely matches Limetless' description:

My song obsessions usually last about a week. I might listen to the same song fifty times during that week before the intensity fades somewhat into affection and appreciation. I then file the song away in my personal, internal list of song favorites, pleased to have another. Months or years later, I might think of the song and reacquaint myself with it, listening to it ten times or so during one day, but the obsession isn't as strong.

I think the obsession and its fading occur because something about the song resonates with an emotional state or situation I am in at the time I first hear the song...yet as time goes by, my mood and situation change so that the song is no longer such a close fit.

On a biological level, I suspect song obsessions are caused by an innate human desire for emotional connection with people (for which songs act as substitutes), and this obsession is mediated by a spike in serotonin and dopamine levels when listening to a song with which we connect. The music thus results in improved mood and addiction-like interest in it, as described in this short article about the relationship between song obsession and dopamine: Addiction to Music Has Biochemical Basis - Softpedia

My obsession songs are like journal entries, reminding me where my mind was at during different timepoints in my life. Listening lets me reenter those mind states just a bit, which is fun to do...like living life over again. Music is a good drug. Not as good as love, but still pretty good.

Here are three songs that I have been obsessed with in the past:

The Outfield - "Your Love"
I was very obsessed with this song when I was a teenager.


The Outfield - Your Love - YouTube

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Naked Eyes - "Always Something There to Remind Me"
I became obsessed with this song after my first major break-up.
When I listen to this song, I have flashbacks of walking despondent at night along streets in Berlin.


Naked Eyes- Always Something There To Remind Me - YouTube

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The Raconteurs - "Steady As She Goes"
I became obsessed with this song three years ago, and I still like it for the sound of the song and the unappealing description of shallow relationships that deaden the spirit:


The Raconteurs "Steady, As She Goes" - YouTube

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Oh what the heck, I'll break my "only list three things" rule and add another song, one of my most recent song obsessions:

Get Well Soon - "Angry Young Man"
I became obsessed with this song around a year ago because of its wash of pulsing sound and its subject matter, which deals with issues of cruelty and mortality. The sense of tragedy in the song still gets to me. Actually, I think (now that I think about it) that the reason I liked this song so much is the mood it evokes in me matches fairly closely how life often feels to me:


Get Well Soon - Angry Young Man (Official Video) - YouTube

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llllllllllllllllllll

I usually latch on to a genre rather than a band, right now I'm on a black metal/folk metal kick and I think I'm in love with John Coltrane. Occasionally a band will make it's way into my ears and then I get everything they've done and I am obsessed, but they go away in a few months.

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gunnels

Going through band/artist phases makes up the bulk of my musical history. I'm currently on the tail end of a Tallest Man on Earth and Porcupine Tree phase.
I don't really do this with genres like other people do. Usually if I obtain a bunch of albums with similar styles I get board pretty quickly and don't really listen to them.

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Let's Play TF2 Sometime.|Unrepresentative Last.fm.|Puns, Pokemon, and Miscellany

VEGANGELICA

I'm still thinking of songs I have been obsessed with in the past, since my music obsessions always revolve around individual songs rather than bands or genres, and this one came to mind...

The Damned - "Alone Again Or"
(A high fidelity video!! Much better than the one I saw several years ago.)
Damn, I like this song. It's the only song by The Damned that I like (I think, since I doubt I've heard them all). My recollection is that their other songs sound very different than this one. I love the acoustic guitar in this piece.


The Damned - Alone Again Or (1987) - YouTube

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Scarlett O'Hara

I obsess by genre for sure. Currently I'm obsessed with trance and indie rock.

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Rjinn

Still obsessed with prog and sludge metal.

Obsessions are good.

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last.fm

FETCHER.

Mostly obsess over genres. Trance and house rule just now. But I'm listening to loads of different stuff, that's just my preference.

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My Journal.
Last.Fm if your interested...