Thread: Tell me...Does music make you visualize, or "see" a storyline in your head?

Hi there folks...

I'v recently been taking comfort in much of my music collection, seems to get me through hard times.

My question is this : When listening to a song, any song really, does it evoke imagery, along with emotion?

I've noticed that depending on the type, my brain will conjure up an appropriate, almost, well- movie sequence I guess...sometimes sad, other times enjoyable, and then of course the adrenaline pumping image of redlining your vehicle on the highway when listening to "exciting" music.

An example for me is right now. I'm listening to "Teenage Wasteland" by The Who and picturing myself cruising down a wide open highway, cornfields for miles all around...pondering life...

I could go on and on because almost every song does this for me, but I'd like to hear what your reactions are to music, visual or other...

Thoughts?

Absolutely! Some of them can get rather lengthy, and some I haven't finished typing out because I haven't filled in every little detail. It's almost like a "mental exercise" for me as well as something I can occasionally use in my stories.

Yes! I experience this all the time. It seems some songs are more evocative than others. The Mariner's Revenge Song, by The Decemberists, is good, as is World of Make Believe, by Within Temptation. In fact, this has likely improved my visualization skills.

With some songs, rather than seeing in my mind's eye its own story, I instead imagine it in a movie soundtrack, and can perfectly picture what sort of scene it would play during.

I think I have a crappy imagination.... I don't get visualizations very often, although I do really enjoy it when I do, I only seem to get them when I'm totally zoned out and listening to music, like on the verge of being half-awake and half-asleep. I wish I could get them more often, because its really cool when it does happen.

Thats what songs are supposed to do, bring out emotion in people, make them see certain images the writer wants them to see. Whether it be about peace, love, war, sex, drugs, booty, family, etc.
When im upset, I listen to my music. It usually brings me out of my bad mood. Which, i should probably be doing right now....

I see images sometimes. Other times there's just pretty colours. I like those colours. They have a bit of correlation to the type of song. Loud stuff like Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus is orangey-red. Poppy stuff can be yellow, or green. There are exceptions though.

I associate songs with little snippets of my life. Like flashbacks with music. Usually when I listen to a song for the first time I get chills (if I like it).

Originally Posted by DeadDollKitty

Thats what songs are supposed to do, bring out emotion in people, make them see certain images the writer wants them to see.

I'm with DDK. actually, that is kind of..."duh".

I see colors and moving patterns a lot of the time. I can't listen to music the same way i used to though.

that's awesome. you know that's something called synesthesia right?

I see images sometimes. Other times there's just pretty colours. I like those colours. They have a bit of correlation to the type of song. Loud stuff like Cygnus...Vismund Cygnus is orangey-red. Poppy stuff can be yellow, or green. There are exceptions though.

seems like you have it too. I have grapheme - colour synesthesia, but lately I've noticed I really do see colours for different sounds. I thought I only saw colours in songs because of track numbers, as that was the case most of the time. but, paying closer attention, I noticed I see colours for the sounds themselves. the one colour of the track number just overshadows it, so I didn't notice at first.

I'm not surprised...since music and numbers are intimately related.

I don't see much with my eyes open, just images, but nothing moving. And if I think about what I'm seeing, it will sort of go away. I just have to not think about it and go with the flow. If I close my eyes though, It's basically like watching a short movie. This is one of the reasons music is great.

oh my god, that seriously sucks. I couldn't imagine. I've always had a vivid imagination, and I love it. do you think that people can work on their imaginations and make them stronger? I think they can...

Another thing, when I first started playing guitar I was really fascinated by how some people can play the guitar so well. So whenever I'd listen to a Metallica song and Kirk would start busting out a solo, I'd vividly see his fingers moving up and down the fretboard going nuts. That's just an example, I'd imagine the guitarist actually playing the guitar.

Another thing I visualize is, usually when I'm listening to the song through headphones or something, is the band inside a recording studio all doing their parts. It depends on the song, though.

imagery-all songs. emotion-most.

I do not "see" music.

I do, however, associate certain musical pieces with situations or images (the all famous grass flower plains). I, for example, listened to a song once ("Misato" from the Neon Genesis Evangelion Soundtrack), and simply thought that it might as well serve as the theme song of our SCHOOL!!! The "attitude" of the music seems almost perfectly akin to the same kind of relaxed attitude of our school. It just felt so familliar.

Yes, and I get that often. I either "feel" the mood, attitude or the "situation" of the music, and therefore associate it with situations in my own life (often insignificant ones from my daily life), or I try to visualise a story MYSELF (i.e. The music doesn't show ME a story ("passively"), No... I make up my own to fit with the music ("actively")).

This mostly happens with instrumental pieces.

For the rest: I AM affected by some kinds of music though. I don't know why, but I sometimes feel like the main character of a naturalistic literate piece: I'm quite easily affected by music (especially in a context such as a movie, or one of my own "connections/attachments"). Michael Buble's "Everything" makes me happy, for example. Honestly, it FORCES a smile on my face, whereas the song "don't cha" gets my blood boiling with irritative rage (you know the song: "Don't you wish your g/f was hot like me?" how in god's name could you make a song THAT egocentrical and arrogant???). I have something against that song.

And... that's about it ^^

So: Cheers, Peace, and much love!

~CD

I don't really visualize a story, but I do visualize something related to the song.

For example
The song "Fuel" by Metallica is pretty much about adrenaline junkies who like to go fast in automobiles. As it plays I basically imagine somebody hitting the gas as they cruise through the streets going faster and faster. When the song hits the verse "Natural drug will paint me dead!" I imagine the driver crashing.

Yeah, all the time! Like right now I'm listening to Sweet Home Alabama, and visualizing this one guy going to Alabama on those "Big wheels". Or in Smoke on the Water, where I visualize some guy setting fire to some building with a flare gun, causing "Smooooooke on the waaater"

Emotion, sometimes. Example: Carry on Wayward Son by Kansas. Makes me feel real happy and hopeful.

This is the beautiful thing about the fine arts. You can be in a position to analyze, such as a curator for art, or a composer for music. Otherwise, you do not have to fragment the work. We can afford to just let the art take us where it may. :bravo:

Well i think about dance like 24/7 so when i listen to music i make up a dance in my head and visualize it.

I don't really like visuals in my songs when I'm wanting to visualize =). I purposefully look for songs without vocals. I don't want to have to see what the artist paints, I wanna see the picture the artist's song paints. I've accumulated quite a nice collection of such song. Its mainly comprised of freelance "classical" artists and soundtracks.

heres a nice example. Close your eyes and give that a listen.

then heres his audio page

I can sometimes get this sort of stuff stuck in my head through the day and even to bed time and I think that helps visualization =P

EDIT: Of course, theres some good stuff with vocals too.

omg arby that's totally uber man

really nice OMG I feel in a battle