Anoebis Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 This was inspired by a topic on a Belgian forum, but anyway how come that sounds work on your emotion? Why is a melody played "down" more sad, and a melody played "up" more happy? is it just because we link it with things we saw on television? Or is there another reason? What is the (scietific) proof of sound on emotions? Shoot I want to learn about this! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malevol3nt Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 That's funny, 2 days ago I found a few collection of trance toplists on youtube. And they're all organized by the "feeling" you get from these tracks. For example: Top 5 Day Dreaming Trance Songs Top 5 Easy-Going Trance Songs Top 5 Inspiring Trance Songs Top 5 Just Plain Wonderful Trance Songs Top 5 Catchy Trance Songs Top 5 Calming Trance Songs Top 5 Uplifting Trance Songs Top 5 Impressive Trance Songs Top 5 Spine-Chilling Trance Songs In most cases the description is pretty accurate. I don't really know why one track gives out one type of emotion while another gives out a totally different type of emotion. I'm intrigued with it aswell. But I can't really explain it or define why it works that way. It's interesting how some melodies give you a 'move on', some make you smile, some make you sad and some make you just want to dance. In fact, what I'm missing in most of nowadays music is exactly that, the emotion part of it. It seems like artists are focused too much on the technical side of things instead. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yard Hippie Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 I remember when I was doing psychology at Uni there was a module you could choose to do on music. Have no idea whether it was just about beat and rythm since I (stupidly) never took it, but there has to be research into this. I'll go thumb through some old textbooks and see if I can find anything. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yard Hippie Posted February 7, 2009 Share Posted February 7, 2009 Whilst the books I have mention that music can be emotional they don't bother to explore why they believe this is the case, so no luck there. One does cite an amusing study done in an American wine store where they played either country music or classical music and found that people bought more expensive wine when classical music was played Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
abasio Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I guess it's just conditioning. For so many years we have heard sad songs with melodies played down and sad sad lyrics. We've heard happy upbeat songs and we're told they are happy. I wonder if you found someone who had never had any contact with music before (or civilisation for that matter) and played him a melancholic track, would he have the same feelings to it? Or would his feelings be ones of awe and blissful amazemnet at this new discovery? It's like the weather, we are conditioned to believe that sunny and hot = a nice day and that overcast or rain = a bad day. This can also really affect people's moods. It's odd don't you think? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Yard Hippie Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I guess it's just conditioning. For so many years we have heard sad songs with melodies played down and sad sad lyrics. We've heard happy upbeat songs and we're told they are happy. I wonder if you found someone who had never had any contact with music before (or civilisation for that matter) and played him a melancholic track, would he have the same feelings to it? Or would his feelings be ones of awe and blissful amazemnet at this new discovery? It's like the weather, we are conditioned to believe that sunny and hot = a nice day and that overcast or rain = a bad day. This can also really affect people's moods. It's odd don't you think? It is odd but I think it has to be more than just conditioning. With the weather it's known that the sun actually chemically creates euphoria within the body to an extent, so sunny days are going to be seen as happier than rainy days, which instinctually we wouldn't want to be frollicking around in in case we caught hypothermia etc. Our bodies are remarkably good at ensuring we don't do things that would be harmful to us in these ways. With music though.. I'm not sure. I guess I'm thinking that strong and fast beats would be seen as energetic and gleeful because when we are energetic and gleeful we often run around and our hearts beat faster. Or something. I'm clutching at straws really I guess though because when you get down to specifics like why certain downbeat music sounds melancholy and some serene it gets much more complicated. Still to my mind it has to be something to do with specific brain region/synapse interactions in combination with, as you say, social conditioning. *shrugs* Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malevol3nt Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I guess it's just conditioning. For so many years we have heard sad songs with melodies played down and sad sad lyrics. We've heard happy upbeat songs and we're told they are happy. I wonder if you found someone who had never had any contact with music before (or civilisation for that matter) and played him a melancholic track, would he have the same feelings to it? Or would his feelings be ones of awe and blissful amazemnet at this new discovery? It's like the weather, we are conditioned to believe that sunny and hot = a nice day and that overcast or rain = a bad day. This can also really affect people's moods. It's odd don't you think? I think that only works with kids and for a short while. To be honest, when I hear some of the new upbeat happy psytrance that comes out, it makes me wanna cry (cos it sux so much!). So there's your example right there. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
karan129 Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Maybe sounds that were threatning in our enviroment, like a deep growl, when used in a track in the form of bass appear sad or depressing? While higher pitched sounds are associated with happiness? Like laughter is generally high-pitched? Or say church bells tolling, they're higher frequency. Maybe thats just the way we developed systems to seperate threatning and non-threatning sounds. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anoebis Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 I guess it's just conditioning. That's like, what was first: the chicken or the egg? So who was the person that has put melancholic sounds on certain movies and pictures? I think conditioning is part of it, but I don't think it can explain all... Like you said, thé test would be: find a person that never heard music in it's life and ask him... But does that kind of people exist? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HolyLight Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Its all about Major & Minor chords IMO and the humans experimentation with different harmonies (frequencies) over thousands of years, mimicking how we humans sound when we are happy, respective sad.. for example a baby that is giggling and is happy has a certain frequency combination (Linear interval) and same when it is crying. Also the how animals sound has been emulated a lot in for example classical music, birds singing etc so the human has played with that ever since we have used notes or had the ability to make tones with our own voices i guess Dont take my word for everything i just wrote, im just speculating like the rest of you guys And i dont think anyone has the definite answer to all this, since the history of mankind isnt documented all the way back to whenever it began. :drama: Some reading: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wavelengths Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Malevol3nt Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 That's like, what was first: the chicken or the egg? So who was the person that has put melancholic sounds on certain movies and pictures? I think conditioning is part