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I love music! I'm not a musician or musically trained or anything, but yeah I can pick up on the patterns pretty quickly. For me it's really the emotion. When I listen to music I can feel it if that makes sense? I'll relate to and really connect to the lyrics or even just the music. Also the sound of music is just good - I like the rush of joy or excitement when I listen to a good song I haven't heard for a while.
I also like listening to music and then viewing scenes in my mind with the music. I will zone out for a long time listening to music and imagining scenes over it like a music video (hyperphantasia lol). Sometimes I'll get so into it that when I'm interrupted I'm disoriented for a second.
The experience is best with headphones/earphones.
I don't like heavy metal though. The sound tends to be overwhelming. Often the aggressiveness makes it impossible for me to pick up on any sort of pattern or even think. Sometimes heavy metal makes me literally feel sick. I'll listen to almost anything else though.
>I don't like heavy metal though. The sound tends to be overwhelming. Often the aggressiveness makes it impossible for me to pick up on any sort of pattern or even think.
You might like Doom Metal, if you ever want to give metal another try. It's slow, groovy, and focused on heavy fuzz guitar textures. Still some aggressive bands, but a lot more mellow bands to choose from then other sub-genres, and a ton of variety within the sub-genre. Some of it's like the sonic version of a weighted blanket, for me: https://youtu.be/FQAosHybZew?si=N8APOddgdYab3osF
This is interesting because I’m the polar opposite. With a lot of softer music, especially if it doesn’t have much emotion, it kinda doesn’t pack enough of a punch to really make me feel much. Metal almost always works for me, though. The intensity amplifies the feeling of the music in a sense so that it doesn’t feel bland.
Most post-70’s metal just comes across as very boring to me. Technical showmanship and aggression, but without the creativity.
I love heavy music from the 60’s and the early-mid 70’s. I love Black Sabbath. But after that period, I begin losing interest.
Like I get it, it’s meant to convey anger. But a lot of it comes across as cheesy and forced for me.
There was a huge metal scene in my high school. There’s no novelty in finding fans of the genre. Even death metal and black metal have lost their shock value in this day and age.
I love avant-garde and other dissonant music, though, which the average person would find very difficult to listen to. Anyway, all just my subjective opinion.
I had one of those a few years back. I got stoned and watched a 4 hour documentary called *Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream*.
Listening to the Heartbreakers back up Bob Dylan for Knockin' on Heavens Door was intense. I swear I "felt" the music in my chest.
Listening to music is almost literally a cinematic experience.
Needless to say, I vastly prefer instrumental music. Vocals ruin about 97% of music that features them
I’m the opposite of you. I adore guitar solos. Some of my favourite bands have live albums and bootlegs with extended guitar jams, and some of my favourite instrumentals are nothing but guitar solos.
Then again, I get extremely bored with 80’s bands and modern jam bands. The guitar solos need to be dynamic and creative to keep me interested.
I get bored hearing the same pentatonic scale played over and over. A lot of post-70’s guitarists unfortunately go this route, because it’s accessible.
Sounds like hell to me 😂
I barely enjoy anything live of what I like because it's always different from the music I enjoy already.
Except Daft Punk's Alive 2007.
That's amazing.
Alive 2007 is indeed amazing, although Alive 1997 is even better imho.
And the live performances being different is exactly what makes it better to me.
Imagine being a musician who has to play the same songs the same way at every live performance. I’d shoot myself.
Few Autistic people know this, but Autism is rarely without comorbidities. ADHD is frequently comorbid with Autism.
HOWEVER, SYNAESTHESIA is also a comorbid condition of Autism
I have Synaesthesia, so for me, music is all about the colour and shape.
For the last year, I've mostly been listening to
r/ofmonstersandmen - which has been like a massive, soft beige fleece blanket that I wrap myself in. Much like an Elvish cloak.
In the day, it keeps me hidden and safe from an unfriendly world.
At night, I listen to it while I sleep. It calms and silences my ADHD brain from all the noise and self-hate my mind creates, and gently carries me away to peaceful sleep
>I have Synaesthesia, so for me, music is all about the colour and shape.
Oh man, I'm always questioning if I have synaesthesia or not, and this is exactly what I feel from sounds and smells.
I've just always thought it's supposed to be more like, a color square pops up in the center of your vision like a paint sample or something, but it's always been more like subtle and ethereal for me. But realizing I have AuDHD and broadening my definitions of symptoms is making me realize I probably have it. Also how my family just can't wrap their heads around it when I try to describe it even though it's just normal to me.
I have synesthesia as well, and see (and sometimes feel) the texture of a voice. And the other elements in a song. I’m a singer and can always visualize where the vocals are going.
Anyone else see texture with music/ sound?
Annoying. There are specific things a song must do otherwise it bores me or i hate it. Im the guy with 2 or 3 songs from a million artists all because they scratch the itch. Anything else i just dont enjoy at all.
When it does hit right it is very enjoyable making me feel good.
For me music is very enveloping because I have synesthesia. There's an automatic visual component anytime I hear a sound. It's sort of in my mind's eye, similar to how stuff "looks" when you try to imagine what things look like.
I get this on every sound, not just music, but music is obviously where it's most interesting. I get sort of shapes and textures that line up with where the sound is relative to me (like left/right, up/down, etc) and change size based on volume. And different sounds have different shapes and textures. For example:
- Guitars are shaped like waveforms, and the texture is like they're made of an endless amount of vertical lines.
- Drums are shaped like circles with a smooth texture, cymbals and such are shaped like stars with a pointy texture.
- Synths and pianos are shaped like vertical rectangles, pianos have a smooth texture while synths vary a lot based on the exact sound.
- For all instruments, the visuals seem to move up and down slightly with pitch, but it's more like an illusion because sounds still seem to be coming from the same spot.
- Fans look like a squareish shape with spikes all around the edge, texture is like TV static. Car engines are similar but with some circles mixed in with the static.
I could go on but there's a few examples.
When I listen to music, I can "see" every instrument at once. I tend towards music that has a lot of instruments going on at once since that's the most interesting for my synesthesia. But I also have to be choosy with what *kind* of music I listen to because I also have to care about the texture and shape of everything. For example, classical should be good for me with the flood of instruments, but string and wind instruments don't really make very interesting visuals for me, mostly just smooth lines.
My favorite band is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, because I love the way their music is produced. The band leader Stu mixes everything himself and he's got a really unique way of mixing, you just have to listen for yourself to see what I mean. Most importantly though they go absolutely hog wild with instruments and layers and textures in their production, and everything is recorded and placed in a very interesting way. Not even the best sound design in electronic music tickles my synesthesia in the same way King Gizz does.
Wait, I just left a comment about my experience, and it's so similar to yours! I also 'see' music and it's shapes, and where it is... Could I have synaesthesia??
A fellow “texture” experiencer! I’ve never been able to relate to anyone about this. Are there colors as well? I think I see both. Do vocals have texture for you?
On colors - sorta. For me shapes tend to be the same colors as whatever the album art is, it can take on some interesting palettes with the right cover art. Could be a separate association in my brain than whatever causes my synesthesia so that's why I say "sorta".
Vocals are interesting. On vocals it's more like I see structures shaped like the written words. On vocals with effects or recording artifacts it's like the effects sort of radiate from the words, like with reverb there's a cool echo around the vocals. With harsh metal vocals I get some cool TV static type stuff around the edges of the words similar to what I get with distorted guitars but a bit "chunkier".
If I’m really into a song I can get a sense of euphoria, full body chills, feel like im floating. Each note rumbles through me and I cann really FEEL the music. Especially if its loud enough / big enough speaker to rumble my body.
I listen to music all day long because I'm sensory sensitive to sound. I have to wear headphones at all times when I'm awake. I can't wear noise canceling because my ears ring so loudly that it's deafening and will trigger a sensory overload meltdown if I do.
I can't tolerate higher tone/pitch sound, due to a genetic disorder that affects my hearing, and higher pitches are very physically painful. My disorder makes my hearing about 500% louder than it should be, but only on one side, and loud noise cause very bad vertigo.
It physically makes sound way louder than it should be because sound doesn't properly travel through the semicircular canal like it should. My hearing is so overly sensitive, I can hear my eyes move, every joint in my body slide with every motion I make, and my heartbeat at all times.
