Emotional reaction to music?

Question

I bought a cd from a band I really like.  I've listened to them for years, since I was in college.  I haven't listened to them in quite a while.  Well, I was listening to the cd today and there wasn't a song I could get through without crying.  I don't understand it.  I have an okay life now, but it is quite different from how it was in college.  I think part of it might be someone I was involved with back in college.  I had a 3+ year relationship with a woman while I was in college and for a year or 2 afterwards.  This was her favorite band too.  I have a man I love now, and I am engaged to him, but something about that relationship I never got over.  I don't know what my question is, really, but I am shocked that the music brought forth this kind of reaction.

meggus31 · Accepted Answer

You are not alone.  This happens to me all the time.  So many songs that I hear will take my mind right back to the situation I was in when hearing the song.  Sometimes it's so bad, I have to turn the radio off or change the station.  I too was in a relationship several years ago that took me 6 years to get over.  There was a lot of music involved because he & I spent a lot of time going to concerts and listening to music.  It was just the other day when a song came on that was playing one time when we were making love, and I didn't have to change the station.  And I feel the same way, I have an OK life now too but nothing like it used to be when I was younger.  They say music has the power to evoke very strong emotions.

~RedBird~ · Answer

Yes, yes, yes. Happened to me yesterday, actually. A sort of mundane song that I'd never really paid much attention to, not my style, although it made it pretty darn high in the Billboard charts. Heard the same song yesterday. It was played at a memorial service for someone that I wasn't particularly close to, but I attended out of respect for the deceased's mother. My cousin and I bawled thru the entire song. Never, ever did I imagine I'd be crying thru this song. Emotions are a strange creature indeed.

LostCause · Answer

same thing happens to me now when ever i listen to my favorite band. i used to like the lead singer but i don't think that's what makes me want to cry. every time i listen to their songs that i cant get enough of it makes me so sad i have to stop. funny thing about that is i just felt that way before i came on the computer. but they're songs just make me so sad not only the words either.

Anonymous · Answer

You haven't closed that chapter of your life yet and therefore are responding to old feelings that are coming up.  Its quite different from one relationship to another if you haven't fully realized that you may be still have feelings for this person,

Glinda W · Answer

I do the same thing, I heard amazing grace the other day and started crying.....We sang it at My Mom funeral,,she was blind and when it gets to the part where it says Once was blind, but now I see.....dang crying now just typing it.

¡Free Love! · Answer

The same thing happens to me when I listen to certain songs. It's normal.

I just don't listen to those songs anymore.

Jess · Answer

Music does that to me too. It's a very strong trigger for memories of specific times in my life....

Anonymous · Answer

I can't listen to Beethoven's Moonlight Sonata because of someone I have in my past, (sort of this past summer too AGAIN).... so I avoid hearing it. :o&#92;

Emotional reaction to music?

8 Answers