Intense reactions to music
 

Who has them? For me, they can get pretty severe. Which is why I'm contemplating the removal of any intensely sad/angry music from my iPhone. If it's electronic, it's always positive. If it's club oriented I'll just feel excited and feel the need to move around and such. If it's lowkey and chill, it will calm me down immensely. That's always good, except sometimes it's too effective. In other words, it's not good for me to listen it when I'm driving. It almost feels as if I won't react as quickly as I should.

On the negative side of things, listening to songs that are sad/angry (especially sad) can lead to pretty intense feelings. When I listen to an angry song, I usually just feel intense amounts of energy and don't really know what to do with it. I'll make all kinds of weird faces and whatnot, but I don't literally feel angry or anything. Sad songs on the other hand can pretty much screw me over. I'll go from content to miserable and stay that way long after the music is over. I will definitely cry, but not in the usual way. It's not so much sobbing as much as an immediate reaction. It will usually only last for a minute, and won't continue after the song is over. Only the feeling of sadness will.

To some songs I'll shake and tremble and won't be able to stay still. It gets especially weird when I'm listening to stuff on my iPhone and other people are in the car, because I have an exceptionally hard time not showing anything. I usually just have to tap my hands or feet or something. I'll also have these weird noises that I make which, I don't even know what they are (I think it's from suppressing the reactions I get from the music). Sometimes I'll hold my breath (which I'll do when listening to some songs), and then slowly expel it. Other times I'll just make nonsense sounds that seem to be a reaction to the music itself. I'll usually have to cough or clear my throat afterwards to try and cover it up.

Very interesting. I don't know what else to say, but I hope others do.

I could say I have some intense reactions to music, but after reading your post, we're talking about a different ballpark.

Highly interesting.

What if you listen to avant-garde crazy music? Would you explode?

I get them, too. Sometimes, musical passages sans lyrics which are horribly emotive are enough to push me over to tears in my eyes, but usually it's stuff with lyrics and incredibly sad motifs that does the trick.

Strangely, I'll get a lot of times where one line in a song that isn't necessarily intensely sad will just set me off because it's almost exactly what I feel, or because one line will just make me ache for the person singing it. One such example was when I was at a pub which plays mainly 80s and 90s alternative and indie, and "Smells Like Teen Spirit" came on. I'm not a huge Nirvana fan by any means, but for some reason the line, "I'm worst at what I do best and for this gift I feel blessed," just really hit me in some weird way, and I started crying right there in the pub. I hadn't even started my drink yet.

A lot of times, if I'm particularly affected, I just have to sit there quietly and can't talk or anything because I know that my voice would be shaking. My best friend went through a messy breakup a month or so ago, and kept playing his really depressing indie/folk breakup CD in his car. I knew that was his coping mechanism, because he was upset, but his CD was just completely making me violently depressed.

I have noticed some strange feelings too (not EARGASMMMM!!!!!11!). So i hav made some playlist, which contains different types of music. Like when i'm depressed there's playlist which contains lots of fast and maybe bit aggressive metal music. And it helps, twenty minutes listening of that playlist and i forgot that i've ever been depressed. As you (CanwllCorte) said ''angry'' music creates some kind of energy. Then i have playlist where is all my ''lullaby'' songs, most of them are relaxing electronic music for example Mt Eden dubstep or psytrance.

I can relate to this, definitely. Sometimes certain lyrics or an instrumental passage can move me to tears, similarly to being moved by a moment in film, or a book, or painting.

I know what you mean. When I'm in the right mood, metal can give me almost this frantic energy that just needs to come out. Whether it's head banging, bouncing my leg, or taking a walk. My thoughts also tend to be frantic and fast paced as well at those times.

yeah I do this as well. I have certain playlist of songs to combat certain moods or feelings that I'm going through. Angry aggressive music helps calm me down if I hear enough of it.

To get out of my depressive states, the playlist associated with that contains songs that relate to life in general and after awhile of listening to it, I'm able to focus on what I need to get done and stop with the depressive pity party.

