Music and its effect on me (and probably you too)

I've always been a huge fan of music, especially in my high school years onward. I always found music to be an escape from what's going on around me, or at times a way to help cope with what I'm going through. What I didn't realize until much later in life however is that the music I was listening to may have actually been affecting how I was dealing with situations around me.

Back when I was a wee rebellious lad (we're talking early 2000s here), I was listening to everything from Pink Floyd to Disturbed, and I was leaning more towards the heavier, angrier music. By the end of my high school years, I was listening to a lot of Lamb of God, Disturbed, Godsmack, and similar bands. Take this song for example, how does it make you feel?

I'll tell you how this makes me feel - it makes me feel like I want to punch someone in the face, throw things around my room, BREAK things. It's a very clear cut example of what a song could be portraying, but as a kid I'm listening to the music because I feel that I can relate to it, or that I just like the music. I'm not thinking about what music does to my emotions.

Nowadays I may listen to a track like this if I need something to get my blood pumping, to wake me up, or to just get be exciting about doing something like hanging out with friends.

Let's check out some potentially less obvious examples from my life and see if you can relate. Here's another song, how does this make you feel?

 

 

For me, while I actually do really love the musicality of the song, this song brings me down hard. I would listen to this kind of stuff a lot over the last several years, and it took me a while to realize that it was actually pushing me into a more depressed state. Therefore, I've kind of had to remove the band from my normal listening because I know it has a negative effect on my mood.

Alright maybe that one was too obvious too. Let's try another - how does this make you feel?

Honestly, it's kind of a goofy song, but it's heavy and energetic. This makes me feel happy, especially since I enjoy singing along with it. It does have some somber parts, but for me the chorus and verses lift me up more than they bring me down.

Let's head in the other direction now. One more time, how does this make you feel?

This song makes me feel warm and calm. This band actually more in circulation in the recent years than any other when it comes to my streamed music. They have an abundance of songs that are what I consider larger-than-life feeling, like the feeling you get standing on a cliff and looking out over a vast wilderness, or sitting on a boat in the middle of a lake. It's just like "you know what? who cares. I'm gonna do me." And this is the vibe I'm going for in my life, so naturally I gravitate towards this style of music.

In conclusion, love the music you love, but don't be ignorant to the fact that the music you love may be making you feel a certain way. Maybe you want to feel sad, and you want music to help you break loose and mourn in a way that you just aren't able to on your own. Maybe you are feeling angry with your significant other, but you need to step away and clear your head to remember why you love them so much., so you throw on something that gives you the warm fuzzies to bring those good feelings all back.

Whatever you do, keep doing you.