External influences over your musical enjoyment.

[Shaun]

When you listen to a song, or album, or mixtape (etc.) do you believe that the condition(s) you are in at time of listening have a significant impact over your enjoyment of the music itself or not?

And carrying on from this - do you therefore try to establish a norm before you judge music for its merits?

For example, a new album comes out. You give it a listen. It's raining, you've got a bit of a toothache and you're worrying about an exam next week.

Contrast this with: a new album comes out. It's summer, you're with friends and having a nice drive somewhere.

There's bound to be a change in your perception of the music, no? I mean other than the obvious associations we make with music: such as what a song reminds us of (people, places, events).

[Benjamin]

Indeed, sometimes I listen to music for the first time when I'm down and love it, but when in a really good mood I detest the exact same song.

I had more to write, but I'm lazy today so won't harp on. :hugesmile:

[Z]

Definitely, I mean when you're in a negative mood you listen to music that either justifies it or tries to cheer you up (depending on whether you're angry or depressed, I suppose) and similarly listen to different music when you're in a positive mood. When it comes to listening to new music, I have to be in a neutral state of mind to be able to decide whether I actually like it or not - and plenty of music that I dislike I've made that judgment based on hearing it when I was in a bad mood, I know that but now that I've made that connection, my opinion likely won't change even when I do hear these things again.

-overanalyses self; dies-

[Niamh.]

yeah definitely. I often listen to music and like it more because it reminds me of a good time I had and makes me nostalgic. Equally, if music reminds me of something bad even though I normally might like that music, I'd probably turn it off to avoid being reminded of the particular thing that it's reminding me of