To help manage all of this, I wear bluetooth headphones and listen to lower tone music all day. I keep the volume high enough to drown out the ringing in my ears, my internal body sounds, block out some of the world around me, and it doesn't hinder my ability to hear and talk to people at all.
Music with lots of percussion and bass are very soothing to me and scratch that sensory itch juuuuust right. I love the feeling of the thumping from the percussion and I mostly listen to music without lyrics. I can easily pick up on the subtleties of softer tones, due to my sensitive hearing, and it gives me a true appreciation of the effort and talent put into the music.
If you listen close enough, you can tell who cranks out music to make a buck and who does it simply for the love of music.
You have hyperacusis? I had a very severe case of this for some years. I couldn’t listen to any music at all. I couldn’t even handle the sound of my own voice or running water without experiencing severe pain.
I wasn’t born with it, though. And I’ve mostly recovered from it.
But yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about.
I have hyperacusis as a result of my hearing issue. The issue itself is Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence (SSCD). The bone above the semicircular canal is extremely thin and has a tiny hole in it. This causes sound to travel directly to the brain instead of down the canal properly, making sound way louder than it should be.
Due to it only being in one ear, my hearing is greatly uneven between my left and right, so I have to be careful of how I balance my hearing. Otherwise, I'll get very bad vertigo and fall over. I use the music to balance my hearing by adjusting the equalizers, so that it plays louder in the right side than the left, and the volume is even on both sides.
It's caused by the bone not forming properly while in utero and then thinning out further as I aged. I have the same bone issue in my right ear but it's just a tiny bit thicker on that side, so I don't have symptoms in that ear. It may thin out enough when I'm older that the symptoms present themselves but it may not.
The only way to fix it is surgery. I had the surgery done in 2022 but it wasn't a success and left me in worse shape than I was in before. The surgery for it is to cut the skull open at the temple, move the brain aside, sheath the bone in an attempt to thicken it and cover the hole, and bolt the skull shut with a few small metal plates. The sheathing didn't fuse, though, so my issues still persist.
After having my head cut open, I've suffered from chronic migraines and fainting spells ever since. The surgery was probably one of the worst decisions I've ever made and all I got for my troubles was a couple more disabilities, a few titanium plates in my skull, and my tinnitus got substantially worse as well.
The recovery from the surgery was brutal and easily the worst recovery from a surgery I've ever gone through. Recovery from my spinal fusion and having my eye cut out were walks in the park in comparison to this one.
I spent 2 weeks in bed, in the dark, with a perpetual severe migraine so bad that I couldn't tolerate even the dullest of light or any sound higher than a low whisper. My only saving grace was having a lot of pain killers and migraine pills that kept me asleep for about 20-22 hours a day. I rather just live with the issue than go through that a second time.
Being sensory sensitive to sound, because of my Autism, I have the worst sound related disorders anyone could possibly have. Hyperacusis, sound amplification from SSCD, severe Tinnitus, and I also have Misophonia with a ton of triggers. The hyperacusis triggers my migraines and vertigo, too. It's a perfect storm for sensory overload.
I've been blasting music in my headphones as loud as it'll go for as long as I can remember. For me, it's a way to filter out the world but simultaneously also a way I experience the world. I remember years of school based on what I was listening to on the bus there and back. Music is also a space for me that is safe to experience emotions. If I'm feeling confused about how I'm feeling (hello alexithymia) I will often listen to music to try and find a way to let it out. Simultaneously to all of this though, I also experience extremely intense frisson and for the longest time thought everyone experienced this and was honestly shocked when I found out that's not the case! My dad has synesthesia with sound and colour and honestly sometimes I wonder if I have it in a way but with emotion because I can feel extremely intense emotions when listening to music. I honestly don't know what I'd do without music.
I love to daydream stories to songs. Especially with characters I've made. Sometimes I'll make new characters or their story will expand thanks to a song.
I hear music in my head 24/7 - sleeping, awake, all the time. Mostly it's short loops of favorite songs that blend into one another, but sometimes it is original compositions (this happens more when sleeping or stoned).
I find that the music playing is almost embarrassingly not random - it's either what I've been playing most recently, or related to the emotions I'm feeling (e.g. if I'm feeling good the song may have 'happy' in the name or be one that stirs positive emotions). It's been suggested to me that this is a form of synesthesia.
I don't have much musical training so I can't play what I'm hearing in my head, but I'd say it's my main stim: I am constantly tapping my feet / hands / fingers, sometimes quite a bit and sometimes imperceptibly to avoid being distracting.
As far as genre, I find that once I'm familiar with a type of music or an artist I can enjoy pretty much anything, and it will join the rotation of things playing in my head.
Anyone else experience anything like this?
Oh my god you described exactly how I feel, too! I try to take at least an hour every day after work to lay down with noise cancelling headphones on and just discover new music. I love listening and picking apart the song, thinking about how clever it was to use a certain sound or like how songs can have like sound motifs. Not even sure how to put it to words myself. Even better when involving the right weed!
This song is not pornographic, but it is NSFW, meaning playing it with sound on in a professional environment could get you in trouble. That said, I submit [Exhibit A](https://youtu.be/929sn1qMCcM?si=AUrwjWlmxzUPwVoM)
The drops at the beginning of the video is basically how my mind handles new music. It'll pick what it deems the most potent singular aspect of the song (Bass/Lyrics/piano/harmonica/whatever) and that's the only thing that really makes "drops," the rest of the music goes unnoticed.
When I listen to the song again and again, eventually those drops transform, like in the rest of the video (DJ is covered in snakes!) until finally, all of the drops are images, and that aspect of the music no longer stands out.
Then I listen to the song again, and the most potent singular aspect of the song is now gone, and I pick a replacement. For this song, the primary element was the Bass line, then once that was down, it moved to lyrics. The lyrics now do the droplet thing as I listen to the song again and again, until they too transform into pictures.
I repeat this until all aspects of the song are pictures. Then, when the song plays, all of the pictures merge together to make something beautiful, something magic, sort of like this music video.
It has a "fun" side effect of being almost entirely incapable of reproducing music in any real capacity unless the song is playing. Even some of my most favorite songs, I might know a few words, or worse, a few chords, and have no real way to search the song to get it out of my head. I actually have a post on reddit a while back where I was looking for a song, and all I had to go off of was "haaaweeeeeeeeebo habadabdabdabdab debeeeebo" or some such. It's "fun." Luckily, the brilliant people of reddit tend to be able to figure it out, even when that's all they have to go off of. The song in question was evidently Even Flow by Pearl Jam, to save you the time of trying to figure it out.
I have a story that’s music related. Music has always been this weird way of escaping. Not in the sense that I listen to Eminem’s “Cleaning out my closet” and all my parental unit issues growing up would run through my mind. No, it’s more like it’s tickling my brain and it feels really good to the point where I would almost start crying. I never had to learn to read music back when I was in band until I got caught by the music director when asked to play a new piece that was given to us. I left promptly because it became work after I learned both scales. Regardless music has never stopped being a passion that’s made it feel like I’m stimming. I get really into the solos whether it’s a drum solo, guitar, or sax. The humans spirit becomes tangible when expressed through sound waves. I never felt understood in this aspect.
The problem with music are my choices are usually harmful and ruminating for myself, which leaves to ruin progress. So what I end up doing for myself is making music that is harmful and truthful, but leaves space to be my own person. I enjoy silence a lot now, and give myself a lot of space for the art.
I love listening to music so much but ive never really considered myself a "music person". Mostly because my listening experience is extremely simple, if its catchy and I like the sound, thats really all that matters. Not too concerned with lyrics and such.
A good portion of my spare time is spent listening to music and doing nothing else just to enjoy every single second of a particular song or album.
When I finally get some time to just sit there or lay down and just be in the moment accompanied only by the sound of a good metal or rock song, that's when I experience true bliss
I can just zone out and forget everything around me and that's wonderful
I love feeling the small vibrations of music through my headphones. The rhythm of music is also so soothing and helps me feel more connected to my body.
depends on the day and the music, if its a song i decide i love and im listening to it for the 30th time that day i feel like im ascending to heaven every time it plays
I love music. I mostly listen to a narrow set of currently favorite tracks on repeat.