of it, but I don't think it can explain all... Like you said, thé test would be: find a person that never heard music in it's life and ask him... But does that kind of people exist? Hmm.. well, even people who never had touch with modern civilization probably have some kind of musical ritual. I mean, music has been around for ages.. who knows, maybe for millions of years allready. But we didn't have technology to record any of it back then. Which is kind of interesting, I'd love to hear the music from thousands of years ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Anoebis Posted February 8, 2009 Author Share Posted February 8, 2009 Hmm.. well, even people who never had touch with modern civilization probably have some kind of musical ritual. I mean, music has been around for ages.. who knows, maybe for millions of years allready. But we didn't have technology to record any of it back then. Which is kind of interesting, I'd love to hear the music from thousands of years ago. I guess you will hear didgeridoo traditional music then? Some sticks/drums and some didge sounds or singing on it, who knows? That must be true trance Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryll Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 sound is energy.. waves of airpressure seems something impossible to me.. that exposure to any form of energy doesn't afflict anything at all so to start from that point.. i think you can go and think many different directions such as intensity, interval, tonelevels, and sequences or combinations of such nothing stronger than sound to intensify an impression or situation... look at movies for example Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryll Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 That's like, what was first: the chicken or the egg? So who was the person that has put melancholic sounds on certain movies and pictures? I think conditioning is part of it, but I don't think it can explain all... Like you said, thé test would be: find a person that never heard music in it's life and ask him... But does that kind of people exist? i dont think so perhaps it was a person who didn't intended to create a melancholic vibe with his sounds, but sucked so hard that people felt pity with him otherwise, i think all music is created on a visceral level if it doesnt feel as it was intended to, the sounds need to be examined and re-arranged i dont believe feelings through a certain sound-design/composition can be triggered because of a standardised way of experiencing it (after some dude or dudesse decided to call his/her creation "the music where one must feel melancholic" for example) *edit* perhaps something interesting to read up on... something used for mental/cognitive purposes, through a binaural sound setup http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hemi-Sync Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
FTP Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 Psytrance is bit of lack in the emotion stories, Metal is better for discovering the ideas in their roots. But Psytrance can amplify your own subconscious and can expand your own world when you realize you don't to need to go elsewhere... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Antares Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I think it's a combination of conditioning, musical feeling and also taste. For some people a trance song can be very emotional, and for others it's just cheezy.. Also our perception of emotional, cheerfull... is different then from people from let's say the 18th century, what's emotional music for them mostly sound cheerfull to my ears (i'm talking about classical music here). There are also people that aren't touched by any music at all... (yes, they do exsist!! ) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HolyLight Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 I think it's a combination of conditioning, musical feeling and also taste. For some people a trance song can be very emotional, and for others it's just cheezy.. Also our perception of emotional, cheerfull... is different then from people from let's say the 18th century, what's emotional music for them mostly sound cheerfull to my ears (i'm talking about classical music here). There are also people that aren't touched by any music at all... (yes, they do exsist!! ) The person who dont get emotionally touched by Skazis Killlllaaaargh guitar riffs or by seeing Yahels latest CD covers dont Exist Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryll Posted February 8, 2009 Share Posted February 8, 2009 am getting a bit confused here so to get things straight.. are we talking bout music, or sound here ? prolly a rethorical question.. but i really think music(styles, artists,...) and sound in general, should be treated separately in this discussion Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HolyLight Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 am getting a bit confused here so to get things straight.. are we talking bout music, or sound here ? prolly a rethorical question.. but i really think music(styles, artists,...) and sound in general, should be treated separately in this discussion Well kind of difficult to keep the two separated, if we are talking about for example psy trance wich is a music style that in many cases is built up around "sounds/noises" Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryll Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Well kind of difficult to keep the two separated, if we are talking about for example psy trance wich is a music style that in many cases is built up around "sounds/noises" if u keep reasonable perspective, u must add not only sounds/noises also structures, repetition, intensities, combinations of sequences (or vice versa) with other words... music is made of sounds.. but music is a structured form of sound THUS an in advance CONDITIONED soundstructure Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HolyLight Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 if u keep reasonable perspective, u must add not only sounds/noises also structures, repetition, intensities, combinations of sequences (or vice versa) with other words... music is made of sounds.. but music is a structured form of sound THUS an in advance CONDITIONED soundstructure Of course Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryll Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 okay then my confusion remains question: why does the music that gets me strongest energised -when i'm active and sharp- also makes me get sleepy when i'm tired or relaxed ? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Darkarbiter Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 question: why does the music that gets me strongest energised -when i'm active and sharp- also makes me get sleepy when i'm tired or relaxed ?Similar to physical excersize? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryll Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 best example i can give of musical usage to extend and mentally intensify a situation/atmosphere without intrinsically relating to the essential intent behind it's impression/experience/emotion a well known scene from "Mean Streets" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nMnkRSTO3fc or an example of the complexity of a "sound" as global effect (mentally then emotionally... eitherway) and if u want to experience how extensively u can grow nausea by sound.. i'd say.. go check the french movie "Irreversible" youtube prolly won't reproduce the same auditive impact as a quality cinema-experience, but that's a notorious enough principle i suppose (youtube compression-stylee) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kryll Posted February 9, 2009 Share Posted February 9, 2009 Similar to physical excersize? probably, yes but PT brings some extra parameters and side-effects with it as it's manifested primarily on a physical and metabolical level but seen as on a mental level ... quite similar i think Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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