Imagining to music.

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Anyone else do this? Have imagery running in their heads along to the music?
I always have a mental music video of my own creation playing while listening to music. It's a big part of my own inner world.

That's par for the course for me.

Conversely, I listen to instrumental music if I don't want the imagery. I probably create best when I'm writing or drawing with nonverbal music floating in the background.

Music provides a wonderful and stimulating background for the imagination.

Always. For me, sound frequencies are like stones tossed into a still lake. They ripple and resonate in my visual and emotional centers and can create intense, enveloping mental experiences. Sound is highly synaesthetic to me.

absolutely. i rarely hear the words of what's being sung (if it's a song) as i'm using the tune to go elsewhere.

Usually what I imagine has absolutely nothing to do with the actual lyrics. But every song I listen to always creates a setting, from place to time of day.

I did my master thesis on this very thing---creativity from music. I wrote about how synthesized music (electronic music) was able to promote creativity in students during creative writing exercises. I am a firm believer in this. Most music I listen to creates images in my mind.

Depends on my mood.

Sometimes music doesn't reach me ("I feel so suicidal, even hate my rock and roll" - John Lennon) Not that I get suicidal, but I can be very moody.

Mostly though, yes I get images from music. I played some 78 rpm records and the crackle and distortion seemed to rise slowly up to the ceiling, leaving the music on the ground in what seemed to be glorious hi-fi. I often picture the instruments or the singers, or the theatre, or landscapes. I'd love to make music videos, I'm sure there's a lot of potential for artistic expression there, I haven't seen many pop videos that impress me, so it'd be nice to see if I can do any better.

Aside from certain pieces of rather elevated music, always. With Beethoven and Schubert (and Handel and Bach and sometimes Mozart), it's feeling not images.