I'm in the business of misery
Today has been a bit of an odd day. It's a lazy Sunday, but also dark and drizzly which, combined with the fact that I've been reading for most of the day, creates a sort of timelessness. It's nice, but definitely a bit strange, I feel like nothing has really happened at all.
Anyway, today I think I shall talk about music. Music can affect my mood quite a bit depending on the tone of the song, and it also can make me very nostalgic and put me in a completely different mind frame where I am remembering a certain time in my life.
This has a lot to do with a tendency I have to listen to a particular band or album over and over, sometimes for weeks at a time, before discovering something new and not really listening to the older thing again for a long time. So when I go back and listen to something I haven't listened to for a while I find myself remembering what I was doing when I last listened to it; the emotions I felt, the places I went and, most of all, the books I read.
For me, books and music are intimately entwined. I always seem to associate a book with the music I'm listening to while reading it, and vice versa. Sometimes I will associate a song or band with a particular book because of the tone and content of the music and it's lyrics, for example, I will always associate Fiona Apple with New Moon, particularly Sullen Girl and Shadowboxer, and with one chapter in particular. In this instance the music reflects the tone of the story, but part of it is also that I listened to a compilation with Sullen Girl and Shadowboxer over and over and over while reading the Twilight saga for the first time.
Sometimes I'll come to associate an artist with a book even though their music in no way reflects the story, simply because I was listening to their music while reading it. Most recently I associate Natasha Bedingfield with City of Glass by Cassandra Clare, the last in the Mortal Instruments trilogy. The music really reflects very little of the conflict that rages throughout the plot of the newest addition to my favorite books list, but I absorbed the music at the same time as I was discovering and absorbing the story and so they will forever remain together in my memory and emotional responses.
Music affects me in many ways; drenching up old emotions and stories, making me happy or sad, making me want to dance around like an idiot (an urge I often give in to when I'm at home alone). There is something about a combination of notes, words and sounds that can create emotion out of nothing within the human psyche, much like art, something which can affect me in similar ways, though not with the same emotional and memory based way as music can.
I find it interesting that art was once viewed with suspicion for this very reason. That it creates emotion out of nothing and can affect people profoundly was scary, and, although it is not the focus of the class in which I am learning about this, I am sure music was once viewed in a similar way, because, for me, it has a very similar, but in some ways stronger effect.
So, in what, emotional and memory based ways, does music affect you? How do you associate music with different situations, stories and emotions?
Is it just me who has these silly experiences? xD
<3 Lucinda
Anyway, today I think I shall talk about music. Music can affect my mood quite a bit depending on the tone of the song, and it also can make me very nostalgic and put me in a completely different mind frame where I am remembering a certain time in my life.
This has a lot to do with a tendency I have to listen to a particular band or album over and over, sometimes for weeks at a time, before discovering something new and not really listening to the older thing again for a long time. So when I go back and listen to something I haven't listened to for a while I find myself remembering what I was doing when I last listened to it; the emotions I felt, the places I went and, most of all, the books I read.
For me, books and music are intimately entwined. I always seem to associate a book with the music I'm listening to while reading it, and vice versa. Sometimes I will associate a song or band with a particular book because of the tone and content of the music and it's lyrics, for example, I will always associate Fiona Apple with New Moon, particularly Sullen Girl and Shadowboxer, and with one chapter in particular. In this instance the music reflects the tone of the story, but part of it is also that I listened to a compilation with Sullen Girl and Shadowboxer over and over and over while reading the Twilight saga for the first time.
Sometimes I'll come to associate an artist with a book even though their music in no way reflects the story, simply because I was listening to their music while reading it. Most recently I associate Natasha Bedingfield with City of Glass by Cassandra Clare, the last in the Mortal Instruments trilogy. The music really reflects very little of the conflict that rages throughout the plot of the newest addition to my favorite books list, but I absorbed the music at the same time as I was discovering and absorbing the story and so they will forever remain together in my memory and emotional responses.
Music affects me in many ways; drenching up old emotions and stories, making me happy or sad, making me want to dance around like an idiot (an urge I often give in to when I'm at home alone). There is something about a combination of notes, words and sounds that can create emotion out of nothing within the human psyche, much like art, something which can affect me in similar ways, though not with the same emotional and memory based way as music can.
I find it interesting that art was once viewed with suspicion for this very reason. That it creates emotion out of nothing and can affect people profoundly was scary, and, although it is not the focus of the class in which I am learning about this, I am sure music was once viewed in a similar way, because, for me, it has a very similar, but in some ways stronger effect.
So, in what, emotional and memory based ways, does music affect you? How do you associate music with different situations, stories and emotions?
Is it just me who has these silly experiences? xD
<3 Lucinda