Emotion through Music

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I find that I can only express myself emotionally in the presence of music. The right music, at that. If I feel I should be angry about something, I have to listen to aggressive music in order to let it out. If I have to talk about relationships, if either have to listen to music without lyrics (for positive things) or sad music (for bad things). If I feel as if I should be sad, I have to listen to optimistic music or Christmas music. Unless I listen to the right music, I find myself frustrated and unable to express myself. This means that I often resort to listening to music on my headphones at emotionally charged moments, but also more often than not means I have explosive outbursts of emotion in my room in the evenings, while listening to music.
If I don't listen to music, I find myself feeling suffocated, but if I do, I experience emotions that I don't know how to handle.

Is this common? Do other people find this? NTs I've spoken to REALLY don't get it, nor do the aspies I know on a face-to-face basis.

And if you DO sympathise - what kind of music do you have to listen to in order to 'trigger' yourself?

i know exactly what you mean...
when i'm mad or angry about something, the music has to be aggressive/hard/heavy to help get rid of the feelings i'm having, or to at least help me work through them. same with being sad, happy, etc. if i need to calm down, it's definately time for some classical music...it usually does the trick.
this is why i am so glad that my tastes in music are so widespread. i have different genres for different moods...

Me too, and it's a good thing.

Sounds also stir certain emotions in me as well (not music, just sounds). The lower the note, the more intense the emotion. It can be almost internally euphoric at times. Metallic "claps" can also be pretty intense.

That's why I like Alternative/Industrial Rock so much. They really know how to use those sounds.

Psychedelic Rock is, well, psychedelic. Radiohead is one of my favourites - modern and especially varied.

Some Rap can be a bit boring because it can be monotonous, and thus irritating, but there's a mood for the more 'elaborate' ones.

Classical is definitely calming. A taste I inherited from my mother, who only listens to New Age and Bach.

I have no musical skill whatsoever, I can't play an instrument for the life of me, but I really like music. And I really like some sounds.

Last edited by SilverProteus on 09 Feb 2008, 7:40 pm, edited 1 time in total.

A lot of the time, yes. It really seems to get it out.

You know, for some reason, playing my bass clarinet in Wind Ensemble tends to relieve me of quite a bit of stress. It happened yesterday, though I didn't have rehearsal, and the day before.

Cool, great to hear from other people in the same situation! I agree that having a broad selection of music is an important part of it. I find that the more music I have, the easier I find it to get just the right feeling.

Well, I pretty much only listen to metal and grunge, but I love it because it's honest: all of those bands write their songs and play their instruments. So the emotions that the singers are expressing are more or less real. Plus, songs like "Escape" by Metallica and "Don't have to be old to be wise" by Judas Priest feel like they were written for me. Not to mention Nirvana's "Nevermind" album, which has plently of good songs.

I hate pop music for that reason, it's so manufactured and sterile.

Music is my life. I live most of my life THROUGH music.

Same here.

I often have very strong emotions that I can only get out of my system by writing music. I plan to be a musician of some kind, but I haven't made up my mind about which role and path to take yet.

I found that my strongest songs come from very intense emotions which are either very positive or very negative. When something really intense happens in my life, it becomes very hard to focus on anything besides the intense chemical rush of anger, depression, and confusion.

I try to create music inspired by my favorite bands in order to create a positive, euphoric feeling whenever I listen to it. This inspiration is often mixed with the bad memories and pains. The "real world" problems don't go away, but it gives me an escapist medium to obsess on and justify my own views on the problem.

Definitely agree, music is so strongly related to human emotions. What's a horror movie without the soundtrack??? It means nothing, and seems more like a joke. It's only normal to listen to music that reflects your feelings, but I also often find that the music you chose to listen to also affects your feelings just as much.