The influence music has on us as a whole

I've been fascinated by this phenomenom for years now, and it baffles me that I haven't found many people who truly feel that way too. Like yeah of course listening to your favourite song is going to make you happy in a sense, but it goes waaaay beyond that. For me, my entire mood is dependent on what music I'm currently listening to (or what I did listen to earlier). Let's say I'm currently listening to melancholic Synthwave: I feel a deep sense of stillness and I can feel how my heart rate lowers, I enter a state similar to hypnosis/trance and then suddenly, my entire body starts feeling like it's being forced by an invisible power to be underwater. There's so much pressure coming from the top that I suffocate and start feeling numb. The result of that: I feel sad, to put it simply.

But if I were to listen to some good old Hardcore/Hardstyle (like S3RL's Remix of ''Calls to heaven'', which is the type of music I'm referring to right now), I'd immediately start feeling euphoric. It's even more intense when I wear headphones. I love bass, high bpm and strong melodies, so this type of music is bound to lift me up. I instantly feel better, and depending on the melody, I might start feeling a sense of nostalgia. It's a total overload of my senses! I get all worked up and start feeling true ecstasy, all caused by swinging air. Crazy, isn't it? My music teacher once put it bluntly like that: Music is essentially nothing but swinging air, and when you describe it like that, it feels so bizarre that the vast majority of us are so obsessed with it.

I personally am really grateful that I'm one of the people who experience music like that, because not everyone does. You can compare it to ASMR: There are the people who can get tingles, and then there are the one's who don't. 

I love feeling goosebumps everytime I connect with a song (Like DJ SHARPNEL's Fake Promise), because it reminds me of how much of a human I actually am. Humans are emotional and the fact that soundwaves can trigger so many emotions inside me is a gift. But just like everything in life, it comes with a sharp blade on the other side. I can for example have a favourite song, but refuse to listen to it, simply because it puts me in a bad state of mind.

Slightly off topic, but what I also find interesting is how we associate experiences or people with certain songs. For me, every song I actively listen to eventually turns into music from ''a part of my life''. Every few months, a new part is born, as I'm actively listening to new music (Despite never actively going out of my way to look for new songs! How do these songs always find me?!)

Once I listen to these songs, I feel like I'm in the past again. I personally heavily associate the fall of 2021 with goreshit's ''Goretrance 9'' album, and when I listen to it, I feel like I'm a 13 year old Osu and MovieStarPlanet addict again. This isn't neccessarily bad, but this phenomenom disconnects me from the now alltogether. I want to practice presence more, which is why I kind of want to avoid getting triggered by songs I used to listen to in the past.

But luckily, whenever I listen to My chem, I can blend out the memories I have of being an emo kid. Sometimes listening to old songs can be refreshing in a way, so it's not that bad alltogether.

I wonder if there are any studies regarding all of this? Probably. Will I look out for them? Ask me again tomorrow.