In general music annoys me, I never listen to music for pleasure. There are some songs that I like/can tolerate, generally ones that were popular when I was in my early twenties. If I hear one of those, it is only because I am at my friend’s house and she constantly has the radio on in the back ground.
I enjoy silence but will often have the TV on for back ground noise if I am sitting on the couch doing my needlework.
I cannot understand how people are so passionate about music, when all it does for me is make me feel anxious and annoyed.
So there you go, mundane and pointless but since I can hear my boyfriend singing along to the songs he’s listening to via headphones, I felt the need to share.
Is there anyone else out there like me?
Or, if you are a passionate listener, can you attempt to describe how it makes you feel?
I used to be very passionate about music, now I don’t listen very often.
I have very little tolerance for new stuff; I can’t be bothered to spend the time getting emotionally involved.
I can’t stand loud music as a backdrop and prefer silence.
Every once in a while though I can rock out to The Doors, The Who, Alan Parsons, The Beatles, etc. or I can get introspective with some Gordon Lightfoot, James Taylor, etc. For the most part I’ve lost interest in music over the years. I suspect a lot of it has to do with my present home life and the difficulties I’m going through. Maybe in a year or two I’ll be in a better frame of mind and will start enjoying music again.
Perhaps it’s the kind of music you’re listening to? There’s so much out there I find it hard to believe there isn’t something you would like. Rock, Country, Classical, Funk, Jazz, Video Game Music. Reggae, classical Indian, polkas. folk, Movie Music, radio jingles, etc…
I don’t listen as much as before…which I think may be a consequence of getting older. But essentially listening to great music usually lifts my spirits, makes me want to get up and move in someway, and gets my brain thinking about whats happening.
Really, I think your problem is that you’re listening to the wrong type of music. I am pretty sure there is some of type of music you like. Just keep exploring. Have you tried orchestral music yet?
I think it’s fine that you don’t like it. Some people just don’t.
For me, it’s because I’ve always loved to sing. When I was young, I’d hold the hairbrush and pretend to be Lulu or whoever. It also makes me want to get up and move. It makes walking more pleasurable and housework less of a chore.
Welcome to the SDMB, Fossil. Although this may be mundane and pointless, it’s also about the arts, so I’m going to move it to our forum about the arts, Cafe Society.
I listen to the radio while driving, I listen to Pandora sometimes at work when I’m sick of books on CD, but I wouldn’t actually pay for or pirate music because I just don’t care enough too.
Same goes with going to a concert. Even with booze, I’d just rather do something else.
I’m extremely passionate about music. It’s hard to say how it makes me feel, though, as different music can make me feel different ways. Indeed, there’s probably music for almost any emotion and any occasion. That includes negative emotions and situations - there’s music that I consider excellent that I rarely listen to either because it evokes such negative moods, or because it has negative connotations.
I think I know what you mean by music making you anxious or annoyed, sometimes when there’s stuff I don’t like on that I have to listen to, I feel that way.
What are you passionate about? I imagine music, to me, has a similar effect to what that will on you.
I didn’t used to like to listen to music, then I found some genres that I like (Mostly Celtic sort of stuff). However, listening to music remains a “primary task” for me in a lot of senses, which means I don’t listen nearly as much as other people. I actually strongly dislike the concept of “background noise” so if I’m going to listen to music, I am going to LISTEN to music. THAT said, I don’t really understand “passion” about music either.
While I believe it’s possible you “just don’t like music” more likely, you haven’t heard music you like. It will probably never be the love of your life, but I think you can do better than “anxious and annoyed” (Which is what having the TV on in my vicinity tends to make me. :P)
I don’t understand how music can make one “anxious or annoyed”. maybe annoyed, since you don’t like to hear it, but what are you anxious about?
I want to say that while not enjoying listening to music is unusual AFAIK, I can’t see it as a problem. I do think not enjoying hearing it is a bit further from the “bass line”.
As others have noted how music makes me feel depends on the music. I have very eclectic tastes in music. Although not a spirtual person, the “song of joy” in Beethoven’s 9th is energizing and uplifting to me. When I hear Dan Hicks singing “How can I lmiss you when you won’t go away.” I laugh. Shamefully perhaps, Clapton’s “Bell Bottom Blues”, which reminds me of a lost love, invariably makes me cry. Dave Brubeck’s “Hey Ho, Nobody Home” makes me feel peppy. Much music just makes me feel good in general, often “surfing” on the waves of the rhythm.
There’s plenty of unsettling music out there, that could make one anxious. I’m not sure it’s the stuff that the OP is talking about, but certain styles of drone or dark ambient music would certainly do that. Which is probably one reason this stuff isn’t particularly mainstream!
There’s examples of it in classical music too, though. The 3rd movement (I think) of Mahler’s Second Symphony is a weird, twisted section that is pretty uncomfortable to listen to. In this case, though, it’s only part of a greater whole, which is far from unpleasant.
Yes there is unsettling music that could possibly make one anxious - but the OP doesn’t listen to music. (Nor would I say that there is “plenty” of unsettling music that is broadcast on popular radio or TV stations, IOW, just around for a passerby to hear.)
Again, the OP doesn’t listen to music on her own.
Don’t you feel that you actually have to listen to unsettling music to get the unsettling feeling it is conveying?
Welli can relate to negative sensations from music that isn’t trying to do that. I feel anxious, jittery, almost physical pain from music in any style that has a high pitch. I hate all jazz, it actually makes me nervous and angry. When I hear Miles Davis I have negative physical feelings (skin crawling heebie jeebies) and emotions too. Simply put, I want to find him and brain him with a rock. Then I remember he’s dead.
Over the years I’ve figured out what I do like, music with a strong clear regular beat, predominantly in the lower tones, lots of bass, and mostly male vocalists. I’m very keyed into lyrics, but I can’t enjoy the lyrics if the music is making me furious.
Different types of music make me feel different ways, of course, but in general listening to music is like having parts of my brain massaged to the point of orgasm. In fact, just about any noise is interesting to me: I can listen to traffic and parts of random conversations as people walk by and to me that’s a “song”.
Have you ever seen footage of people electrically stimulating a brain via an open skull to see what the stimulus produced for the subject? Sometimes they smell something, sometimes they remember things, see colors, etc. For me, music is as close as I can get to that sensation without actually opening my skull and sticking electrodes into it, which is good because I prefer my brainpan to be one piece.
None of my other senses engender such powerful reactions for me as my hearing (perhaps because I’ve lost it more than once), so I indulge myself whenever possible by listening to music.
There’s also the fact that after years of experience and learning about music, there is an intellectual component that is layered on top of the aesthetic appreciation.
OP, are you “tone-deaf”? I can certainly see how someone who has trouble perceiving one of the basic ingredients of music (e.g. pitch, rhythm, harmony) might not enjoy it that much, just as a color-blind person might not appreciate great paintings, or a person with no sense of smell might be “meh” about fine cuisine.
I must say I have a hard time grasping the concept of “I don’t like music”. There are so many different kinds of music that it seems sort of like saying “I don’t like sound”.
Anita O’Day singing “Ain’t Misbehavin” makes you nervous and angry? A soft and melodious tune such as “Time after time” makes you want to beat someone to a bloody death? Plainly you don’t actually listen to the music.
What genre of music with “lots of bass” and male vocalists do you like?
I pretty much agree with this. Your question seemed to suggest you didn’t get how music could make anyone anxious, not just the OP. I doubt the OP has heard any of the stuff I mentioned, as it’s stuff one would have to seek out.
Sorry, I just had to say that.