Stream of Unconsciousness

ive asked myself this question many times, and i'm sure its already been answered, so this post is merely a way of finding out for myself (either through your comments or me suddenly discovering the answer in a secondary way)

how does music affect your brain? your psyche? your attitude? rather...does it even do that?

i don't think theres any denying that it does affect you in one way or another. in the most elementary way, we can say that music is best at triggering memories (one of the five senses just so happens to be hearing). hearing a song may make you mad or happy based on an event associated with those feelings. for instance, if you heard tom petty during your first kiss with a girl, youll get a little happier than most when you hear him on the radio (or sad, depending on your current relationship with said girl). likewise goes for a vice versa situation. thats just a basic example, but i want my question to veer away from memory. i want to know if music has such an effect on you when hearing something for the first time.

obviously you can be amazed at how good a song sounds and, for most, good music washes over a persons mind and gives them a shortened sense of bliss, because good music makes them happy. but can hearing an amazing song make you uncontrollably sad if youve never even heard it before? further, can it make you as low as youve ever been, and you dont even understand the lyrics? its safe to say we can take lyrics from any song and relate our own experiences to them, thus triggering memories, but can the music alone put you on a completely different plateau?

in honor of my blog name, please just close your eyes and listen to the song accompanying this video:



i dont know about you, but i almost started crying the first time i ever heard this song. for all i know, it may just be me, but this song makes me feel like ambience and power mixed together in their own way can even go so far as to weaken your muscles and make you weak at the knees. the other experience i have with this is when i was at a concert for my favorite band, and one song made my legs start to shake. however, i had heard this song, and i knew it was coming. that being said, i think its difficult to align the two feelings, because in the latter instance, i knew what was coming and i was mentally prepared for it (despite not knowing i would go weak at the knees.)

im looking forward to your comments on this. please enlighten me on how you feel.