Getting into the headspace of the professional artist?

Post Reply New Topic

I'm posting this just because - I want to get a sense of it; does anyone else hear music in such a way where they feel like they feel like they can dissect the artist a bit? Get to know them as if they were someone they knew as a friend/acquaintance/etc. by listening to what they create?

While I wouldn't take the quantum leap to say this sense is fully accurate, when I listen to music I find myself able to really immerse myself in it, when I know a little bit about the artist I'm able to - at least it seems - very realistically visualize them, as someone as purely human as myself with just the right combination of internal fire in their gut, perhaps reminding me of someone I've known in the past, perhaps a composite of several, where I'm able to think of them and even construct them as if I knew them? I know they're full flesh and blood, they've never regarded themselves as anything different, but it seems as though when you hear really good music it's tantamount to really good communication.

I understand, easily, as a musician, that music is about the most intimate way that a person can share their passions, what makes them tick, share what builds up within them that they find that they need to share. Especially through my mid 20's the paradigm shifted - when I was younger, especially since a lot of the rock bands I idolized (ie. Alice In Chains, Tool, Faith No More, ST, RHCP) took on as much of a deified form as adults - as compared to myself back then, in my mid 20's I started seeing people younger than myself making it big, and especially as I started seeing people in my age range and even younger - or reflecting on those who were younger when they made it and listening to their lyrics, beats, and the manifestation of their own headspace - their inner most thoughts brought to about the most ideal form possible - I got that sense that I could really empathize, ie. take my life experience, take my sense of psychology, and really delve into the mechanics of both a) who they were and b) what lit a fire under them - internally and externally - to make them great composers.

Yes, its a bit of an abstract concept, its a tough one to really explain - people either can relate I'd guess or can't, but tonight I just got another reminder of this trait that I have in listening to the tone of beats, to lyrics, to emotion rought into it, just by pulling out an old Mobb Deep cd on my way home, listening to P and H give it their all (circa 1999) and while I can't say its a perfect guess, I was just amazed by what my mind could pull from it.

That's the thing about music, the more it seems like you can extract from it, the more you can decode its communication, the more it seems to grow on you - any genre, any angle, sure you'll be partial to some motifs but still - it seems amazing just how deep you can dive into it in a psychological sense.

Anyone agree?

Music affects me like a drug of great euphoria and other intense emotions,
and has motivated me to establish my own Music Lab,
while I am absolutely boycotting the evil industry.

But I am certain that it is no universal language,
and not everyone feels the same way about the same song.
I don't doubt your experience.
I believe that I could probably create a picture of a band
using the sound of their music with a machine, and blind people
may have the ability to "see with sound" also.
I wouldn't be able to "see" through my headphones what a band looks like,
but I believe it is possible that you may be able to.

Oh, I'm sorry, what you are describing is like a sense of empathy responding to
the voice and sound of the musician.

I think what you described can be different for everyone - I do know what you mean though, and I think you hit the nail on the head with what you said. I couldn't have described it better.
I think when I listen to music I feel the need to know them more, and I look up all information on them - rarely are the people ever what they seem to be in their music.
One of my favorite bands is my Father's band. I listen to it and I think "Wow, this is so great - But in real life, he is so much different". Its bit depressing, but I think a musician has two sides - His or her's real side, and then the side they show in the music they create.

100% agreed, usually as well if I'm getting that far I have sense of the band/producer/rapper to where if I listen to their songs and hear them really taking a mood and make it sink in epically, I get the sense that its inspirations that just build up within them - they wouldn't have the energy to act like that all the time as often the music is an almost supernatural representation of ideals, it wouldn't be practical - people don't get into that on the social level, I think a lot of times what I'm driving at is going in the direction of contextualizing both. I think I feel compelled to go that far because as a musician I'm always trying to get a sense of how other musicians 'tick', seeing if it'll help me in my own endeavors.

Silly idea: what if people sang to each other instead of talked,
like birds, or like thespians on musical theater stage?
Why not?