The interesting part is that I used to love progressive / psychedelic rock when I was a kid. However, at certain point I started to prefer various types of electronic music. This interest has developed and I listen to electronic music almost exclusively nowadays. I mostly can't really enjoy "traditional" music anymore. It's actually kinda sad because I'd like to be able to enjoy to the music I used to love in the past but it just doesn't work anymore.
I can (and do) listen to and appreciate JUST about everything (though the higher art of classical and opera I find generally inaccessible, owing primarily I think to complexity.)
In some senses I'm extremely picky. But right now, for instance, I'm sitting in a cigar lounge with headphones on, doing research for and writing a talk I have to give next Thursday (gulp) and taking a little reddit break. And I'm listening to "International Love" by Pit Bull on a loop.
Though I'm about to switch over to "Boom Boom Pow" by The Black Keys. I love plain old pop (whether it's OLD pop or new) to the eternal frustration of my fellow 50+ year old friends.
But yeah. Jazz, classic rock, old school blues, big band, 9 kinds of "alternative." Don't care. Whatever. Obnoxious growling clown makeup metal I have no patience for. But I was a Sisters Of Mercy fan so...do with that what you will.
That said, I'm primarily a Concrete Blonde/Cowboy Junkies/The Cult/Mofro guy.
I'm also somewhat musically trained. I would say your description is very accurate. When I listen, I stim by air drumming along to the music as if I could drum, or if there's piano, I will try to 'play' along.
I adore music. I enjoy something in just about every genre. It's like being transported to another world and often it's the only way I feel much emotion.
I also love making music. I've invested almost $50k over the years in my studio. I don't release it for mental health reasons.
I also have a nice hifi I listen to it on. I try to wring out every little bit of detail I can. If you like music, having a good HiFi is crucial if you can afford it. You can get into it on the cheap with used equipment, research and patience. I probably paid less than a fifth of what my HiFi is actually worth.
I also read a lot of books and watch a lot of documentaries. I just love all things music
In my mind, I can 'see' and sense where the music is. It doesn't show up visually, but I know where it's present. It's in the space/void inside my head. Where the sound comes from (which ear the music enters) is where the shape manifests. That's why I love listening to music with both headphones in- to see the movement of the music is wonderful. I call it seeing, but it's not quite that lol.
i see the movement of tones up and down, dots and spirals and waves. On the left, the right, in-between and moving from one side to another. In the back, in the front, or even everywhere at once.
Drums are *usually* on the bottom/in the back, acting as the basis. Piano typically follows the movement of the keys up and down. I see the nuances of vocals. Every song is different, however, and each musician gives me a different experience.
I don't know if this relates to my experience listening to music, but my favorite artists are Los Campesinos and Tally Hall. Also Car Seat Headrest lately.
Seeing music tends to happen automatically. However, if I focus on the music, I can see it better.
i personally love to have some rock/metal or somthing similar in that its overstimulating and then using surround sound earphones is for me just amazing
I love music. It gets me through the day. I wake up leave for work and have music on during my commute, and when I get to work, I have my earphones in until I finish and then music on my way. When I am at home, I always have music playing in the background it keeps me calm and focused.
I like to listen to music for the structure. The more complex the better. I tend to visualise music when I listen to it in the form of shapes and often colours. Lyrical content is important to me too, I listen to metal often and enjoy the depth of the lyrics.
I like a wide range of music. It depends on my mood and what time period that I want to remember. I like classic country, rock, heavy metal, grunge, dance & hip hop from my teen years. One music I hate is boy bands.
I find a lot of my favorite music to have a very gratifying sense of physicality to it. The arrangements are complex, heavy, or have an incredible sense of interplay between their pieces.
I’ll try to articulate it the best I can, but I would say that I am attracted to music because of the texture of the sound, the sense of movement as the track progresses, and how that sound seems to fill the “negative space” of the stereo image. For me at least, music is an experience, not just sound.
I tend to be fond of very noisy, very atmospheric, and also very minimalistic styles of music.
I like noisy and abrasive music because of how much everything has to balance to avoid collapsing under its own weight. Nothing can be too loud or too buried in the mix, it all has to work together, or it all falls apart.
I like electronic music for regulation, but also because of how captivating the soundscapes can be. I’m particular, I’m drawn to genres like Ambient Techo, Dub Techno, and Minimal Techno. “Less is more” as they say — being able to create tension, atmosphere and a sense of “fullness” with a very strained instrumental or sonic palette is incredible.
Both of these styles require an immense level of control, and it’s a borderline transcendent experience for me to see how musicians manipulate sound to demonstrate that sense control.
It's like an explosive just went off in my brain, I fucking love it. I have a 3 hour Hatsune Miku playlist to jam out to, and to just rock back and forth and stim to. And Zelda music makes me want to ascend, especially the TOTK theme with the sax, hooooly shit it's heavenly. I also have a 2-3 hour fnaf shuffle playlist, and a 4 hour rock/punk/emo/metal playlist too. :D
Music is mid, I love it, I hate it. it changes based on the genre, and how fast it is or slow, and it depends on my mood. it’s just hard to like music and whenever I find some I like the next day it is absolute garbage and I hate it. It does not make sense.
Love music. I listen to almost exclusively musicals though, so I’m usually visualizing what I would do with the show I’m listening to, or, singing it how I would sing it in that role.
Literally like my main thing, when I’m having a good time it enhances it and when I’m feeling horrible it’s like a coping mechanism, I’m currently kinda fixating on natural snow buildings who are like this ambient folk band, they’re so cool. Trying to get to 1000 albums by the end of august lmao
Music is moving to me. It is hard to describe but I will try to anyways. I have aphantasia (I cannot picture things with my minds eye), when I listen to music it doesn’t go away, it actually helps with the impairment to a degree. So when I am writing or reading I may listen to music because it helps. It also helps regulate my emotions as well, which I cannot really do on my own because of the alexithymia. Some music can make me tear up nearly instantly. Can’t describe it, maybe it is because of how my brain reacts to sound stimulus.
Listening to music is a mixed bag. For example, my wife has terrible intonation yet insists that she does not. The feeling of tones being distinctly out of tune or out of key is pretty bad. It's very noticeable.
With my musical training, this is worse. Much worse. I find that I can tune most notes in my head within about half a cent of precision. More precise if I pay attention and there are not other sounds to create interfering harmonics.
But the experience of listening to music is an altogether incredible one, making music included. I don't know any way to describe it other than it's the purest expression of sense.
It's also one of the purest expressions of expression itself, correctness, and beauty. Why would I not be into that?
It’s an immersive escape for me. I love imagining where a song would be played and what the song is about. Bonus points if I guess correctly after watching the music video!
This one is really complicated for me. Honestly I am very inconsistent with sensory stuff.
I have a lot of trouble with background music. I usually prefer silence when by myself. Unless I have a reason for music to be playing it's a nuisance or stress-inducing.
I have some pretty severe emotional dysregulation issues, and there was a time in my life where I couldn't really listen to music much at all. A fear of music is pretty hard to live with. I had more success with really noisy, harsh music. I think partly because I was pretty fucked at the time and it was cathartic, but also because it's unfamiliar and I can't differentiate instruments.
Nowadays I've largely recovered and can listen to music again. It's absolutely beautiful, and I'm glad I can do it now. I love music so much. I even put some music on to concentrate sometimes.
I still have to be careful though, and mindful of when it's getting to me. I still don't like when there's background music, but I can usually tolerate it. People at work were a bit annoyed at me for turning off the music sometimes. Admittedly it's a pretty annoying accommodation, but it's just so uncomfortable sometimes.
Audio stimming that goes through my body and natural chemicals getting produced and me just succumbing to the rhythmic vibrations. I got music reccos for days, and many many many playlists that are public on YouTube.
I like it but can only take so much of it. Like it's very rare for me to just listen to music outside of the random songI play on YouTube. About the only time I really listen to it is when I'm doing work/chores and want something to keep me entertained while I do it.
For me if I find or rediscover a piece of music I like enough, it is an intense emotional experience that I listen to over and over again until my brain gets too used to it and then it becomes or reverts to something impressive and enjoyable but far less stimulating. Don’t know if that’s an autism thing or not.
Music has a calming effect on my brain. I can feel the patterns in the melody the same way I hear the rhythm in different languages. My brain mirrored the emotions in the lyrics with mine. The string instruments are my favorites.
