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Original poster

Do you find music so very emotionally powerful?

57 replies

Handcreamqueen · 09/10/2023 09:51

I love music, adore most genres of music.

My mum always had the radio playing as I was growing up and I always have the radio playing in the background wherever I am.
I flick between various stations and in particular stations playing music from my younger years (70’s and 80’s). I also adore Jazz, Classical and Country.

I’ll admit to being an emotional/sensitive person but music really does something to me.

It can drive me insane and make me angry (especially heavy metal which is not my thing), totally relax me (I listen to relaxing Jazz or Country at night) but can also have me is tears, uncontrollable tears.

I am currently listening to Classic FM and they’ve played a John Barry piece (as they often do), I have no idea why his music affects me so much but I literally have tears rolling down my face every time I listen to his music. No idea why that is, but it truly sets something off in me and it’s not because they make me depressed but it triggers off something within me.

Does anyone else adore music and is emotionally charged by certain songs or pieces of music?

OP posts:
SnowflakeCity · 09/10/2023 09:57

No and as a quite controlled person that sounds awful - being some kind of puppet to music. Of course if I am feeling some kind of way already music can tap into that but I would find it pretty shit if everytime my husband put some heavy metal on i got angry etc.

PipersDream · 09/10/2023 10:03

Ummm, no. That sounds weird! Do you just randomly burst into tears when staring at the Sistine Chapel socks in the supermarket and they play the wrong song over the sound system?

newnamethanks · 09/10/2023 10:06

Yes, most people respond in a similar way, if not so intensely. Military music is a thing in itself and not without purpose. Last Night of the Proms will bring a patriotic tear to many a revolutionary eye. Music is a global money maker because it stirs emotion.

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Music
User0000009 · 09/10/2023 10:07

Yes. I get you. I love all of the arts but especially music. Transports me to different times in my life good and bad. Most beautiful piece: Mozart’s Lacrimosa. Give it a listen. I love it but my favourite is dance/Ibiza music so I like a broad range. Touches the soul x

DonnaGiovanna · 09/10/2023 10:15

Yes, very much so, and I'm a person who finds it hard to express emotions naturally so it's become a kind of proxy over the years. For example when my mum died I couldn't shed a tear until they played The Lark Ascending at her funeral.

At the moment I'm dreadfully missing dd2, who has gone to university, and while you would see no trace of it day to day, certain songs that she used to sing get me right in the feelings - some Kate Bush numbers in particular and this morning I heard the Britten arrangement of Waly Waly and I still feel fragile from it. Luckily nobody else was in the room.

There are loads of pieces that make me cry. George Butterworth's Banks of Green Willow makes me sob over young men who never returned from WW1 much more than any writing or drama could.

DonnaGiovanna · 09/10/2023 10:17

And @user900000, Mozart is one composer who can make me cry from the sheer heavenly beauty of the music.

Madrescuechicken · 09/10/2023 10:18

Absolutely- nothing moves me more than music, and I say that as a usually very self controlled person. I think if music doesn't affect you in anyway then you are already dead.

DonnaGiovanna · 09/10/2023 10:18

Oops, got the 9s and 0s mixed up...

seulement · 09/10/2023 10:19

Same here @Handcreamqueen - I thought it was just me until I read a piece by Gordon Brown saying he had been unable to listen to music for a long while after he and his wife lost their daughter Jennifer.

Music reaches something emotional in many people I think, I get very stirred up when I hear a brass band for some reason (which is fairly frequently where we live), some techno/gaming music makes me irritated to the point where I have to ask the DC to turn it off, and then there is happy stuff to sing along to, sometimes very loudly, and on repeat, when I'm feeling good.

JamSandle · 09/10/2023 10:25

Yes. Music rouses deep emotions and memories for me.

LubaLuca · 09/10/2023 10:25

Yes, I cry easily when listening to music.

I love singing too, I sing in a choir, and I often struggle to get all the way through lots of songs without getting choked and having to mime for a bit. It's not the words, this can happen when I'm singing in languages I don't understand, it's an emotional response to the music.

Mum2aTeen · 09/10/2023 10:27

There's only one song that gets me going as in sad/tears, and that is Hallelujah by Leonard Cohan/Jeff Buckley as it was played at my grandparents' funerals
I find heavy metal energising, or if I'm in a mood, I feel it helps me get out of that mood (though I am a fan of heavy/nu metal bands).
When I am happy/good moods or have lots of energy or need to clean the house, I love dance/punk to get me motivated.

GoddamReylos · 09/10/2023 10:42

I get very emotional when it’s live music. Opera or orchestral music really gets me. I love heavy metal but dance music gives me the rage!

Original poster
Handcreamqueen · 09/10/2023 10:46

I do think it’s either something that touches something in you or not.

