Do you use imagination or feelings in listening to a song?

There are basically two ways you can interpret a song. One way is to use your personal feelings and assign meaning and value to the song by its perceived message. Another way is to close your eyes and think what the song can symbolize and assign value that way.

Do you use one method or the other exclusively, or do you use them both depending on the song? Or do you use another way that I didn't think of? Myself, I tend to just close my eyes and see what iamges I can think up for the song. Trance and Metal are particularly good to do this with, but I can also do it with classical and VGM (obviously).

What do y'all do?

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Imagination. Whenever the song plays, I get stuck in this sort of lost stage where I just daydream, and it mainly involves whatever I think about at the time, let it be my gf, school, family, stuff like that.


I listen to alot of movie soundtracks, so when I went up listening to say.... Mona Lisa - The Matrix Reloaded, I think of myself beating the crap out of a whole bunch of people or just getting stuck in a high-speed chase on the freeway.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

Originally Posted by Spyer

Imagination. Whenever the song plays, I get stuck in this sort of lost stage where I just daydream, and it mainly involves whatever I think about at the time, let it be my gf, school, family, stuff like that.


I listen to alot of movie soundtracks, so when I went up listening to say.... Mona Lisa - The Matrix Reloaded, I think of myself beating the crap out of a whole bunch of people or just getting stuck in a high-speed chase on the freeway.

I have a similar when I listen to songs, too. I get caught into the emotion of the song, and I'll start thinking of things currently going on in my life (or in the future) that correspond to those feelings. Sometimes I won't have specific feelings about things, I'll have more general feelings, like calmness or anger.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I suppose it's a mix of both. I only associate feelings with songs if I've been listening to them for a long time. I find that if I listen to a song again after not hearing it for years, I tend to remember events or people that I had associated the song with.

Also moving to the Quiet Place.

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Both. I use imagination and the emotion a song gives me. In fact, when I first hear a song i get into the music and beat so much that I don't even really hear the lyrics. I just go with the "feel" of it.

I create alot of daydreams or stories based off of certain songs. Most times I get the idea from the song i'm listening to if that song invokes strong feelings and images in my mind. Other times I fit a song in with what I already have imagined. Because of this I have multiple songs that fit in with my daydreams sequences. Its like creating a mini movie with music in my head. Like if there is an action sequence in my mind I'll listen to a fastpaced dramatic tune, and then maybe for the next scene I'll listen to a slower melodic song for a cool down.

My mind is very odd.

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There are a few songs that hold personal meaning for me or remind me of someone, but I don't get that connection very often. Usually the biggest thing that sticks out in a song for me is the melody line and chords, and how they fit into a groove. Lyrics aren't so important most times, and I usually try to memorize them up only after the song has left a good impression on me.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Everytime I listen to a song or a piece of music, I daydream. I daydream alot about the scenes from my books, and how the music or song fits it.

FELIPE NO

For me, music is all about the emotion that it makes me feel. It doesn't have to be the words that make me feel a certain way, though. The changing shape of the music can do that to me just as well. I like metal, punk, emo and other such genres for the lyrical content. J-pop, soundtracks, classical, etc is more for the musical content. House and trance music doesn't seem to me to have much of an emotional content, but it can still sometime work for me.

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Like almost everyone here, I tend to daydream when I listen to a song so I guess I use my imagination. After it's been repeated over and over again, I try to think what the song is suppose to symbolize but it's not like there's a right or wrong answer.

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Moon: 1st option

There's nowhere I can't reach.

I actually use both, but the second method is more of my style (minus the eyes closed part). I've had people ask me what certain songs mean or what I think of when I hear them. Apparently I must be doing something right because my responses seem to fascinate them. *shrugs* It depends on how I'm feeling if I want to use the first method.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

It really depends upon the song. When I listen to most things, I tend to use my imagination. I try to apply some kind of visual to what I'm listening to.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

I typically use music for amplifiying my emotions even further than they would typically be. When I'm depressed, I have a select playlist set up on my computers that just play certain songs that I feel represent my emotions at the time... and when I'm bouncing all over the place I tend to stick with music that is just as hyper.
I don't see myself as using it as a means to delve into my imagination though.

I was speaking idiomatically.

It depends on the artist, really, and even then it depends on the song. Some songs tell a story, so if that's the case it's 100% imagination. Other than that, if the songs are trying to just convey a meaning in their lyrics, like poetry might, I find emotion to be a much more enjoyable interpretation. Instrumental tracks, classical and the like, are 100% emotion. It's almost sort of a spectrum, really.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

I usually find myself assigning the song to a particular story/novel that I'm familiar with, or (rarely) one created by me. Sometimes I think of particular characters that a song seems to fit, but usually that's with songs that are more 'pop' rather than classical. It's only rarely that I assign something personal to the song itself, as in identifying my own emotions in the music.

The thing I do most often is imagine a scenario/picture within the music, whether it's actually part of the piece (such as a specific title or occasion the piece was written for) or not.

FELIPE NO

Most of the time I use my imagination. If I'm listening to something while I'm trying to go to sleep I get pretty into all the stuff I come up with.

If I do assign personal feelings to a song, it's usually if I'm playing it on the piano.

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I guess a little of both. But they say using imagination during music will help you understand the flow better. I usually instantly come up with stories in my head as i listen to a song.

Jam it back in, in the dark.

Usually with songs without lyrics or really powerful songs, I feel an emotion. Songs with lyrics I understand, I tend to develop a scenario or story of what is going on literally, a good example, Keane - On a day like today. I always seem to imagine a scenario as you, the singer, looking at a back of a girl who is staring at the sky. Something like that.

There's nowhere I can't reach.

imagination and feeling. both is involved.

to me, if the song has previously been linked to an event or whatsover, both awakens automaticly.

This thing is sticky, and I don't like it. I don't appreciate it.

I generally use my own emotions. Usually the music I'm listening to corresponds with a certain emotion I'm feeling. I guess that's perhaps why my taste in music has expanded over the years. The more I expand emotionally, the more complex I become, the more music I find myself to like.

Certainly I could use my imagination, but the effect would not be the same because I can't actually relate to the music; I can merely comprehend it.

I am a dolphin, do you want me on your body?

Generally when I listen to song, I imagine a color. usually this color associated by the dominant color of the CD case. Psychology names it sinesthasia or something like that...

Usually my favorite musics (the one I never get bored even played thousand times) are the gold-colored music. so far I only found three music associated with gold in my mind: Corelli's Sonata Chieasa in F, III. Allegro from Brandenburg concerto no.3, and Solid gold from Tokyo Babylon image CD. Really weird, since I actually download all of them in internet. What makes them appear gold in my mind anyway?

Maybe some of you experience the same?

I was speaking idiomatically.

Feeling.

Trance/dance/electronica makes me all typer and giddy as does a lot of punk rock - its happy, stupid and innocent.
Whereas bands like Three Days Grace bitch about life non stop and makes me a little sad about the state of our society.

What kind of toxic man-thing is happening now?

Imagination. I listen to alot of slower songs so if I were to use my feelings when listening to these songs, it'd become pretty depressing,eh. Most of the time, though, my imagination is just imagining the person (or persons) performing the song or pretend it's like the soundtrack of my life.

FELIPE NO

Most of the time when I listen to music, I try to associate songs with memories and things I have been through in my life. I can listen to a song and just think of "that" moment.

That is a good thing I would think. Sometimes, when I buy a new cd or whatnot, and we are on a roadtrip, traveling back listening to that cd, I will always remember the trip with that certain trip, whenever I were to listen to that certain cd.

What, you don't want my bikini-clad body?

I use my speakers.

Jam it back in, in the dark.