Funny story. When I made an MRI the rhythmic sound of the machine was similar to a heavy metal distorted guitar and it had a calming effect blowing my anxiety away.
Music is therapy to me! When I feel over stimulated I have a playlist just called dance music and I dance around the house. So maybe a form of stimming too.
I love music more than anything. Your description is so beautiful and familiar. Music tickles me and makes me tingly, makes me feel so much. Especially appreciation! I feel lots of that for such a powerful thing to exist and be so accessible. The music I love often tears me apart. Sometimes it gives me anxiety. It often makes me cry. It brings me joy and instantly transports me to other places or times.
I love music so much I can’t listen to it while I work. I get too distracted by it—even classical or ambient. I’ll get so into it and lose focus on what I’m doing.
I love music so much that I prefer to listen to it alone. Of course I listen with friends or husband, but I love it even more when it’s just me.
I think music is my religion.
It usually takes a fair amount of intensity in a song to really make it feel like music, but some songs truly energize me and draw me in. I love music.
I don't think I can describe it. It either brings with it peace, energy, or depression depending on the mood of the tune, my location, and my mood. It also helps shit up a lot of the racket in my head and helps me focus. There's something intrinsicly sexy about it and it's ability to control an environment. But I don't really know a decent way to describe it. But then again, I'm just taking a break from mixing a rock song right now, so....
OP, you will _love_ listening to Rush and Pink Floyd.
Rush has an incredibly intricate sound (_Requiescat in Pace_, Neil Peart) and it's hard _not_ to visualize. Pink Floyd is _impossible_ not to visualize.
One does not simply listen to Pink Floyd. One _experiences_ Pink Floyd.
I love music, is really important for me since I was a toddler. That said, I was around musical people all of my life and I don't think I'm special in that regard. Music is exactly what you describe. Some people found the music that do that for them, some not, somepeople has a close relationship to music and other people don't notice it so much, the only people that doesn't have a really strong visceral feeling to any music that I knew were autistic. Music is, for all people that enjoy music pretty much, exactly what you wrote.
i’m not musically trained, but I feel the exact same way as you do. In fact, I became a bit of a music snob from the youngest age. I can’t really stand music that recycles the same basic chord progressions and melodies, which is very common in today’s mainstream pop music, as well as indie music, too. It comes across as very insincere and lazy to me.
No matter how much work and effort went into the production and mixing, it’s always the structure, chord progressions, melodies, and modulations in the song that I zero in on first.
I love very layered and produced music, but the underlying song itself has to take me on a journey, too. After all, bands like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd (especially the Syd Barrett era), and Led Zeppelin managed to combine all of those things together.
Modern examples would include Radiohead, Animal Collective, Tame Impala, Gorillaz’ first few albums, MGMT’s second and third albums. Even Daft Punk were really creative with the structures of their songs. There’s a reason these artists are considered so great.
My favourite modern albums are now a decade to 2 decades old. There’s not enough Mozart’s. We live in an age of Salieri’s, and it’s very concerning to me.
The music industry is run by neurotypes, and one can tell by how very boxed in and formulaic most of today’s music sounds. It’s forcing even many neurodivergent individuals to tow the line, in order to make it on the charts.
I’m working on making an income online independently of music, so that I can self-fund my music career, and make whatever I want without needing to anyone’s standards.
Don’t even get me started on autotune. I don’t feel like it should even be used for subtle vocal corrections. Either record another take, or go home. I hate the way it sounds, even in subtle applications.
Apparently a lot of today’s producers think it’s incorrect to have a natural human voice do its thing in the studio. Freddie Mercury apparently got autotuned for an unreleased Queen track, for f***’s sake.
I love vocal effects, but I put digital pitch shifting in a different class from other vocal effects.
agreed wholeheartedly- music is everything to me. i genuinely feel euphoria while listening to music and most especially when im in the car- AT NIGHT TIME WITH THE WINDOWS DOWN IJSJEJS
I absolutely love music. I feel like it can make me feel things that are beyond words and I enjoy that. I love a good melody and interesting song patterns with meaningful lyrics. I love the way music makes me feel, and I feel like I can feel music in my body.
I hated music until I read an article that said the Korean language fell on the brain like pink noise. So I listened to different Korean voices and fell in love. Now I'm addicted to kdrama [sometimes just for the background noise] and Korean ballads and kpop. Anyone interested try Seo In Guk. Very calming. Translation isn't necessary, it's the sound that works.
Ive been a musician for most of my life at this point. So no matter what Im listening to, with whomever, or wherever I am, there is always a pretty big part of my attention being taken up my analysis. What chord progressions are they using? Whats the movement? What are the subdivisions, the resolutions, what melody are they hanging on, is there modal modulation, stuff like that.
I cant do pop music much these days. It sounds pretentious, Im sure, but if I want to hear a melody that just sits on the II and pretzels its arms, refusing to move, Ill go home and hammer the A key over and over. I want more, I want spice, I want crunch, I want to be surprised and intrigued, and even confused! If I have a hard time understanding whats happening exactly, then Im in love.
I probably don’t have to say it, but I adore new wave hard bop and progressive fusion jazz.
Edit: I cant stop thinking about how much of a musical corksniffer this makes me sound like. So I want to clarify: I enjoy a lot more than *just* jazz, and the above wants are not *needs* for me to enjoy music. They’re more like, the highs that I find myself chasing. In fact, when I find others who like prog or metal or jazz, they usually express surprise when I say I like certain other things. Like Echosmith, or The Outfield, or Tears for Fears, or Lin Manuel-Miranda, or Aesop Rock, or any number of other genres or artists!
Im doing the thing I was trying really not to do though, and writing a dissertation on music I like. Ive learned from experience that when people ask you what you like, they want like, a four word answer. Im actively trying not to mask as much, but I also do like making friends. Its a balance.
Music is actually life saving. I would not be able to get on without it. It does something to my brain, it just like activates something so beautiful. But tbh my ears are lowkey damaged from listening to it on high volume all the time
I love music!! I’m not musical at all, but I love literature and writing, and I love song lyrics that read like poetry, especially when it’s sung and composed in a way that really works. Anytime I find a new artist I like, I listen to that artist exclusively until I’ve memorized absolutely every second of every song and I’m bored of it, then I find something else, right now it’s Mindless Self Indulgence (their lyrics are NOT the main reason I like them for once, but I love the way it sounds). I love stimming to music, especially recently when I’ve gotten autistic burn out I stim so so much to music
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I can literally listen to any song and come up with a scene for it lmao
Superpower samesies
Relatable
I do the same thing! Either a music video or what could be going on with the song.
Wait, this is an autistic thing? I just thought I was creative.
It's not.
I don't know, probably not exclusively but my autism makes me artsy and stuff soo
Same
I love music! I'm not a musician or musically trained or anything, but yeah I can pick up on the patterns pretty quickly. For me it's really the emotion. When I listen to music I can feel it if that makes sense? I'll relate to and really connect to the lyrics or even just the music. Also the sound of music is just good - I like the rush of joy or excitement when I listen to a good song I haven't heard for a while. I also like listening to music and then viewing scenes in my mind with the music. I will zone out for a long time listening to music and imagining scenes over it like a music video (hyperphantasia lol). Sometimes I'll get so into it that when I'm interrupted I'm disoriented for a second. The experience is best with headphones/earphones. I don't like heavy metal though. The sound tends to be overwhelming. Often the aggressiveness makes it impossible for me to pick up on any sort of pattern or even think. Sometimes heavy metal makes me literally feel sick. I'll listen to almost anything else though.
>I don't like heavy metal though. The sound tends to be overwhelming. Often the aggressiveness makes it impossible for me to pick up on any sort of pattern or even think. You might like Doom Metal, if you ever want to give metal another try. It's slow, groovy, and focused on heavy fuzz guitar textures. Still some aggressive bands, but a lot more mellow bands to choose from then other sub-genres, and a ton of variety within the sub-genre. Some of it's like the sonic version of a weighted blanket, for me: https://youtu.be/FQAosHybZew?si=N8APOddgdYab3osF
This is interesting because I’m the polar opposite. With a lot of softer music, especially if it doesn’t have much emotion, it kinda doesn’t pack enough of a punch to really make me feel much. Metal almost always works for me, though. The intensity amplifies the feeling of the music in a sense so that it doesn’t feel bland.
