How important is music in your life?

Larry Gude

Strung Out
It is indispensable to mine. In any conversation concerning what sense you'd give up if you HAD to, I never even considering hearing.

I recently read a link that some people perceive and feel music far more deeply than others. It will literally give me goose bumps and overwhelming sense of well being, euphoria, feeling like I can leap tall buildings with a single bound. Seems that is not everyone or even close to it. Even when it's not making me high as a kite, it soothes me, provides an ongoing soundtrack to events throughout my day, is a constant presence. I dream music. It's been this way since I was 8 or so and has only gotten better with age.

So, how important is music to you and why? :popcorn:
 

Merlin99

Visualize whirled peas
PREMO Member
It is indispensable to mine. In any conversation concerning what sense you'd give up if you HAD to, I never even considering hearing.

I recently read a link that some people perceive and feel music far more deeply than others. It will literally give me goose bumps and overwhelming sense of well being, euphoria, feeling like I can leap tall buildings with a single bound. Seems that is not everyone or even close to it. Even when it's not making me high as a kite, it soothes me, provides an ongoing soundtrack to events throughout my day, is a constant presence. I dream music. It's been this way since I was 8 or so and has only gotten better with age.

So, how important is music to you and why? :popcorn:

I can't remember the voices of most of the people I've known that have died, but I remember every one of their favorite songs.
 

Clem72

Well-Known Member
It will literally give me goose bumps and overwhelming sense of well being, euphoria, feeling like I can leap tall buildings with a single bound.

I have a more take it or leave it approach. Definitely not what you experience, but maybe you are just having mini-flashbacks due to snorting too many marijuanas when you were a youngin.
 

luvmygdaughters

Well-Known Member
It depends on what I'm doing. Nothing like a Saturday morning, cranking up the 60's and 70's music station on Direct TV and cleaning the house. Sitting outside on a sunny Sunday afternoon, we like the old country stuff. Sitting in front of the fireplace on a chilly fall day/evening...gotta be the Rat Pack.
 
I think you are looking for a deep answer so I will go deep. I would rather lose my hearing before losing my sight.
 

BadGirl

I am so very blessed
I used to love music.....listening to music, going to concerts, hanging with my musical friends as they played..... I mean, I LOVED music.

But now, not so much. I still listen to XM on my short commute in to work, but I rarely really *listen* to music any more. Oddly, I don't really miss it very much. Oh, I can listen to a great song and think "Man, I REALLY like that song, I should listen to this more often", and then I don't.

What I really, really, really like most often now is silence. I crave quiet.
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
I have a more take it or leave it approach. Definitely not what you experience, but maybe you are just having mini-flashbacks due to snorting too many marijuanas when you were a youngin.

Nope. Music, I think, is part of why drugs and alcohol have never derailed me: the high I get from music is far far superior and the feeling it gives was well before and refers or beer.
 

Christy

b*tch rocket
I used to love music.....listening to music, going to concerts, hanging with my musical friends as they played..... I mean, I LOVED music.

But now, not so much. I still listen to XM on my short commute in to work, but I rarely really *listen* to music any more. Oddly, I don't really miss it very much. Oh, I can listen to a great song and think "Man, I REALLY like that song, I should listen to this more often", and then I don't.

What I really, really, really like most often now is silence. I crave quiet.

:yeahthat: Soul Sisters! :huggy:!

Don't get me wrong, I like a good song and I like listening to music, however, I often prefer listening to the sound of nature when I'm outside, or silence. There aren't many songs that move me anymore. Even songs that used to, I'm like "meh".
 

wharf rat

Smilin on a cloudy day
I'd say it's one of the most important aspects of my well being.
Though, been playing more than listening the past few years.
 

This_person

Well-Known Member
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Very little has the same impact on me - positive and negative - as music.
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Nope. Music, I think, is part of why drugs and alcohol have never derailed me: the high I get from music is far far superior and the feeling it gives was well before and refers or beer.

I suppose I ought to envy you, but I guess I don't. I feel none of that. I know people who feel similarly about dancing - I tell them it is like doing calisthenics. There's no feeling whatsoever. If I am in the car I will listen to news or the weather or talk radio but usually I will have nothing on. With rare exception I haven't bought music of any kind in 20, 30 years.

The kids and my wife will want to listen to something in the car, and the kids will turn on music channels at home. If not for them, I wouldn't know any modern music at all.
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
I suppose I ought to envy you, but I guess I don't. I feel none of that. I know people who feel similarly about dancing - I tell them it is like doing calisthenics. There's no feeling whatsoever. If I am in the car I will listen to news or the weather or talk radio but usually I will have nothing on. With rare exception I haven't bought music of any kind in 20, 30 years.

