How do you view music in your head?

[orcus116]

This is something I've been curious about for a few reasons. Talking to my one friend online I've noticed that people perceive music mentally in very different flavors. He tends to view albums as well as songs in hues of color. I've seen other do the same, labeling albums as "brown" or "dark blue" (stemming from an old discussion on Dream Theater album "colors"). A lot of the time it seems it is based off the album artwork which makes sense because the artwork is supposed to act as a visual extension of the music.

Personally I view a lot of music in terms of a soundtrack to a scene. If a song clicks, especially when it clicks, I can see entire scenes, shot by shot, as fragments of a single story or parts of several different ones. I get a lot of my movie and TV show ideas this way and maybe the directing passion I have that drives that imagery. Sometimes it'll ruin a song for me since I get this adrenaline rush when the perfect idea runs through my head and I have to keep listening to the song to get it down pat. I honestly wanna try and use this talent as a sound/music editor one day even though that's not even my field. I really think I'd be awesome at it.

[Quadrochosis]

For me I usually associate bands with seasons. For example, Opeth is Autumn, Between the Buried and Me is Spring, The Flower Kings are Summer, Porcupine Tree is Winter. I have no idea how I come to these conclusions in my head but I do.

Note that it also doesn't affect when I listen to bands, I just for some reason associate them with seasons, even though I haven't really listened to TFK that much this summer.

[Portrucci]

Wow, I pretty much do the exact same thing Orcus. I've always loved soundtracks and have a LOT in my library. Mainly ones I have never seen the original movie/game of, because I just love making up the scenes and characters in my head. But it works for a lot of other music too as you have said. I tend to gravitate towards instrumental and atmospheric music specifically for this reason.

[limnides]

I use music to fuel a lot of my abstract work; colours and textures that may morph into recognisable objects (such as trees, birds, or symbols).  Some artists play out like film reels that I cannot mimic by traditional means, in those instances they either stay in my head or I try to outlet it through photography.  Ulver, for example, always calls scenes of starless, moonless, urban cities and general dystopia.  I follow derelict railways through empty, street-light lit highways.  Empty street-corners.  Urban jungle.  and so on.

For me I usually associate bands with seasons. For example, Opeth is Autumn, Between the Buried and Me is Spring, The Flower Kings are Summer, Porcupine Tree is Winter. I have no idea how I come to these conclusions in my head but I do.

I like that.
Although I don't do this myself, I can easily come to the same conclusion with Opeth and Porcupine Tree.  (I haven't heard enough/any of the other two.)

I tend to gravitate towards instrumental and atmospheric music specifically for this reason.

When I first started using music as a muse I shied away from lyricless music because I thought it would be too open ended to be able to call to mind... well, anything.  65daysofstatic's Radio Protector helped prove that very, very wrong.  Now I'd say I listen to more instrumental than not.

[ariich]

Your friend probably has a form of synesthesia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Synesthesia) which is a really interesting condition.

For me, it really varies depending on what I'm listening to and what mood I'm in. Sometimes I like to appreciate and analyse the theory behind the music itself, sometimes I immerse myself in the mood that the music creates, or a whole load of other reactions. I think that's why my listening habits can be so diverse.

[ACID_FOX]

When it comes to heavy stuff, I tend to focus more on the instruments, especially the drums, and usually visualize playing the drum parts etc. With lighter stuff, I tend to imagine a landscape or general scenery, usually inspired by the lyrics.

[hefdaddy42]

This is something I've been curious about for a few reasons. Talking to my one friend online I've noticed that people perceive music mentally in very different flavors. He tends to view albums as well as songs in hues of color. I've seen other do the same, labeling albums as "brown" or "dark blue" (stemming from an old discussion on Dream Theater album "colors"). A lot of the time it seems it is based off the album artwork which makes sense because the artwork is supposed to act as a visual extension of the music.

Personally I view a lot of music in terms of a soundtrack to a scene. If a song clicks, especially when it clicks, I can see entire scenes, shot by shot, as fragments of a single story or parts of several different ones. I get a lot of my movie and TV show ideas this way and maybe the directing passion I have that drives that imagery. Sometimes it'll ruin a song for me since I get this adrenaline rush when the perfect idea runs through my head and I have to keep listening to the song to get it down pat. I honestly wanna try and use this talent as a sound/music editor one day even though that's not even my field. I really think I'd be awesome at it.

You've only got one friend?

[orcus116]

 

[hefdaddy42]

Didn't come out right.  I will edit it.

[sonatafanica]

Maybe it's because of my life-long love affair with both music and film, but a lot of music appears as scenery for me. For example, Modest Mouse's "Blame It On The Tetons" puts me on a very sunny midwestern road, in a car filled with friends who smile at each other occasionally, as if there was some sort of silent understanding about where they are going but no one knows for sure.

And I can't tell you how many times I have directed in my head every camera angle in every scene of Bright Eye's "Landlocked Blues", which may be one of the saddest songs I've ever heard. There is one verse in particular that I have set up perfectly.


The camera slowly pans through different locations in an apartment with several shots of photographs containing a young couple. Some photographs are regarded longer than others for their content.
The camera enters into a living room from outside the hall. It's not the most furnished room in the world, and you can just barely see from an adjacent room a television tuned to a news station. On the floor of the living room is the young couple making love among blankets and scattered clothing. As they reach climax, with shots focused on their facial expressions, the face sequence of shots ends with the man looking down into his lover's eyes. The camera then pulls away from them, reversing towards a coffee table. As the shot reverses enough to see the couple in the background, the lens focus changes to bring slightly more notice on the foreground, the main object being a lipstick-stained wine glass that is almost full as the camera continues to move away.

[LeeHarveyKennedy]

Landscapes, mostly. Though it depends on how many chemicals I have coursing through me at the moment.

[King Postwhore]

This may sound corny but music is the soundtrack of my life.  If I need a pick me up or a little motivation, if I feel sad, angry, music fits the bill.

DT=motivation/ pick me up

PT= my cerebral side

Sarah Mclachlan= my melancholy side.

Kiss= My groin talking.

[bosk1]

I mostly (but not entirely) view music the way orcus does.  If not for the fact that he's apparently Black, we could be long-lost brothers.

[orcus116]

I happen to be very white.

[skydivingninja]

Usually the colors of the album cover correspond with the music in some way, so if I ever visualize music, those colors would be the ones to jump into my head.  For example, while listening to "6:00," I think of blue and grey a lot.

[ZBomber]

This may sound corny but music is the soundtrack of my life.  If I need a pick me up or a little motivation, if I feel sad, angry, music fits the bill.

This. For quite a few albums, I will also be "taken back to the moment" of an instance when I was listening to the album at hand... for example, when I hear Tusk I always get vivid memories of my first date with my ex-girlfriend, when I hear A Farewell to Kings I get memories of Christmas, and even more recently I get memories of my first semester of college when I hear the song "Going for the One" by Yes.

So to answer the question... I guess I view music as my own experiences. Although for some reason, "Lips of Ashes" by PT always gives me a mental image of Lip's Stick from Super Smash Brawl... I don't know why really. 

[73109]

I think I might be the first person to say...

Nothing.

I really don't try to associate music with anything. I could come up with some landscapes but just blanking my head and digging the music is the most important thing for me...

But to answer the question because every once in a while, I actually do this. Anyone listen to a song and imagine the band doing it and that is what you see in your head?