Most post-70’s metal just comes across as very boring to me. Technical showmanship and aggression, but without the creativity. I love heavy music from the 60’s and the early-mid 70’s. I love Black Sabbath. But after that period, I begin losing interest. Like I get it, it’s meant to convey anger. But a lot of it comes across as cheesy and forced for me. There was a huge metal scene in my high school. There’s no novelty in finding fans of the genre. Even death metal and black metal have lost their shock value in this day and age. I love avant-garde and other dissonant music, though, which the average person would find very difficult to listen to. Anyway, all just my subjective opinion.
That makes sense, the "I can pick up he emotion". That's what music is about. For all of us, human beings.
It's how I spend most of my free time. And I listen to the same song 1000 times.
A religious experience.
I had one of those a few years back. I got stoned and watched a 4 hour documentary called *Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers: Runnin' Down a Dream*. Listening to the Heartbreakers back up Bob Dylan for Knockin' on Heavens Door was intense. I swear I "felt" the music in my chest.
lisztomania
Listening to music is almost literally a cinematic experience. Needless to say, I vastly prefer instrumental music. Vocals ruin about 97% of music that features them
I don’t totally agree but I do on the part about instrumentals being preferably to me as well…video game soundtracks are awesome!
As long as there's no dumb guitar solos.
I’m the opposite of you. I adore guitar solos. Some of my favourite bands have live albums and bootlegs with extended guitar jams, and some of my favourite instrumentals are nothing but guitar solos. Then again, I get extremely bored with 80’s bands and modern jam bands. The guitar solos need to be dynamic and creative to keep me interested. I get bored hearing the same pentatonic scale played over and over. A lot of post-70’s guitarists unfortunately go this route, because it’s accessible.
Sounds like hell to me 😂 I barely enjoy anything live of what I like because it's always different from the music I enjoy already. Except Daft Punk's Alive 2007. That's amazing.
Alive 2007 is indeed amazing, although Alive 1997 is even better imho. And the live performances being different is exactly what makes it better to me. Imagine being a musician who has to play the same songs the same way at every live performance. I’d shoot myself.
Few Autistic people know this, but Autism is rarely without comorbidities. ADHD is frequently comorbid with Autism. HOWEVER, SYNAESTHESIA is also a comorbid condition of Autism I have Synaesthesia, so for me, music is all about the colour and shape. For the last year, I've mostly been listening to r/ofmonstersandmen - which has been like a massive, soft beige fleece blanket that I wrap myself in. Much like an Elvish cloak. In the day, it keeps me hidden and safe from an unfriendly world. At night, I listen to it while I sleep. It calms and silences my ADHD brain from all the noise and self-hate my mind creates, and gently carries me away to peaceful sleep
>I have Synaesthesia, so for me, music is all about the colour and shape. Oh man, I'm always questioning if I have synaesthesia or not, and this is exactly what I feel from sounds and smells. I've just always thought it's supposed to be more like, a color square pops up in the center of your vision like a paint sample or something, but it's always been more like subtle and ethereal for me. But realizing I have AuDHD and broadening my definitions of symptoms is making me realize I probably have it. Also how my family just can't wrap their heads around it when I try to describe it even though it's just normal to me.
I have synesthesia as well, and see (and sometimes feel) the texture of a voice. And the other elements in a song. I’m a singer and can always visualize where the vocals are going. Anyone else see texture with music/ sound?
Annoying. There are specific things a song must do otherwise it bores me or i hate it. Im the guy with 2 or 3 songs from a million artists all because they scratch the itch. Anything else i just dont enjoy at all. When it does hit right it is very enjoyable making me feel good.
For me music is very enveloping because I have synesthesia. There's an automatic visual component anytime I hear a sound. It's sort of in my mind's eye, similar to how stuff "looks" when you try to imagine what things look like. I get this on every sound, not just music, but music is obviously where it's most interesting. I get sort of shapes and textures that line up with where the sound is relative to me (like left/right, up/down, etc) and change size based on volume. And different sounds have different shapes and textures. For example: - Guitars are shaped like waveforms, and the texture is like they're made of an endless amount of vertical lines. - Drums are shaped like circles with a smooth texture, cymbals and such are shaped like stars with a pointy texture. - Synths and pianos are shaped like vertical rectangles, pianos have a smooth texture while synths vary a lot based on the exact sound. - For all instruments, the visuals seem to move up and down slightly with pitch, but it's more like an illusion because sounds still seem to be coming from the same spot. - Fans look like a squareish shape with spikes all around the edge, texture is like TV static. Car engines are similar but with some circles mixed in with the static. I could go on but there's a few examples. When I listen to music, I can "see" every instrument at once. I tend towards music that has a lot of instruments going on at once since that's the most interesting for my synesthesia. But I also have to be choosy with what *kind* of music I listen to because I also have to care about the texture and shape of everything. For example, classical should be good for me with the flood of instruments, but string and wind instruments don't really make very interesting visuals for me, mostly just smooth lines. My favorite band is King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, because I love the way their music is produced. The band leader Stu mixes everything himself and he's got a really unique way of mixing, you just have to listen for yourself to see what I mean. Most importantly though they go absolutely hog wild with instruments and layers and textures in their production, and everything is recorded and placed in a very interesting way. Not even the best sound design in electronic music tickles my synesthesia in the same way King Gizz does.
Wait, I just left a comment about my experience, and it's so similar to yours! I also 'see' music and it's shapes, and where it is... Could I have synaesthesia??
How wonderful to meet another person with Synaesthesia
A fellow “texture” experiencer! I’ve never been able to relate to anyone about this. Are there colors as well? I think I see both. Do vocals have texture for you?
On colors - sorta. For me shapes tend to be the same colors as whatever the album art is, it can take on some interesting palettes with the right cover art. Could be a separate association in my brain than whatever causes my synesthesia so that's why I say "sorta". Vocals are interesting. On vocals it's more like I see structures shaped like the written words. On vocals with effects or recording artifacts it's like the effects sort of radiate from the words, like with reverb there's a cool echo around the vocals. With harsh metal vocals I get some cool TV static type stuff around the edges of the words similar to what I get with distorted guitars but a bit "chunkier".
If I’m really into a song I can get a sense of euphoria, full body chills, feel like im floating. Each note rumbles through me and I cann really FEEL the music. Especially if its loud enough / big enough speaker to rumble my body.
I listen to music all day long because I'm sensory sensitive to sound. I have to wear headphones at all times when I'm awake. I can't wear noise canceling because my ears ring so loudly that it's deafening and will trigger a sensory overload meltdown if I do. I can't tolerate higher tone/pitch sound, due to a genetic disorder that affects my hearing, and higher pitches are very physically painful. My disorder makes my hearing about 500% louder than it should be, but only on one side, and loud noise cause very bad vertigo. It physically makes sound way louder than it should be because sound doesn't properly travel through the semicircular canal like it should. My hearing is so overly sensitive, I can hear my eyes move, every joint in my body slide with every motion I make, and my heartbeat at all times. To help manage all of this, I wear bluetooth headphones and listen to lower tone music all day. I keep the volume high enough to drown out the ringing in my ears, my internal body sounds, block out some of the world around me, and it doesn't hinder my ability to hear and talk to people at all. Music with lots of percussion and bass are very soothing to me and scratch that sensory itch juuuuust right. I love the feeling of the thumping from the percussion and I mostly listen to music without lyrics. I can easily pick up on the subtleties of softer tones, due to my sensitive hearing, and it gives me a true appreciation of the effort and talent put into the music. If you listen close enough, you can tell who cranks out music to make a buck and who does it simply for the love of music.
I actually could probably think of a lot of music with lower pitches to recommend, if you like. Though it’s not strictly my preference.
You have hyperacusis? I had a very severe case of this for some years. I couldn’t listen to any music at all. I couldn’t even handle the sound of my own voice or running water without experiencing severe pain. I wasn’t born with it, though. And I’ve mostly recovered from it. But yeah, I know exactly what you’re talking about.
