Music and the Moods it creates.

Have you ever noticed that music, aside from being pleasant to listen to, can also create a variety of moods and mental states?

I am not just talking about things like romantic music making you FEEL in the mood, when you and your loved one are together. I am talking more about the other affects that music can create. Let me provide you with some of my own personal examples.

Pink Floyd - No music inspires me or causes my creative streak to bloom more that Pink Floyd. I write stories, and find that I can hammer out two or three times the workload if I am listening to The Wall or Dark Side of the Moon. There is something in that music that trigger a response, and that response causes me to be creative. All Pink Floyd music has this affect on me, but mostly those two albums.

Ray Lynch - This music can do two things... If I am in a sad mood, it can depress me even more, but more often, when I am happy, his music has the ability to uplift me and make me see hope where I did not see it before. I listen to it, it is all acoustic, no words, yet I hear what he is trying to say to the listener. It is almost as if there is a story there, and if you listen to the chords and the notes, they will make the words. You have to really listen, though.

Moby - As odd as it may seem, Moby makes me work aggressively. I usually play his CDs while working in the back yard, or in the garden, but mostly while doing things that require real physical labor. There is something in the music that is almost like a form of potential energy that, through listening to it, becomes kinetic. Listen to We are all made of Stars or Porcelain, and you will hear what I mean... The same is true for most of the album '18'. I may not like his politics, but I ignore that in most performers.

All Classical - This is my driving music. I tend to be an aggressive driver, this is not to say I am dangerous, but when I drive, I take it very seriously and watch everything. Classical music seems to increase my focus. There is something in it that makes me acutely aware of everything that is going on around me... I drive like I play chess, looking several moves ahead of the present, thinking about where a car is going to be, what options they have and what responses I have to counter that. Classical music just seems to augment that perception.
Those are my examples, and I feel they are pretty good ones. I know that what I have described is more psychosystematic than anything else, and that if we over-analyze it, it might have less meaning, but it is interesting none the less.

It is almost as if, in my case, my mind needs a soundtrack.