Nooo! Haha! :laughing: If the music is TOO crazy, like some Grindcore and whatnot, it will flow right over my ears. It needs to be at least a little bit accessible. Anything more than this and it doesn't affect me:



I think that's a part of it for me. But I can't help but wonder if it really helps, or just makes it worse. I think if I just get intensely sad, it will go away faster. Kind of like what djchameleon said, and then after I listen to it it might help me get it out of my system.

Actually, sometimes when I'm depressed or angry, I actually like listening to music that suits that mood. Perhaps it's masochistic, but I kinda like wallowing in my misery sometimes.

Whenever I hear anything I don't like it becomes the worst thing I've ever heard in my life for at least the next 48 hours.

Sometimes I work up a sweat just listening to music.

i cry like a baby whenever the lyrics are touching - like Cash's Hurt

other times, when a song is very good and done by a dead singer, i cry in mourning for him/her - e.g. Bob Marley "Ride Natty Ride"

I've actually cried at "The Trooper" by Iron Maiden. It was just such perfect metal that I found it beautiful.

The songs that get me I least expect sometimes. Bruce has gotten me as well.

I mentioned about a month back, but I have trouble getting through this without getting teary

No music has ever made me cry, but moments on "Hospice" by The Antlers has given me some pretty intense feelings.

"Sylvia" in particular hit me really hard when I first heard it, because of its dynamics and especially its lyrics.

The only thing that makes me cry is art. Tears of joy.

I'm very unfamiliar with tears of anguish...

I'm all about a chord progression.
Then, about whether a singer makes me feel what he/she's feeling just by the pure emotion behind the vocals.

When those two aspects join well, I'll either choke up or punch a hole in the wall.

I've never cried while listening to music cause i'm not a bitch.

Your daddy raped the soul outta you, son.
;)

I really wish I knew more about music, cause I imagine there more than likely is some kind of common element in all of the songs that affect me. I know there is in some specific songs, but I couldn't tell you what it is.

You don't have to know anything about music for it to affect you. I couldn't tell a C from an E sharp. I can't read music at all. But I do know what sounds good. And that's enough for me.
I know you know what sounds good as well... I've heard your rec's, and they're amazing. So, don't bitch out. Be affected. ;)

Hahaaha thanks! :laughing: I would just like to know more so I could hopefully be able to find more stuff like it. Or if I ever get to make music, which I plan to, I know what I enjoy and why.

Do what you gotta do.
But I personally think the most original and inspiring stuff comes from those with the most limited means of producing it.

The only song that can make me tear up is "You Never Know (Ft. Jean Grae)" by Immortal Technique. It's always at the same part too when they are reading the letter together, just something about the way their voices mix and the content of the letter makes me all teary eyed.

On the exact opposite side, I had a pretty violent reaction to Neutral Milk Hotel a few weeks ago while driving around hungover. I was drinking at a friend's bar til 4 am a few weeks ago and for whatever reason woke up at 9 am. I decided that since I was awake I'd get started on my daily errands, getting breakfast, gas, coffee, etc. So I'm driving up one of the back lanes after getting coffee and "The King of Carrot Flowers Pts 2 & 3" came on and the part where Magnum whines "JEEEESSUUUS CHRIIIIIIIIIIIST IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII LOOOOOOOOOVEEEEE YOUUUUU" nearly caused me to crash.

This fills me with something bubbly all up in the soul area:

I don't think I've ever listened to this song and not at least teared up. Like Jesus Christ.

For me, there's those songs which feel more cathartic and cold, like:



And then those which are a bit more intense, like:



And then those that I can only listen to sparingly, like:



As such, the responses they illicit are in balance with how they feel. The first one provokes a sort of dull sadness that might not be intense, but still feels pretty ****ty. The second one is a step above that, especially considering how I felt when I first discovered the album and what was going on at the time. The last one, well I think it speaks for itself.

Was this Cookie Monster reference intentional?