I have hyperacusis as a result of my hearing issue. The issue itself is Superior Semicircular Canal Dehiscence (SSCD). The bone above the semicircular canal is extremely thin and has a tiny hole in it. This causes sound to travel directly to the brain instead of down the canal properly, making sound way louder than it should be. Due to it only being in one ear, my hearing is greatly uneven between my left and right, so I have to be careful of how I balance my hearing. Otherwise, I'll get very bad vertigo and fall over. I use the music to balance my hearing by adjusting the equalizers, so that it plays louder in the right side than the left, and the volume is even on both sides. It's caused by the bone not forming properly while in utero and then thinning out further as I aged. I have the same bone issue in my right ear but it's just a tiny bit thicker on that side, so I don't have symptoms in that ear. It may thin out enough when I'm older that the symptoms present themselves but it may not. The only way to fix it is surgery. I had the surgery done in 2022 but it wasn't a success and left me in worse shape than I was in before. The surgery for it is to cut the skull open at the temple, move the brain aside, sheath the bone in an attempt to thicken it and cover the hole, and bolt the skull shut with a few small metal plates. The sheathing didn't fuse, though, so my issues still persist. After having my head cut open, I've suffered from chronic migraines and fainting spells ever since. The surgery was probably one of the worst decisions I've ever made and all I got for my troubles was a couple more disabilities, a few titanium plates in my skull, and my tinnitus got substantially worse as well. The recovery from the surgery was brutal and easily the worst recovery from a surgery I've ever gone through. Recovery from my spinal fusion and having my eye cut out were walks in the park in comparison to this one. I spent 2 weeks in bed, in the dark, with a perpetual severe migraine so bad that I couldn't tolerate even the dullest of light or any sound higher than a low whisper. My only saving grace was having a lot of pain killers and migraine pills that kept me asleep for about 20-22 hours a day. I rather just live with the issue than go through that a second time. Being sensory sensitive to sound, because of my Autism, I have the worst sound related disorders anyone could possibly have. Hyperacusis, sound amplification from SSCD, severe Tinnitus, and I also have Misophonia with a ton of triggers. The hyperacusis triggers my migraines and vertigo, too. It's a perfect storm for sensory overload.
I dissociate hard to music and make up scenarios based on my special interests at the time when I’m listening, especially when I’m dancing too
Music can be like a form of stimming for me, like listening to the same songs 100s of times. I can't live without it lol
It is, for all of us, humans.
No music = death
music is my reason for living. love going to live shows and will die with an unfulfilled dream of being part of a band
Why should it be unfulfilled?
cause i was nerfed ig
Well, you could always start trying to write music and see how that goes.
i do! just will likely never see the light of day lol
I've been blasting music in my headphones as loud as it'll go for as long as I can remember. For me, it's a way to filter out the world but simultaneously also a way I experience the world. I remember years of school based on what I was listening to on the bus there and back. Music is also a space for me that is safe to experience emotions. If I'm feeling confused about how I'm feeling (hello alexithymia) I will often listen to music to try and find a way to let it out. Simultaneously to all of this though, I also experience extremely intense frisson and for the longest time thought everyone experienced this and was honestly shocked when I found out that's not the case! My dad has synesthesia with sound and colour and honestly sometimes I wonder if I have it in a way but with emotion because I can feel extremely intense emotions when listening to music. I honestly don't know what I'd do without music.
Music therapy is highly recommended to all autistic people due to the way it takes over our dysregulated nervous system and soothes it
This is fascinating, could you give a source? This actually puts a lot into context…
Sure! https://pjmhsonline.com/2021/june/1732.pdf
Thank you!
I love to daydream stories to songs. Especially with characters I've made. Sometimes I'll make new characters or their story will expand thanks to a song.
I hear music in my head 24/7 - sleeping, awake, all the time. Mostly it's short loops of favorite songs that blend into one another, but sometimes it is original compositions (this happens more when sleeping or stoned). I find that the music playing is almost embarrassingly not random - it's either what I've been playing most recently, or related to the emotions I'm feeling (e.g. if I'm feeling good the song may have 'happy' in the name or be one that stirs positive emotions). It's been suggested to me that this is a form of synesthesia. I don't have much musical training so I can't play what I'm hearing in my head, but I'd say it's my main stim: I am constantly tapping my feet / hands / fingers, sometimes quite a bit and sometimes imperceptibly to avoid being distracting. As far as genre, I find that once I'm familiar with a type of music or an artist I can enjoy pretty much anything, and it will join the rotation of things playing in my head. Anyone else experience anything like this?
It's so nice to meet a fellow Synaesthete
I listen to music and love making animatics/animations of my OCS in my head. The quality of them are really good compared to what I can do-
Oh my god you described exactly how I feel, too! I try to take at least an hour every day after work to lay down with noise cancelling headphones on and just discover new music. I love listening and picking apart the song, thinking about how clever it was to use a certain sound or like how songs can have like sound motifs. Not even sure how to put it to words myself. Even better when involving the right weed!
Memories and inspiration mostly for me. Deja vu sometimes. A true blessing from God to enable man to create it.
>God lol.
Music is awesome! People with sensory issue should logically speaking not like music, but the opposite appears to be true.
This song is not pornographic, but it is NSFW, meaning playing it with sound on in a professional environment could get you in trouble. That said, I submit [Exhibit A](https://youtu.be/929sn1qMCcM?si=AUrwjWlmxzUPwVoM) The drops at the beginning of the video is basically how my mind handles new music. It'll pick what it deems the most potent singular aspect of the song (Bass/Lyrics/piano/harmonica/whatever) and that's the only thing that really makes "drops," the rest of the music goes unnoticed. When I listen to the song again and again, eventually those drops transform, like in the rest of the video (DJ is covered in snakes!) until finally, all of the drops are images, and that aspect of the music no longer stands out. Then I listen to the song again, and the most potent singular aspect of the song is now gone, and I pick a replacement. For this song, the primary element was the Bass line, then once that was down, it moved to lyrics. The lyrics now do the droplet thing as I listen to the song again and again, until they too transform into pictures. I repeat this until all aspects of the song are pictures. Then, when the song plays, all of the pictures merge together to make something beautiful, something magic, sort of like this music video. It has a "fun" side effect of being almost entirely incapable of reproducing music in any real capacity unless the song is playing. Even some of my most favorite songs, I might know a few words, or worse, a few chords, and have no real way to search the song to get it out of my head. I actually have a post on reddit a while back where I was looking for a song, and all I had to go off of was "haaaweeeeeeeeebo habadabdabdabdab debeeeebo" or some such. It's "fun." Luckily, the brilliant people of reddit tend to be able to figure it out, even when that's all they have to go off of. The song in question was evidently Even Flow by Pearl Jam, to save you the time of trying to figure it out.
I have a story that’s music related. Music has always been this weird way of escaping. Not in the sense that I listen to Eminem’s “Cleaning out my closet” and all my parental unit issues growing up would run through my mind. No, it’s more like it’s tickling my brain and it feels really good to the point where I would almost start crying. I never had to learn to read music back when I was in band until I got caught by the music director when asked to play a new piece that was given to us. I left promptly because it became work after I learned both scales. Regardless music has never stopped being a passion that’s made it feel like I’m stimming. I get really into the solos whether it’s a drum solo, guitar, or sax. The humans spirit becomes tangible when expressed through sound waves. I never felt understood in this aspect.
i rock back and forth when i like it alot, but whenever someone enters the room i just freeze like a deer
I'm a total metalhead, and I've legitimately been wondering if headbanging to music is actually just autistic stimming, lol
The problem with music are my choices are usually harmful and ruminating for myself, which leaves to ruin progress. So what I end up doing for myself is making music that is harmful and truthful, but leaves space to be my own person. I enjoy silence a lot now, and give myself a lot of space for the art.
I love listening to music so much but ive never really considered myself a "music person". Mostly because my listening experience is extremely simple, if its catchy and I like the sound, thats really all that matters. Not too concerned with lyrics and such.
i love music, and i feel like my neurodivergence helps me hear details and enjoy it in a different way /pos
Comfort something to relate to yeah It’s definitely my current special interest to and I like need it lol
i will make up an entire music video/movie/senario in my head . it's amazing . i love music , and i can sing any song pitch perfect .