SnowflakeCity PipersDream lol, no I’m not someone who falls to pieces at the drop of a hat, I am quite composed 99% of the time but yes, I am a highly sensitive person and music (and most of the arts as User0000009 has mentioned) does touch my soul. We are all different.

OP posts:
Jackienory · 09/10/2023 11:03

Personally, no, and never have.

If I do have the radio on it's tuned into the News and current affairs stuff altho I do miss Steve Allen on my way to work in the morning. He made me smile and set me up for what I knew was going to be a tough 12-hour shift. Hope he's OK.

But as for music, whatever.

HereComesColinFrissel · 09/10/2023 11:12

Absolutely yes, I've just listened to James Blunt The Girl Who Never Was, after someone posted about it on here and in floods of tears! (It's a song about miscarriage)

Lots of others get me too, The John Dunbar Theme - just because it's so beautiful. My Dad brought me up to appreciate all different music and he is also moved by certain pieces

I think some people get it and some people don't, but for me it definitely evokes strong emotions

Goodmirror · 09/10/2023 11:18

Totally with you, music will completely affect my mood. I can't stand listening to 'sad' music though would never ever choose to unless in a film and part of the story.

I love dance/rave, could lose myself in trance utterly.

RaspberryCloud · 09/10/2023 11:23

Goodmirror · 09/10/2023 11:18

Totally with you, music will completely affect my mood. I can't stand listening to 'sad' music though would never ever choose to unless in a film and part of the story.

I love dance/rave, could lose myself in trance utterly.

Me too - dance music makes me come alive and just fills me with so much energy & joy - nothing gets me moving like it!

I'm with you OP - the right music has a physical effect on me - goosebumps, hair standing on end, shivers - distractingly so at times! I struggle with 'back ground' music as I get too tuned in Grin

IHeartGeneHunt · 09/10/2023 11:25

Yes, especially dance/trance, and there are some songs that just make my brain feel smooth and peaceful. Not necessarily peaceful songs though!

BlueKaftan · 09/10/2023 11:28

I get what you’re saying but last year I was driving with my SIL and she put a song on and said that I absolutely have to listen to this because it’s so sad and will make me cry. Which of course it didn’t. But she wallowed in it for the whole 3 minutes.

Dragonsandcats · 09/10/2023 11:29

PipersDream · 09/10/2023 10:03

Ummm, no. That sounds weird! Do you just randomly burst into tears when staring at the Sistine Chapel socks in the supermarket and they play the wrong song over the sound system?

I was thinking of the Sistine chapel too!

User0000009 · 09/10/2023 11:31

DonnaGiovanna · 09/10/2023 10:17

And @user900000, Mozart is one composer who can make me cry from the sheer heavenly beauty of the music.

Yes it’s incredible and I’m an ex party girl! Love all music. Club music fills me with utter joy.

Original poster
Handcreamqueen · 09/10/2023 11:31

For me, it’s also something which has become a more emotive thing as I’ve aged.

My mum used to (and still does) cry at certain hymns and would get very teary at The Last Night of The Proms. I never understood that when I was younger but since hitting menopausal age it has really hit me harder than ever before.

OP posts:
BalletBob · 09/10/2023 11:41

Music is an enormous part of my life. It helps me to process emotions about some big things. It's therapy for me. I genuinely believe I would be a shell of myself if I hadn't had music to help me process and express my grief at certain times.

And in happier times it brings me alive and is intertwined with all my most cherished memories. When I think about any big event in my life, there's a song or piece that instantly comes to mind. It can influence my mood and make me more productive, help me to relax, help me to focus.

Honestly music is everything to me.

MIL is totally different. She famously has a compilation of chart hits from 2012 or something that she plays every now and then but that's literally it. She doesn't care for music at all. I just can't comprehend that at all. Funny how different we can all be!

RaspberryCloud · 09/10/2023 11:51

BalletBob · 09/10/2023 11:41

Music is an enormous part of my life. It helps me to process emotions about some big things. It's therapy for me. I genuinely believe I would be a shell of myself if I hadn't had music to help me process and express my grief at certain times.

And in happier times it brings me alive and is intertwined with all my most cherished memories. When I think about any big event in my life, there's a song or piece that instantly comes to mind. It can influence my mood and make me more productive, help me to relax, help me to focus.

Honestly music is everything to me.

MIL is totally different. She famously has a compilation of chart hits from 2012 or something that she plays every now and then but that's literally it. She doesn't care for music at all. I just can't comprehend that at all. Funny how different we can all be!

Would agree with a lot of this, especially the link of certain tracks to times in life / experiences - some are so emotive that I have to change the track if they come on at the wrong time!

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