What do you think about while listening to music?

[FOSCOR70 56]

ive always wondered what other people think about while listening to music especially when the music is not in their native tongue or the language you dont at all understand.

 

Like for me, Whenever i listen to music i create my own story or scenario or you can say kind of like a music video in my mind. Either this or i imagine myself actually performing the song in front of an audience like a rockstar lol. Fantastical imagination is limitless.

 

One more thing ive noticed is that i only truly enjoy listening to music while standing,without headphones or any earpiece gadget.As i move a lot while listening to music. Every part of my body refuses to be still no matter if im hearing mozart's symphony No. 40 or 'whats up people' by  maximum the hormone. 

 

Spoiler

Example- Lets take this song called Dead tree by dir en grey. I saw its music video long ago that now i only have bits of memory left of it and whenever i listen to this song now i imagine a scenario where a bunch of kids are playing together, all laughing,having fun in old japan and as the tense rhythm starts i imagine a mother hurriedly coming and fetching her child. Locking herself in her house and crying while embracing the child. The child is confused, she pushes herself away from her mother's embrace and peeks from the door's keyhole. she shes something falling from the sky and as soon as it hits the land a storm follows coming closer and closer but she keeps looking and looking until it reaches her and destroys everything. There is more to this story of mine but it might ending up looking like an essay so im stopping here.

 

How is it with you? Im so curious. 

Edited October 6, 2019 by FOSCOR70

[Ultra Silvam 217]

If the song I'm listening to has a music video or a live video then I tend to think about that.  But I'm also one of those people who imagines themselves playing the song lol.  I think that stems from my long desire to be an artist. 

If I correlate the song with a certain point or person in my life, then I I just think of my memories.  I seem to correlate songs to certain feelings of mine, so then I think about all the significant times in my life that I've felt that way.  There's some songs I love that I absolutely can't listen to because of that, but I don't think this is "deep" or something that anyone else doesn't experience.  For example, the song Slow Rain by Umbrella makes me a bit sad and reminds of loneliness, so I think about the times in my adolescence when I was particularly lonely.  On the flip side, Radical Hysteria by Born reminds me of when I was a little punky teenager lol, so I think about those times and laugh.  

I wish I could be the type of person who is able to create scenarios in my mind when I listen to music.  I think I've tried before but I just can't seem to do it. 

[Himeaimichu 1535]

I usually imagine the song being performed or in a music video. When I was younger, I would act out my own music videos while listening to music (and I still do when practicing my vocals)

[colorful人生 2777]

If I'm not actively engaged with a song, picking out individual instruments or listening to lyrics, my mind becomes a visualizer + environment generation combo. I find it extremely hard to focus on detailed tasks with music playing b/c my mind goes wild. I've only had success w/ Deadmau5 7 deadly sins and drone music (even ambient/soundscape stuff throws me off b/c of synths.)

Vice-versa, if I listen to a memorable album in a certain environment, I'll remember that place more vividly.

Edited October 6, 2019 by colorful人生

[Kuro 45]

That changes a lot depending on how close I'm listening and what I'm doing while listening.

I listen to music while doing house chores and I sometimes don't listen very closely especially when there are other thoughts coming to my mind and are more present.

I listen to music while working on novels and stuff and I sometimes don't even recognize what I'm listening to though later some of that music triggers thoughts of what I was working on so there's a connection being created and I sometimes connect certain scenes to certain parts of songs.

I barely watch anything so for bands I love a lot I might watch a PV when it comes out, sometimes I watch it a bit more often but that's rare. Depending on the bands and whether I've seen them live or not there also might be scenes of that on my mind either scenes I've seen or rather thoughts/feelings I've had during/around the time of the lives.

Also depending on what's present in my life while I listen to songs a lot I sometimes start connection songs to these situations. That also happens when I understand (parts of) the lyrics or read translations and connect to them out of my own experience (be it the whole lyrics or - what happens more often - parts of them).

I also sometimes concentrate on music and certain aspects even though I'm not really good at details so I focus more on accentuation in combination with the lyrics (for example Gazette's "Falling" like in the middle of the song where Ruki sings "I'm gonna fall" and with the word "fall" they made the song in an accentuated way, like everything's crashing without stopping afterwards but I recognized that pretty fast because this one is very obvious). I also do this to either find new things even after years of listening to songs or to focus on details I just love like certain guitar melodies or ways of singing or drums parts, bass parts whatever.

[astra☆ 26]

I don't care so much about the language. If the music is truly heartfelt, the feeling will be conveyed regardless.

If a video exists which I've seen, I'll usually default to that. Otherwise, I put images to music in my head, usually of other times and places. Combining visuals and music is something I think is really special and important. It allows the listener to immerse themselves fully. So I like to take the feeling I'm hearing along with the tone of the instrumentation, and create a story or image from that. For example, Malice Mizer's Apres Midi, I imagine Gackt in the park in the middle of Paris during autumn, surrounded by orange trees, sitting on a bench and watching people go by. One of the people is a woman he instantly attaches to, but she doesn't even notice him. All he can do is hold onto the moment as she fades from view. I feel very bonded with the artist when I think of things this way; perhaps this was the intent of many visual bands!

[R/O 36]

I let it paint a picture in my mind—how much I like music tends to be closely associated to how much I like the image and how detailed it is. Videos and lyrics/translations can be a good guideline, but sometimes the image conflicts with them. There’s generally going to be characters, who may or may not resemble the artists (generally the more theatrics in the band, the higher the likelihood they will). I may be “in” the image, or just watch it happen. If a song is supposed to be a memorial of some kind, or even just about a real-life deceased (or otherwise victim of a great tragedy) person, I generally will only listen to it when I can give it full or near-full attention, and keep tissues handy. Same thing goes if it was published posthumously as a homage to the writer. 

[heresytrash 250]

Depends on what I listen to honestly. I think mostly of the furi whenever I listen to GazettE, and try to do them in my head. With BTS and Blackpink I just think of the dances, nothing special.

[psychonnect_rozen 585]

When I listen to Diru, I always either headbang or do the little dances Kyo does in the Osaka Jo show. 

[pluviophile 0]

I give my imagination freedom of choice  My thoughts can vary from being superhero to being sad loser, something like this.

[yurameki24 99]

Pretend handsome