Monday 28 October 2013

Those self destructive songs

Right, this is not a post about Angels and Airwaves as I had planned. I will get back to that.
This is about those songs that you listen to when you're feeling down, or want to feel down, be it just to feel, to rise up anew after, or wallow in your own pit.
It started tonight by watching Twenty One Pilots' Car Radio again, for me, a song about loss, hope, anger and acceptance. The imagery of Tyler taking the clippers to his hair a sign of torment, the crowd build up a sign of hope to come, the release is just that, joy, anger, all together, the two emotions that mix so easy, and then, the ending. the quiet refrain, the falling back off the empty stage, the re-appearance of Tyler's hair. The End. I tend to think so often how music gets me going for things, uplifts my mood, extends a feeling of happiness, gets me through mediocre tasks, gives me an outlet for my anger, helps me focus and channel my thought patterns, I often forget how it can interact with my more negative side. Then, that one song comes on...and I'm sure most of you know the rest.
These songs, the ones you won't listen to 8 times out of 10, and 1 time you'll front up so no one else knows. All for the sake of that 1 play that means everything. I know from conversations with other people that I'm not the only one who has these songs, and even now I'm wrangling with myself over whether to write mine here, as they cannot be re-captured once published.
I wonder how many of you have these songs with a darker meaning. I wonder if you'll share yours if I share mine, or even if I don't. I wonder if it even matters if you or I do.

What do you do with these songs?

Do you listen to feel some tinge of pain/regret/remorse/sadness/utter misery that you will feel alive again after? (I must say, I think this is stereotypically why some women choose to watch films that make them cry.
Bloody Notebook.)

Do you listen to them when you feel down, to bed that sadness in some deep seated emotion to verify it, maybe even to feel sad just to prove you're human?

Do you listen to them to continue an ever extending downward spiral?

I listen to mine for several of the above reasons, but sometimes (most annoyingly,) they just creep up on me. Out of nowhere and 'oh crap I'm listening to x.' Brilliant, now I'm unsure how it's going to affect me, and I'm in public, or at least, with other people. Very little is more unsettling and unnerving to me.
Tonight I watched Car Radio, out of choice, due to having a Twenty One Pilots session, I then, enjoyed the shiver the drop sent down my spine and listened to something more upbeat. It could've gone another way, but this song doesn't have any particular meaning attached to it yet. Maybe that's the trigger.

Are all your songs with emotional tags?

Is it maybe that the song coincides with a time, and it could've been any song? Or is it the song was always there, and the emotion/event/whatever resonates with that particular feel or episode?

Have you ever done anything about or with these particular songs? I have learn't to play one of them, and seen it and some of the others performed by the respective artists live on several occasions. It still gets me, but at least when I play it, I own it, all the feelings are mine, and so, they are all good feelings, no matter how sad.

I will share two of my songs, I have more, what would you expect of someone like me? But the two I will share are important to me. I've probably mentioned them before. So don't muck them up. I will not share why.

1) Evanescence - My Immortal. The original version, no electric guitar Ben Moody show off guff, a piano, some strings, Amy Lee.
2) Jimmy Eat World - Hear You Me.

Ok, time to go listen to some Kid Rock and see some girls dancing in bikinis. Hope I haven't ruined your night!

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