Music alters mood, and mood alters what kind of music you want to hear. This isn't really news, it's, as Terry Pratchett put it so well in his Discworld book The Times, Olds. But it's kind of hard to actually give people news nowadays, and the most I hope for most of the time is a sort of a new view of the olds.
There's been a lot of research into what the music we listen to tells about us, and some definitive answers have been given. A lot more interesting research, however, has been done in the fields of how we perceive music. For example, the research put into how we automatically label the major scale as happy and minor scale as sad is really, really interesting. As far as I'm aware, they still don't know, but the facts so far are that the perception is rather universal, discounting the people neural disabilities concerning music. Oh, and people seem to have a hardwired scale of music in their brain, this being specifically the pentatonic scale. Don't believe me? You don't have to, you can believe Bobby McFerrin:
The pentatonic scale, unlike the heptatonic (from which the major and minor scales derive) uses five notes per octave and is common all around the world. It seems to be a sort of a prototype musical scale that everyone has somewhere around the lizard brain, or something. They don't really know, or if they do, they haven't explained it so that I would understand it. But you have to admit, it's really cool. Here's to hoping they don't stop researching stuff like this.
I mentioned that music alters mood and vice versa, but I've noticed a bit of a different personal note on this as well. It might be more common, but since I don't know I won't be making assumptions. My musical taste fine tunes by the change of the seasons. Some basing for this might be in order, so: I listen to almost everything, from dance music to electronic hard core trance, hard rock to ballads, heavy to instrumental classic. I don't have a definitive music taste, and I'm actually slipping further away from anything specifically definitive more and more as time passes by. But there's something I have noticed about my musical tastes: it changes slightly with the seasons.
When summer starts rolling into autumn, with the darkening August nights, in come the moody, filled-with-feeling ballad types of music, the likes of the kind of stuff you'd hear in a Modern Western when there's a montage where the hero travels days and weeks alone, through whatever wasteland or forested mountains is the imagery of the day. Maybe a bit upbeat, maybe with a touch of energy, but kind of lonesome and moody. Lonesome ballads shifting through the fabric of songs, the balance getting darker and moodier the further into the darkening autumn we go.
When spring really arrives, I feel the urge to listen to energetic music, the kind that makes you dance and jump and run, with nothing between you and all of the open world: stuff that really gets you pumped.
This isn't to say that I listen to only this kind of stuff in a given season: actually, even changes in weather and what I've been doing fine tune my playlist. I have a song for biking fast in the rain, honestly. For some reason it just rolls around in my head whenever it's raining and I'm going somewhere, on a bike, fast. That song is this one:
More into music, I want to maybe introduce you to three artists, all of whom I first met through soundtracks. My advice, to all of you: listen to soundtracks. It's an awesome way to find new artists, if Spotify isn't really your thing. There's soundtrack veterans like Hans Zimmer and Harry Gregson-Williams, who are veritable legends of the trade, but especially indie games and some new movies and games are awesome places to find new artists. Onwards, to the three I wish for you to meet.
First off, Eddie Vedder. This man's voice is like ear chocolate. He's the person behind the soundtrack of the movie Into the Wild (which you should watch as well. It's a bit different, but in a good way). Out of that movie, this is my favorite song. Eddie Vedder - Society.
Next up, Woodkid. He's a bit of a budding artist, having done one short ep and two singles so far. Him, I found through Assassin's Creed: Revelations trailer. He uses a bit different set of instruments for his songs, and this one personally I think rocks socks off kittens with claw issues. For this specific song, the video rocks as well. May I present Woodkid - Run Boy Run.
Last, but not least, the man behind the game Bastion, which I think I've been saying good things about here before. Well, if I have, it deserves a second mention: Bastion is a storytelling and gameplay integration masterpiece, with a story and characters you learn to love throughout the story. If you don't have it, get it. If possible, get it with the soundtrack. The man behind the soundtrack, by the way, is Darren Korb. The soundtrack is a well-themed combination piece that holds as a whole while at the same time variating enough to make each song feel different. It's good on it's own, and it's awesome in Bastion. The theme song of one of the characters, however, is one of the most touching things I've listened to in years. Darren Korb - Mother, I'm Here.
This concludes today's post, so I'll just leave you with a parting thought. Listen to music, lots and lots of music. Listen to new music, because you can never know what you might like. Music is awesome. Music matters.
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