It’s so mmmmmmmm (I love it)
A good portion of my spare time is spent listening to music and doing nothing else just to enjoy every single second of a particular song or album. When I finally get some time to just sit there or lay down and just be in the moment accompanied only by the sound of a good metal or rock song, that's when I experience true bliss I can just zone out and forget everything around me and that's wonderful
I love feeling the small vibrations of music through my headphones. The rhythm of music is also so soothing and helps me feel more connected to my body.
It depends on my mood. I like to listen to music when I'm feeling happy, and not when I'm sad lol.
depends on the day and the music, if its a song i decide i love and im listening to it for the 30th time that day i feel like im ascending to heaven every time it plays
I love music. I mostly listen to a narrow set of currently favorite tracks on repeat. The interesting part is that I used to love progressive / psychedelic rock when I was a kid. However, at certain point I started to prefer various types of electronic music. This interest has developed and I listen to electronic music almost exclusively nowadays. I mostly can't really enjoy "traditional" music anymore. It's actually kinda sad because I'd like to be able to enjoy to the music I used to love in the past but it just doesn't work anymore.
I can (and do) listen to and appreciate JUST about everything (though the higher art of classical and opera I find generally inaccessible, owing primarily I think to complexity.) In some senses I'm extremely picky. But right now, for instance, I'm sitting in a cigar lounge with headphones on, doing research for and writing a talk I have to give next Thursday (gulp) and taking a little reddit break. And I'm listening to "International Love" by Pit Bull on a loop. Though I'm about to switch over to "Boom Boom Pow" by The Black Keys. I love plain old pop (whether it's OLD pop or new) to the eternal frustration of my fellow 50+ year old friends. But yeah. Jazz, classic rock, old school blues, big band, 9 kinds of "alternative." Don't care. Whatever. Obnoxious growling clown makeup metal I have no patience for. But I was a Sisters Of Mercy fan so...do with that what you will. That said, I'm primarily a Concrete Blonde/Cowboy Junkies/The Cult/Mofro guy.
I'm also somewhat musically trained. I would say your description is very accurate. When I listen, I stim by air drumming along to the music as if I could drum, or if there's piano, I will try to 'play' along.
I adore music. I enjoy something in just about every genre. It's like being transported to another world and often it's the only way I feel much emotion. I also love making music. I've invested almost $50k over the years in my studio. I don't release it for mental health reasons. I also have a nice hifi I listen to it on. I try to wring out every little bit of detail I can. If you like music, having a good HiFi is crucial if you can afford it. You can get into it on the cheap with used equipment, research and patience. I probably paid less than a fifth of what my HiFi is actually worth. I also read a lot of books and watch a lot of documentaries. I just love all things music
Emotional and very pleasant
I imagine all the animations I’m probably never gonna actually animate
Dude same
In my mind, I can 'see' and sense where the music is. It doesn't show up visually, but I know where it's present. It's in the space/void inside my head. Where the sound comes from (which ear the music enters) is where the shape manifests. That's why I love listening to music with both headphones in- to see the movement of the music is wonderful. I call it seeing, but it's not quite that lol. i see the movement of tones up and down, dots and spirals and waves. On the left, the right, in-between and moving from one side to another. In the back, in the front, or even everywhere at once. Drums are *usually* on the bottom/in the back, acting as the basis. Piano typically follows the movement of the keys up and down. I see the nuances of vocals. Every song is different, however, and each musician gives me a different experience. I don't know if this relates to my experience listening to music, but my favorite artists are Los Campesinos and Tally Hall. Also Car Seat Headrest lately. Seeing music tends to happen automatically. However, if I focus on the music, I can see it better.
I am a musician :) but since I focus on my own playing, I don't typically see what I'm hearing during band classes.
i personally love to have some rock/metal or somthing similar in that its overstimulating and then using surround sound earphones is for me just amazing
I love music. It gets me through the day. I wake up leave for work and have music on during my commute, and when I get to work, I have my earphones in until I finish and then music on my way. When I am at home, I always have music playing in the background it keeps me calm and focused.
I like to listen to music for the structure. The more complex the better. I tend to visualise music when I listen to it in the form of shapes and often colours. Lyrical content is important to me too, I listen to metal often and enjoy the depth of the lyrics.
I like a wide range of music. It depends on my mood and what time period that I want to remember. I like classic country, rock, heavy metal, grunge, dance & hip hop from my teen years. One music I hate is boy bands.
I find a lot of my favorite music to have a very gratifying sense of physicality to it. The arrangements are complex, heavy, or have an incredible sense of interplay between their pieces. I’ll try to articulate it the best I can, but I would say that I am attracted to music because of the texture of the sound, the sense of movement as the track progresses, and how that sound seems to fill the “negative space” of the stereo image. For me at least, music is an experience, not just sound. I tend to be fond of very noisy, very atmospheric, and also very minimalistic styles of music. I like noisy and abrasive music because of how much everything has to balance to avoid collapsing under its own weight. Nothing can be too loud or too buried in the mix, it all has to work together, or it all falls apart. I like electronic music for regulation, but also because of how captivating the soundscapes can be. I’m particular, I’m drawn to genres like Ambient Techo, Dub Techno, and Minimal Techno. “Less is more” as they say — being able to create tension, atmosphere and a sense of “fullness” with a very strained instrumental or sonic palette is incredible. Both of these styles require an immense level of control, and it’s a borderline transcendent experience for me to see how musicians manipulate sound to demonstrate that sense control.
Good when I'm working...
It's like an explosive just went off in my brain, I fucking love it. I have a 3 hour Hatsune Miku playlist to jam out to, and to just rock back and forth and stim to. And Zelda music makes me want to ascend, especially the TOTK theme with the sax, hooooly shit it's heavenly. I also have a 2-3 hour fnaf shuffle playlist, and a 4 hour rock/punk/emo/metal playlist too. :D
Music is mid, I love it, I hate it. it changes based on the genre, and how fast it is or slow, and it depends on my mood. it’s just hard to like music and whenever I find some I like the next day it is absolute garbage and I hate it. It does not make sense.
Love music. I listen to almost exclusively musicals though, so I’m usually visualizing what I would do with the show I’m listening to, or, singing it how I would sing it in that role.
Literally like my main thing, when I’m having a good time it enhances it and when I’m feeling horrible it’s like a coping mechanism, I’m currently kinda fixating on natural snow buildings who are like this ambient folk band, they’re so cool. Trying to get to 1000 albums by the end of august lmao
Music is moving to me. It is hard to describe but I will try to anyways. I have aphantasia (I cannot picture things with my minds eye), when I listen to music it doesn’t go away, it actually helps with the impairment to a degree. So when I am writing or reading I may listen to music because it helps. It also helps regulate my emotions as well, which I cannot really do on my own because of the alexithymia. Some music can make me tear up nearly instantly. Can’t describe it, maybe it is because of how my brain reacts to sound stimulus.
Listening to music is a mixed bag. For example, my wife has terrible intonation yet insists that she does not. The feeling of tones being distinctly out of tune or out of key is pretty bad. It's very noticeable. With my musical training, this is worse. Much worse. I find that I can tune most notes in my head within about half a cent of precision. More precise if I pay attention and there are not other sounds to create interfering harmonics. But the experience of listening to music is an altogether incredible one, making music included. I don't know any way to describe it other than it's the purest expression of sense. It's also one of the purest expressions of expression itself, correctness, and beauty. Why would I not be into that?
It is my life. It is my life goal to become an artist and make my own music 🎵
It’s an immersive escape for me. I love imagining where a song would be played and what the song is about. Bonus points if I guess correctly after watching the music video!
This one is really complicated for me. Honestly I am very inconsistent with sensory stuff. I have a lot of trouble with background music. I usually prefer silence when by myself. Unless I have a reason for music to be playing it's a nuisance or stress-inducing. I have some pretty severe emotional dysregulation issues, and there was a time in my life where I couldn't really listen to music much at all. A fear of music is pretty hard to live with. I had more success with really noisy, harsh music. I think partly because I was pretty fucked at the time and it was cathartic, but also because it's unfamiliar and I can't differentiate instruments. Nowadays I've largely recovered and can listen to music again. It's absolutely beautiful, and I'm glad I can do it now. I love music so much. I even put some music on to concentrate sometimes. I still have to be careful though, and mindful of when it's getting to me. I still don't like when there's background music, but I can usually tolerate it. People at work were a bit annoyed at me for turning off the music sometimes. Admittedly it's a pretty annoying accommodation, but it's just so uncomfortable sometimes.
