dyingofpoetry wrote:
Generally, if I am feeling down, I listen to happy, upbeat music, because I don't want to feel MORE down. I don't understand people who get dumped or feel depressed and then listen to sad songs on top of it. Screw that.
It's hard to explain... it just feels like the music speaks to you or you feel the music, relating to it more. Especially when it comes to more specifically depression. It's sort of like... how sometimes, crying feels better than not crying. Typically it also has a relaxing effect, as well. If it doesn't, (such as heavy metal) then it still has some venting effect.
I could list a bunch of songs I might listen to if I feel down. For music more on the darker side of things, Porcupine Tree and Radiohead, definitely. Especially the albums
Signify and
Kid A, respectively. Steve Vai's song
For the Love of God, Joe Satriani's song
Echo. Then Pink Floyd's song
Comfortably Numb and Metallica's song
Fade to Black (does anybody else realize they're actually rather similar?), Nirvana's
Something in the Way, etc... I could go on for a while
Lighter things? Lately I've found the majority of the album
Black Holes and Revelations by Muse to actually have a surprisingly positive effect on me. I'll feel like complete self-hating crap during the last class of the day for examples, but listening to it on the way back home just changes everything. Maybe it's the lyrics... especially
Knights of Cydonia basically saying, "Get up and fight". There's also some albums by the Red Hot Chili Peppers, and I find a lot of Heavy Metal (Megadeth! for example) to be quite cathartic.