How people with AS interpret music

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One thing I've noticed is that people with AS hear music from more of a 2 dimensional viewpoint rather than from a 3D one. This means that I hardly hear the impact music makes, and just hear the after sound. Like for example, heavy metal, I don't feel the heaviness, just a slight thud, and then the sound after it. Pop music is hard to distinguish because of it, and corporate music can really blur the line between what's real and what's not.

Edit: Sorry, I got off track before, but I've made some large attacks on music magazines and I wanted to brag about it. Anyway, the point of this topic is about how people with AS interpret music differently to NT's.

Last edited by thatrsdude on 01 Oct 2006, 1:06 am, edited 1 time in total.

I'm always amazed by the range of music available, if only one knows where to look. There are always great disco pop bands about, and bedroom indie bands, and old school rockers, and folky singer-songwriters.

The problem is that they remain hidden from view until the music magazines and television companies decide to invent a new 'scene' to boost their ratings, thereby starting a record company cash-in frenzy. One or two bands who happen to be in the right place at the right time get lucky. Similar artists who have been working away for years get nothing, and new artists with a genuine interest find that the fashion has faded by the time they get to play, and obscurity or even ridicule beckon.

Luckily I think the internet is gradually breaking down these artificial cycles and allowing people to find the music they really want all of the time, and not just when it becomes temporarily 'cool'. Musicians and fans are very good at publicising the things they like. Sites like AMG are good at providing links between bands: I can look up a group I love and then search for similar artists, influences and followers. Even Amazon is useful thanks to the reviews from fans and the "People who bought this also bought..." pointers.

I only listen to Final Fantasy and classical music.

nice off topic ranting in your own thread, in teh original post even

ah well, i know my music taste highly varies from time to time. often im very vaguish, gloomy and "in my head" and i usually like the more floaty/dreamy sounds (with also what they call "floating" guitarplay) such as the gathering. but whenever im in a lighter, more "up for it" mood i like heavyer more dynamic stuff, such as gojira, or even stuff like beneath the massacre.

I thought that your topic meant, what do you hear when you listen music. But it's a good idea to start another topic.

For this one, I'm sorry but talking about music versus marketing versus money,it makes me sick !

How can you go off topic in your own topic? It's my topic, I define what it is. So I can talk about as many things as I want.

It's music. Nice to listen to. Has various effects on moods. (Don't ask why.)

No more.

Speaking for myself the three things I really tend to feel the most are percussion, liquid groove, and just how well matched everything is in terms of the vocals, effects, moods of the melody, etc. When it comes to basslines and things like that my mind is very kinetic. Part of the reason I'm drawn to the darker side of sound is a) a much more real and transcending mood at times and b). my mind grabs on to things whether its muddy low end metal guitar or sickbass in dark jungle and sees it in a very visual way - like I'm really seeing guitar or synthlines sliding over eachother, creating vortecies and all that kinda stuff in my head (so yeah, sound texture is a really big thing as well and it's just not something that gets played with as much in pop or alternative rock as much as industrial, electronic, and hip-hop).

I would love to hear music (indeed, experience all the senses) like an NT, just to feel/see/hear the difference, to know what it's like, if only for a short time.
I like quite slow rhythms which I find relaxing. Music is a major de-stressor in my life When I hear music, I want to dance, unless it's very loud 'shop music' which makes me want to cover my ears!

I see and feel (emotionally) music when I hear it. I don't know how it works but music has always been visual and emotional for me, since I was small. I think music affects me far more powerfully than it does NTs. I feel glad that I am able to enjoy music to the extent that I do. Most other people don't seem to experience anything intensely. It took me a very long time to realise this as I always assumed other people were as intense as I was. No wonder they look at me funny when i talk about stuff! But I wouldn't change it for anything. I feel lucky to have the capacity for such experiences!

scrulie i completely agree. when you say visual, do you mean you literally see the music, or you perceive it as layers of patterns?

i also experience this thing when i listen to music in a darkened room, where i sort of trance out, and the rythmic emphasis of the music changes, that is, the offbeat becomes the onbeat, and vice versa. thats probably the best way i can describe it. its really weird when it happens, and i can only get it to happen sometimes. does anyone else know what i'm talking about.

I'm not sure, to be honest! I suppose I perceive it as patterns, but I'm definitely understanding it in a visual way. I can't explain it really.

Yeah, I'm mostly into the mood of a piece. The lyrics can be completely meaningless bull and I'll still like it if I like the overall mood brought by the instruments and style of the vocals. I also "listen" to music in a visual way, if that makes any sense. What scrulie said. Heh.

thats exactly the way i 'see' music in my head. its as if im seeing a bassline but its mroe complex than that, for instance if i hear a track with big bass i will see in my head large squares interconnected with lines and behind that in a sort of semi-3d picture will be other lines and patterns floating around for the other sounds im hearing. the really cool thing is, by 'seeing' the music it means i hear it so much more clearly, and unlike most people who i assume hear the music as a whole, im able to hear each individual sound effect, how ever many dozens of different effects im hearing. this is especially awesome when i listen to alot of the trance/electro-rock music i like to listen to because there's so much going on, and i SEE IT hard to put into words, but its like a sem-concious thing i see in my mind, as i hear each individual sound making up the whole pattern of the music, my mind assigns it a shape or line. this means that when i hear teh lyrics i am in some essence, 'seeing' the voice without letters, but as a shape... like i listen to alot of rock/metal and instead of seeing lyrics as words, depending on the intensity/tone of the voice, i will 'see' a shape for it. its really weird, but makes music so much more intresting which is why i suppose im so obsessed with music

Hmmn, I definately hear music as a sphere of sound, but it used to be 2 dimensional, I kinda had to extrapolate why I felt it "surrounding" me and work out through mixing how it actually works.

I definately think my perception of music grows every single day, but I definately FEEL it so intensely, on at least 5 occasions I've been brought to tears by either relating to the lyrics so intimately, or hearing a sound that I thought at the time "couldnt be real"

it depends on what music. whenever i listen to classical, i see it as shifting plateaus in my mind and can see each section and a landscape. no colors, though.