The kids and my wife will want to listen to something in the car, and the kids will turn on music channels at home. If not for them, I wouldn't know any modern music at all.

Nothing to envy, Sam. My intent isn't to flaunt it or to disparage anyone who doesn't 'feel' it. Just a conversation starter to see how others perceive music based on my interest in how central it is to my life. I presume there are other things in your life that give you that sort of feeling but I'll ask rather than presume. Are there?

We're all different. My dad spent the winter in Florida and his idea of a good time is going to dinner and reading books for 4 months. :lol: He has never exhibited the least bit of interest in music other than a few albums he bought when I was a kid. My mom has always shown more interest but I've never seen her experience or express the level of euphoria it gives me. I recently found out that a bunch of my old pals whom we all shared an interest in the same band way back in the day, I assumed everyone liked them as I did; the music was extraordinary. Many of them, it turns out, were there for varied reasons. Some because of girls, some to get high and drink, some because of certain aspects of their music, others say it was flat out to piss their parents off. That was a learning moment for me.

I'll have to see if I can find the article. It also discussed how some people more readily feel this way over symbols as well, like our flag, or an awe inspiring vista. Hitchens calls it the 'luminescent' and 'transcendent'. Others call it spiritual moments.
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
I'd say it's one of the most important aspects of my well being.
Though, been playing more than listening the past few years.

Interesting you say that. My own music has really been doing it this last 3 years or so and it's become very broadly based from the hard rock band I was in, all originals, no vox, to what I'm doing now that is a good bit mellower that is very lyrically centered. Heck, I'm even learning to sing and THAT gets me off. Writing is part of my consciousness now, all the time. And it's also opened up my ears to other bands and styles as well as a bit of a rebirth of my taste for metal. I've become more a MUSIC fan and less a specific genres or bands fan.
Singing is humbling as all get out and has really lead me to appreciate a lot more over all song structure regardless of genre.

:buddies:
 

SamSpade

Well-Known Member
Nothing to envy, Sam. My intent isn't to flaunt it or to disparage anyone who doesn't 'feel' it. Just a conversation starter to see how others perceive music based on my interest in how central it is to my life. I presume there are other things in your life that give you that sort of feeling but I'll ask rather than presume. Are there?

(shrug) I suppose. The thing is - it DID once, but pretty much not since I was a teenager. I can remember getting worked up by the classic rock bands of the time. But I also felt that way about Dvorak and Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. I would actually buy albums to listen to them from one end to the other the same way someone might read a book or watch a movie. I don't think I've done that since the early 80's.

Music CAN move me now but for a different reason. Some songs remind me of a person or a time in my life. "Time in a Bottle" is my parent's song, and it has a different effect on me now that my father has passed. Ditto all the Navy songs and patriotic songs he loved. Each of my children has a song I sang to them when we first met. I get choked up when I sing one to them now - but not because of the song itself.

I guess right now, the thing that moves me the most is my family. This past weekend my kids went to a skate party, and my oldest, who has learning disabilities was having great difficulty skating and after me carrying him around (he's 12 and getting heavy) the rink - he gave up. But after a while he came back and said "Dad I want to try it again". Made me proud - no one asked him. When he got in the rink, his two sisters got on either side of him and helped him - no coaching. THAT gets me. I struggled not to get misty, but it filled me with pride. When some parents brush off their kids to do their thing - to me, my kids ARE my thing.

Dancing however gives some people a high which has ALWAYS eluded me. I've dated women for whom dancing is almost as euphoric as sex. To me, it's like doing jumping jacks - it's needless motion and it doesn't do anything for me. I've danced with my wife because SHE likes it, but frankly I can't wait till it's over.
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
(shrug) I suppose. The thing is - it DID once, but pretty much not since I was a teenager. I can remember getting worked up by the classic rock bands of the time. But I also felt that way about Dvorak and Beethoven and Tchaikovsky. I would actually buy albums to listen to them from one end to the other the same way someone might read a book or watch a movie. I don't think I've done that since the early 80's. .

Absolutely! I LOVE some classical and always have. Just ENORMOUS! Heck, I sat through a mass at St. Patrick's in Manhattan and had goose bumps nearly the whole time.
 

Larry Gude

Strung Out
I guess right now, the thing that moves me the most is my family. This past weekend my kids went to a skate party, and my oldest, who has learning disabilities was having great difficulty skating and after me carrying him around (he's 12 and getting heavy) the rink - he gave up. But after a while he came back and said "Dad I want to try it again". Made me proud - no one asked him. .

Awesome! Reading that gives me that feeling!!! :clap:
 
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