The Most ______ Song You Know

[zeeku777]

Hello all! I haven't posted in awhile I'm pretty sure, but I have been kicking around a new idea for a couple of weeks now and finally got around to pitching it to you guys.

So, ever been in a mood and wanted to learn a song that reflects everything you feel? Happiness, joy, sadness, excitement, anger, depression, pure bliss, bittersweetness.. the list goes on. This happens to me all the time, and it's pretty hard to find songs to learn to fit emotions as the titles rarely help at all. So why is it, music being the 'language of expression', that as I search around I can't find any real lists like this? (yes, the forum does have 'Saddest' and 'most haunting' songs threads but nothing really searchable.) Learning music in specific modes does help of course, but not nearly as conclusively as what I propose-

How would everyone feel of trying to compile a list of different key emotions and then everyone could list a song which evokes that feeling/emotion in them? (mando-centric of course! but open to all songs)


A sort of Compendium of Music by Emotion?


Thoughts? I would love to make this a reality but it is really up to all of you!



(and of course, if you know of a list of this sort, please tell me!)

Thanks for reading!
~Henry

[Bertram Henze]

Even the theory of semantic networks fails here,

- because the description of emotion is fuzzy (if a whole song is needed to describe it, what can a few words do?); new feelings are created every day, and new words that fail at describing them ("everything is so obama today").

- because the song/emotion correlation is personal (one song does not speak to everyone - "that fax modem protocol always makes me cry").

Therefore, emotoogling a song will remain a dream (or a nightmare?)

[Willie Poole]

A few years ago I lost a son and the song that told all of my emotions at the time was a song by Vince Gill called "Go Rest High On That Mountain"...I still play it and think of my son all the time....

I`m not sure if that is what you are asking in your post or not, I can`t really tell what you are looking for straight out....


Willie

[zeeku777]

@ Bertram Henze-
You're suggesting 'Empathy' does not exist. Empathy is at the core of human interaction, without it we would not be able to communicate in any productive manner. What I am suggesting is more of a 'One size fits most'. I think that is very, very, possible.


@Willie-
That is beautiful, thank you very much for sharing this! It was exactly what I was looking for.


Now we may not all agree on every song which gets suggested, but it will give those looking for emotionally charged songs a place to look. Listing songs which give off certain emotions so that people may look through them and find one that evokes that same emotion in them as well.


Hopefully this helped explain my idea more thoroughly.
Thanks
~Henry

[joshtree]

Tribute by Tenacious D

or not.

[Barry Wilson]

when I am feeling down about the world I listen to Edgar Winter, Dying to live. I always feel calm and elated at the same time after hearing it and my troubles seem miniscule

[joshtree]

Ok for a more serious answer:
Playing the Mando has opened my mind and heart to so much more music than I listened to before. I have always had what I thought to be pretty diverse musical taistes, albiet (all-be-it, never written the word) my musical prefference is hard-rock centric. I appreciate just about everything but country music. But since learning to play I have grown to appreciate so much that I previously scoffed at such as James Taylor. But now whenever one of my pandora stations plays his song Fire and Rain, I am touched by the fact that this man lost a love tragically at a tough time in his life and then sings about it hundreds of times agian in his life. Now that I have children I get choked up watching the Simpsons, much less singing about my girlfreind dying in a plane crash.
This is what music is all about. As an artist who can paint, draw, and print, almost anything I can think of, I don't imagine I will ever produce something as powerfull as some of the songs I hear for the first time on a regular basis.

[Bertram Henze]

What I am suggesting is more of a 'One size fits most'. I think that is very, very, possible.

Don't know. It is possible that I am not one of those "most", whoever they are.
Example: many describe Blues as sad, soulful, melancholic, emotional. I describe it as void and boring, because it does not speak to me.
I does not bother me, however, to be an alien in the world of mainstream tastes. I phone home frequently. Plus, I know I am not the only one.

[Jesse Harmon]

I guess I think this would fall into such a subjective realm that it would only be possible in a very superficial way. I think a lot of country and blues songs that were supposed to be serious or sad are actually so over the top sentimental that they are hilarious to me. I think that when you are going through personal tragedy that your choices might be very personal. I get what you mean and at first glance I agreed but on consideration it doesn't seem possible.

[AndSoItBegandolin]

I think that in some basic manner we all experience the same emotions on the same basic degree of consciousness. Lets not forget that we're all working with basically the same tools here and although some outside influences may have made some minor changes to the processes by which we experience our world, we are all human after all.

I for one think that this would be a great topic to discuss, going over the reasons why Elvis Presley- Such a Night gets me in a mood that makes me feel like I could conquer the world seems like a great way to burn an hour or five with some friends around the poker table.

The emotion I could associate with that particular song would be elation. Where the real trick comes in, is singling out each particular facet of an emotion. The first thing that came to my mind (elation) is so encompassing that it may be too much for another person to see where I am even remotely coming from. So first there needs to be a set list of human emotion. That's a fuzzy little line to draw but I think the consensus would revolve around things like happiness, anger, sadness, etc. Bringing in words like "Blues" again becomes far too encompassing to put one song to it due to the fact that you are now interpreting the word itself as opposed to the basic emotion involved....

[Jesse Harmon]

Well he did say mando centric so am I right to think he meant chiefly melody, instrumental oriented and not necessarily songs with lyrics? I can see the possibility there perhaps. I would like to see a "haunting" list myself as mentioned on some previous thread. It is also a little hard to separate the melody from the lyrics involved. I would feel the same kind of haunted sense from the melody of the songs, "Let it Snow" or "Stardust" due to my own past associations. (and man do I ever have a past)

[Bertram Henze]

It is also a little hard to separate the melody from the lyrics involved. I would feel the same kind of haunted sense from the melody of the songs, "Let it Snow" or "Stardust" due to my own past associations. (and man do I ever have a past)

It is indeed hard to separate a song from it's surrounding associations. I think that's why pop music business sell their songs packed with ready context stories aka videos. The same song can take on a completely different meaning if put into another context (think: Wagner's music in Chaplin's "Great Dictator" or "Singing in the Rain" in "Clockwork Orange"). Often the song is just a chainsaw used either for honest woodwork or for slaughter.

[Tom Mullen]

I couldn't care less about apathy in a song.:))

[brmichaelpaul]

The most "contemplative" song I know

Shalom Aleichem
When I play this during mass, it puts people in a different world.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGulmvu9s9k&feature=plcp&context=C30fae51UDOEgsToPDskLD-Nh6XNlahTHlyKP5McTk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zGulmvu9s9k&feature=plcp&context=C30fae51UDOEgsToPDskLD-Nh6XNlahTHlyKP5McTk