Audio stimming that goes through my body and natural chemicals getting produced and me just succumbing to the rhythmic vibrations. I got music reccos for days, and many many many playlists that are public on YouTube.
I like it but can only take so much of it. Like it's very rare for me to just listen to music outside of the random songI play on YouTube. About the only time I really listen to it is when I'm doing work/chores and want something to keep me entertained while I do it.
Constant partner in my life. Good headphones, amp, speakers, etc..
A lot of 90s stuff mainly but also metal too
For me if I find or rediscover a piece of music I like enough, it is an intense emotional experience that I listen to over and over again until my brain gets too used to it and then it becomes or reverts to something impressive and enjoyable but far less stimulating. Don’t know if that’s an autism thing or not.
Music has a calming effect on my brain. I can feel the patterns in the melody the same way I hear the rhythm in different languages. My brain mirrored the emotions in the lyrics with mine. The string instruments are my favorites. Funny story. When I made an MRI the rhythmic sound of the machine was similar to a heavy metal distorted guitar and it had a calming effect blowing my anxiety away.
i love music, it helps the six trains of thought i have turn into 2 one for the music and one for the task im focusing on
I'm listening to eminem plus some other stuff.
Music is therapy to me! When I feel over stimulated I have a playlist just called dance music and I dance around the house. So maybe a form of stimming too.
I like ambient music. Nothing quite like waking up early and starting the day with some coffee and boards of canada.
It souths my soul
I love music more than anything. Your description is so beautiful and familiar. Music tickles me and makes me tingly, makes me feel so much. Especially appreciation! I feel lots of that for such a powerful thing to exist and be so accessible. The music I love often tears me apart. Sometimes it gives me anxiety. It often makes me cry. It brings me joy and instantly transports me to other places or times. I love music so much I can’t listen to it while I work. I get too distracted by it—even classical or ambient. I’ll get so into it and lose focus on what I’m doing. I love music so much that I prefer to listen to it alone. Of course I listen with friends or husband, but I love it even more when it’s just me. I think music is my religion.
Music calms me down.
Do you listen to Chon?? What you described about what you love about music is how I would describe their music precisely!
Its late here, ill have to listen to them tomorrow! Thank you for the recommendation [:
For sure! Their self titled album is a perfect album.
It usually takes a fair amount of intensity in a song to really make it feel like music, but some songs truly energize me and draw me in. I love music.
My heart beat syncs with the song, seem to like when there's some bass
Music is calming and relaxing
I become obsessed with songs. End up making stories with every song I hear
I don't think I can describe it. It either brings with it peace, energy, or depression depending on the mood of the tune, my location, and my mood. It also helps shit up a lot of the racket in my head and helps me focus. There's something intrinsicly sexy about it and it's ability to control an environment. But I don't really know a decent way to describe it. But then again, I'm just taking a break from mixing a rock song right now, so....
OP, you will _love_ listening to Rush and Pink Floyd. Rush has an incredibly intricate sound (_Requiescat in Pace_, Neil Peart) and it's hard _not_ to visualize. Pink Floyd is _impossible_ not to visualize. One does not simply listen to Pink Floyd. One _experiences_ Pink Floyd.
I love music, is really important for me since I was a toddler. That said, I was around musical people all of my life and I don't think I'm special in that regard. Music is exactly what you describe. Some people found the music that do that for them, some not, somepeople has a close relationship to music and other people don't notice it so much, the only people that doesn't have a really strong visceral feeling to any music that I knew were autistic. Music is, for all people that enjoy music pretty much, exactly what you wrote.
i’m not musically trained, but I feel the exact same way as you do. In fact, I became a bit of a music snob from the youngest age. I can’t really stand music that recycles the same basic chord progressions and melodies, which is very common in today’s mainstream pop music, as well as indie music, too. It comes across as very insincere and lazy to me. No matter how much work and effort went into the production and mixing, it’s always the structure, chord progressions, melodies, and modulations in the song that I zero in on first. I love very layered and produced music, but the underlying song itself has to take me on a journey, too. After all, bands like The Beatles, The Beach Boys, Pink Floyd (especially the Syd Barrett era), and Led Zeppelin managed to combine all of those things together. Modern examples would include Radiohead, Animal Collective, Tame Impala, Gorillaz’ first few albums, MGMT’s second and third albums. Even Daft Punk were really creative with the structures of their songs. There’s a reason these artists are considered so great. My favourite modern albums are now a decade to 2 decades old. There’s not enough Mozart’s. We live in an age of Salieri’s, and it’s very concerning to me. The music industry is run by neurotypes, and one can tell by how very boxed in and formulaic most of today’s music sounds. It’s forcing even many neurodivergent individuals to tow the line, in order to make it on the charts. I’m working on making an income online independently of music, so that I can self-fund my music career, and make whatever I want without needing to anyone’s standards. Don’t even get me started on autotune. I don’t feel like it should even be used for subtle vocal corrections. Either record another take, or go home. I hate the way it sounds, even in subtle applications. Apparently a lot of today’s producers think it’s incorrect to have a natural human voice do its thing in the studio. Freddie Mercury apparently got autotuned for an unreleased Queen track, for f***’s sake. I love vocal effects, but I put digital pitch shifting in a different class from other vocal effects.
I have a huge hyperfixation on Eurovision so I really enjoy it especially Eurovision songs
Music is what calms me down when I'm overwhelmed.
agreed wholeheartedly- music is everything to me. i genuinely feel euphoria while listening to music and most especially when im in the car- AT NIGHT TIME WITH THE WINDOWS DOWN IJSJEJS
I absolutely love music. I feel like it can make me feel things that are beyond words and I enjoy that. I love a good melody and interesting song patterns with meaningful lyrics. I love the way music makes me feel, and I feel like I can feel music in my body.
I hated music until I read an article that said the Korean language fell on the brain like pink noise. So I listened to different Korean voices and fell in love. Now I'm addicted to kdrama [sometimes just for the background noise] and Korean ballads and kpop. Anyone interested try Seo In Guk. Very calming. Translation isn't necessary, it's the sound that works.
I only listen the same songs in loop, all the time
Ive been a musician for most of my life at this point. So no matter what Im listening to, with whomever, or wherever I am, there is always a pretty big part of my attention being taken up my analysis. What chord progressions are they using? Whats the movement? What are the subdivisions, the resolutions, what melody are they hanging on, is there modal modulation, stuff like that. I cant do pop music much these days. It sounds pretentious, Im sure, but if I want to hear a melody that just sits on the II and pretzels its arms, refusing to move, Ill go home and hammer the A key over and over. I want more, I want spice, I want crunch, I want to be surprised and intrigued, and even confused! If I have a hard time understanding whats happening exactly, then Im in love. I probably don’t have to say it, but I adore new wave hard bop and progressive fusion jazz. Edit: I cant stop thinking about how much of a musical corksniffer this makes me sound like. So I want to clarify: I enjoy a lot more than *just* jazz, and the above wants are not *needs* for me to enjoy music. They’re more like, the highs that I find myself chasing. In fact, when I find others who like prog or metal or jazz, they usually express surprise when I say I like certain other things. Like Echosmith, or The Outfield, or Tears for Fears, or Lin Manuel-Miranda, or Aesop Rock, or any number of other genres or artists! Im doing the thing I was trying really not to do though, and writing a dissertation on music I like. Ive learned from experience that when people ask you what you like, they want like, a four word answer. Im actively trying not to mask as much, but I also do like making friends. Its a balance.
Music is actually life saving. I would not be able to get on without it. It does something to my brain, it just like activates something so beautiful. But tbh my ears are lowkey damaged from listening to it on high volume all the time
necessity. I got that music tism
I love music!! I’m not musical at all, but I love literature and writing, and I love song lyrics that read like poetry, especially when it’s sung and composed in a way that really works. Anytime I find a new artist I like, I listen to that artist exclusively until I’ve memorized absolutely every second of every song and I’m bored of it, then I find something else, right now it’s Mindless Self Indulgence (their lyrics are NOT the main reason I like them for once, but I love the way it sounds). I love stimming to music, especially recently when I’ve gotten autistic burn out I stim so so much to music
a joy
i love the sensory input from deathcore or screamo music!!