Certainly not.

wow, that is an amazing song. I have most of their discography downloaded and a blunt prepared and I just want to thank you in advance for what will be a fantastic few hours I hope!!!

More on the subject I get an intensely strong reaction to I Want You, especially the lyrics 'The drunken politician leaps, Upon the street where mothers weep,
And the saviors who are fast asleep, they wait for you And I wait for them to interrupt, Me drinkin’ from my broken cup'

I like to sit back and just sort of ponder where I am in life and I always put this song on and it sends me into a 40 minute reflection on everything. I think there is something in that verse that hints at peoples inability to help themselves through their refusal to look for help. I don't really know but I can really empathise with the point of this thread.

I don't think you should stop listening to certain types of music because of how it makes you feel I tihnk you should explore why it makes you feel how you feel.

It's mainly so that I can sort of start from scratch, and figure out what I enjoy in its basest form. If I stuck to being influenced by genres, I honestly wouldn't know what to do. That wouldn't work too well for me lol.

If I am walking down the local high street with my cans on then I automatically assume a 'cooler than thou' persona when I listen to something upbeat and bass heavy. I sort of exist in a bubble and pity those around me because they can't hear what I am hearing. Of course it is irrational and pathetically self serving but I have never been able to shake off that side of my ego that presumes I am the only person in the world that listens to certain music.

There are certain passages in music that I wish others would 'get' when I listen to them but you have to accept that one man's meat is another's poison and beating yourself up about it is pointless.

Songs that build rhythmically into big crescendo's really do it for me whatever genre. They feel like a catharsis; even a metamorphosis. You reside in one particular emotional state and emerge a different person. Uplifted, hopeful and revitalised.

I guess I (and most others I would imagine) use music as equilibrium by proxy. If someone else feels the way I do in the music they make then perhaps I am not as ****ed up as I think I am.

That also applies to good music. I will think I have discovered my soon to be favorite band (while there good I am really just in the process of getting over that honeymoon phase)

I do that as well, it's like having walking music, there are certain songs that came on that just makes me feel more awesome than the other lonely patrons on the street walking without music.

I actually have had songs that I would pick on as my walking theme music and put it on repeat just for that specific reason.

I find resonance in meloncholia but I really need to moderate my consumption of sad songs to prevent getting lost to a deep funk.

i sometimes gets into a murderous savage mood, which only extreme metal or hardcore punk can ease off

When I was younger music seemed to hit me this way. As got older I understood that music was modifying my moods, I learned that if I was depressed I listened uplifting tunes, if I was high strung I listened to something mellow, and if I was pissed, hell with it. Some good ol thrash metal will do the trick. Anger is the easiest emotion to recover from IMO, it can just lead to other more destructive emotions, if not handled properly.

Yeah I removed the majority of DSBM from my iPhone, because I knew it never did anything good. If I was upset, it just made it worse.

Heh heh...this is exactly what I do. :) I'm a "user" of music. If I'm in a mood where a song makes me cry with sadness, I'll listen to it again and again, even though I realize I'm putting myself through a depressive pity party, as dj says:

I should try listening to more "positive" songs. A problem is that most of the songs I really like are sad ones because those are the songs that hit me the most. Sometimes I can even have my sadness accentuated by happy songs because they remind me of what I feel I don't have at that moment. :/

At other times when I'm feeling less emotional, even the saddest song has little effect on my feelings, and I can listen, unperturbed.

I'll try Cash's Hurt and see what happens.

"Everyone I know goes away in the end." Okay, that made me cry the first time I heard it, but not the second time I listened to the song.

Johnny Cash - "Hurt" (Cover)

Lately I've been listening to screamo on the way home from school. I have these stints for a couple of weeks where I'll sleep more than I usually do and still feel tired, as well as feel run down and all around ****ty. Screamo tends to fit my mood quite well. I usually listen to The Saddest Landscape. They're by far my favorite. The song that usually gets me is The Temptation That is You because of how it progresses and how his voice changes. What a song.



Usually in the day time it's Carissa's Wierd or Empire! Empire!.