What does music sound like to you?

A bunch of odd frequencies that some how, when put together have the strange ability to invoke an emotional response in me.
Which I find never ceases to amuse me.
Music truly is one of the more amazing things there is,
Im a Big Fan..

I’m one of those people who always has music in my head. If I could only get it out of my head faster…perhaps a bluetooth between my brain and computer.

Asking what music sounds like to me, is like askiing what does one see when they open their eyes. I guess that I don’t really understand what you’re looking for. Do you?

Simply stated, to me, music sounds like a three-dimensional explosion of various sensations.

Specifically, the sensations I feel when I hear music:

Music affects the level of relaxation or tension in my head. Consequently, the effect resonnates throughout my body. So, when I hear music, I feel impulses of pleasure or pain. In my mind, this translates as images or symbols.

For example, last night I was listening to jazz (the likes of Jane Ira Bloom). In my mind’s eye I saw the rise and fall of the equalizer bars (like on a digital stereo). Also, I experienced the feeling of little pleasure cells bouncing and gently bursting inside my head (I’m concretely describing my actual experience as it’s more of an abstract feeling).

Angels farting….pure heaven in a poof of scented wind, well sometimes anyway :¬)

I’m really not trying to be sarcastic here, I’m only answering to give you a wider range of answers. To me, music sounds like whatever song is playing at the time. Thats all I can really say if talking about music in general and not some specific song. The most abstract thing I can say, is music sounds to me like a sequence.

If we are talking about specific songs, then I can get a little more abstract, specially when it comes to classical and hard rock. I’ll give you some examples.

Examples:

AC/DC – Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap Sounds like a big looming problem, it sounds like trouble on it’s way to being a problem for someone. It sounds serious and dangerous.

Grieg – In the Hall of the Mountain King Sounds like a medieval army, sneaking up on the sleeping opposing army late at night to cut their throats.

Tina Turner – Nutbush City Limits Sounds like building an old western, cross country railway, on a hot summers day, against the clock.

This mongolian overtone singer Sounds like an old man sitting on the porch of his rural house on endless rolling hills, contemplating all the horrible things that he has witnessed in his long life, yet, at peace.

I love music with a good beat, music by someone with a great voice, and occasionally a song with a great message. Those are rare. Most of all, I love music with a good beat. And, in person, love the blues (I want to look into the soul of the singer and feel it).... yeah!!!!

music sounds like everything I feel, have felt and wanted to do.

at least to me, as corny as that sounds

Depends what “music” we’re talking about. The latest release from whoever has won some tv “talent” show usually sounds like nails down a blackboard to me, it might as well be anyone, a duck they’ve scooped out of the local park pond, since they are all “produced” tweaked and put through machinery/computers to sound better than they actually are with the effect that they all sound the same. ick!!

Now if you’re talking about Sinatra, Dean Martin, Rosemary Clooney, OMG!!! sheer class and REAL talent. Back when you got famous because you were gifted, not because you keep being snapped while falling out of a nightclub drunk, or getting out of a limo sans underwear. Double ick!! I LOVE music, everything from any of the above wonderful artists to George Formby, Al Jolson, Jim Reeves to Whitesnake, to the beyond fabulous OMD (who are tremendous live still, we just saw them again in November on their “History of Modern” tour, (having seen them countless times since very early 80’s) they still got it to spare, and I’m so glad that Andy and Paul got the band back together.

I could go on, and on, I have as many favourite artists/bands as I have moods. Music can take me away from a bad day I’m having, it can make a good day great, I suppose what I’m trying to say is that really great music makes me feel, it takes you away to a different place, it clears your mind of all of the noise and rubbish that can clutter it up at times and I can actually feel my body, my nerves relax. Likewise if I’m being a domestic goddess on my day off work and getting stuck into the housework, I’ll have Sinatra belting out and they’re done in no time, and I’ll be singing my head off too lol. There is no way of explaining the sheer joy I get from music.

I use to have perfect hearing. being a musician for many years, i could tell when a musical instrument was out of tune, without the help of a piano. as the years progressed, my hearing is now failing me. too much loud music and too many loud gunshots have taken their toll.

Without my hearing aids, music now is only the bass parts to me, that i hear. i cannot hear the higher frequency instruments in certain songs. i have missed out on so much and did not realize it.

One song in particular, Crystal Blue Persuasion, is a song that i can connect with, for reasons unknown. without my hearing aids, i can hear just about 100% of all the instruments played in this song. i cling to this song for that reason.

Good question. plus one+

Sometimes, depending on what kind of music I’m listening to, it might sound like fuzzy noise after a while. In general though, just noise with rythm. Hah. :)

It depends on the tone of the song, the lyrics of the song, and the rythym. Some songs sound like life, some sound like sex, some sound like anger, some like loss… it varies.

One of the fascinating things about music is that it doesn’t have to sound “like” anything. Music can be a pure emotional language that doesn’t need to reference anything else. Music doesn’t have to tap into what I already have in my library of mental symbols or my past experiences to evoke a response. It seems to be able to tap directly into my emotional circuitry. The classic example of this is how Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring provoked an actual riot at its 1913 premier.

With time, of course, we do come to associate certain musical conventions with certain contexts, so that whenever we hear a certain chord progression over a twelve-bar scheme, then we identify it as a blues piece, and images of down-and-out common folk will come to mind. When I hear power chords from an electric guitar, all of my mental associations with rock culture are going to be called up. How someone reacts to Country or Hip-hop musical conventions will depend on how they feel about rural whites and urban blacks to some extent. Musicians often rely on the fact that we associate certain musical conventions with certain experiences. The popular music of any decade will become the carrier for all of the cultural symbols of that period. Disco now “sounds like” the 80’s.

I listen to almost all genre of music, from rock to pop, classical to folk, I’ll even admit to being stirred by some religious music, some hymns & that’s saying something for a proud atheist….just the music content before anyone trys to convert me…... I just cannot abide RAP music, what a noise!! :-/

Music takes me somewhere out of time and space and I lose myself in it. The music has a kind of texture to me or sometimes a colour but in an almost subliminal way that I am not fully aware of.