Mood music
by dixie
What came first, the music or the misery? People worry about kids playing with guns, or watching violent videos, that some sort of culture of violence will take them over. Nobody worries about kids listening to thousands, literally thousands of songs about heartbreak, rejection, pain, misery and loss. Did I listen to pop music because I was miserable? Or was I miserable because I listened to pop music?
– Rob Gordon, “High Fidelity”
I sometimes wonder if I’ve managed to remain a drug virgin (perhaps the only one of my generation) simply because I find music as powerful a mood-altering force as I’ve ever needed. I listen to specific artists or songs primarily based on mood, and what I’d like to get out of the music.
If I’m in a good mood, I can listen to stuff I’m less familiar with. I can evaluate it based on its musical and lyrical qualities rather than on my emotional reaction to it. I won’t listen to music I know is of questionable musical quality because…well…what would be the point?
If I’m nostalgic, I’ll listen to music associated with whatever I’m being nostalgic about. For example, the JCQ game is rather unfortunately tied to a particular Breaking Benjamin album and a series of Tool mp3s. As Tool has intrinsic merit, I’ve managed to break that particular association. As Breaking Benjamin is rather average, any time I hear anything from that album I immediately imagine the three PCs blinking into Sigil brandishing a set of borrowed knucklebones.
If I’m really mad, I won’t listen to anything. Oddly enough.
Similarly, if I’m extremely focused (a state of which being really mad is actually a subset), I won’t listen to any music at all. I still don’t listen to music when I’m coding.
If I’m merely in a bad mood, the music of questionable artistic merit comes out. There’s something oddly comforting about loud guitars, broad chords, and a lead singer demonstrating his anger management strategies that just does it for me. Perhaps I’m vicariously venting. I’d like to believe that rather than inspiring youngsters to engage in the antisocial activities described in some of the more obnoxious music out there, it instead acts as a mental safety valve. Otherwise…well…we’d have a lot more dead kids than we do.
I will listen to trad in nearly any mood.
When things are going well in work, I’ll dust off something Baroque or Renaissance in nature.
So I think, for me, the answer Rob’s musical question tends towards the former — my mood influences the music choice, and the choice tends to influence my mood towards the lighter. Even if it’s not really light music. What about y’all?
Though I suspect if I started actually listening to pop music, I would be miserable. That shit is bananas. B-A-N-A-N-A-S.
Comments
I concur. My mood affects my music more than the other way around. In fact, if I somehow end up listening to music that doesn’t fit my mood, I find myself actively annoyed with it, and I change it to the appropriate genre.
I also agree with your assessment of pop music and have this to add (with a nod to my man Frank Herbert):
I must not listen to pop music.
Pop music is the mind-killer.
Pop music is the little death that brings total obliteration.
PS. You’re not the only one of your generation to be a drug virgin. I wasn’t cool enough to be offered drugs in high school anyway, and in college I knew that I was going to have to go through a security check eventually. So, you’re not alone.
a security check?
Are you on an athletic team?
She lives in DC, is doing a Masters in linguistics, and speaks several languages including Arabic and (maybe) Chinese. Signs point to “government job.”
With Bob running around doing profiles of all of us, I’m surprised my sisters’ lives aren’t public knowledge by now. ;]