Musical social-mindset associations

Neither the meaning of lyrics nor music videos have ever formed any part of my enjoyment of music. My enjoyment of music is purely down to the complex, memorable arrangement of rhythms and pitches.

I often do not process the meaning of lyrics of a song I am listening to, even if I am singing them back to myself. I normally have to read them as text to fully process their meaning.

This feature extends beyond lyrics and music videos and encompasses all cultural or ‘non-musical’ aspects of music, including traditional ‘release’ formats, such as album or single, the persistent use of certain old instruments such as guitar by convention, despite the current availability of digital waveform synthesisers, and the use of a traditional verse–chorus structure.

None of these form any part of my enjoyment of music. I enjoy a track per track (per continuous, memorable audio) and never pursue or value a particular multi-track single/EP/album release, nor do I idolise or follow the lives of any artist responsible for the track. I usually try my best not to know the personality of the artist, since they will always have the social mindset, and this can stain their music in my mind.

Since auditory memorisation is an innate source of pleasure (like sexual imprinting), my friend retains a significant degree of musical social-mindset associations, including the recognition of albums, the liking of conventional use of guitar and the liking of the use of a traditional verse–chorus structure. He also requires the presence of lyrics in a song for him to like the song. This is similar to his larger retention of sexual social-mindset associations than mine.

At age 7, I had one significant instance of a social-mindset appropriation with music. My father was highly and persistently enthusiastic about a song that had played on the radio. I appropriated his level of enthusiasm and described the song as my favourite song, and when my father would ask what my favourite song was, I’d reply back with that song, even though it was not of any of the genres I typically listened to (it was rock), and I never went out of my way to listen to it. I continued to much prefer listening to electronic music, including electronic remixes of the very song in which its lyrics were chopped up and indiscernible.’

At age 17, I stated:

‘I will always unfortunately have a stuck image of this whole culture surrounding the music when I hear the guitar, metal culture, the styles they wear. I find it cringey, being honest. However, when I go after [music], I go after individual songs; there’s no culture surrounding the artist.

It might tie in with how you find it hard to separate lyrics from the rest of the song. However, when I listen to music, I listen for the music: the beats, the rhythms, the interesting sounds juxtaposed in a shuffling intricate pattern. That’s how my ear perceives it all, and the more detail I hear packed into a short time frame, the more I find it pleasing to hear.

I think for others, it’s more of a message and an expression of emotion, a telling of a story. I don’t like the telling-a-story part. No one can tell a story I can relate to except for me. And why not just be poetry? I consider music music. That’s why about half the tracks I like have no vocals, or very few.’

At age 18, I stated:

‘Could you believe that there are articles claiming that British people sing in an American accent because it’s “natural” and “closer to ‘General English'”?^[1]

Made-up rubbish, made by people living in a pipe dream, creating their own reality to feed their own beliefs and live their own fake existence, irrespective of history and reality.

It’s unconscious, but American music flooded into England in the 1950s [after the US bailed out Western Europe after World War II with the Marshall Plan]. It’s been instilled as a norm, a rogue norm.’

At age 19, I stated:

‘About the empathising people tending to like wifty-wafty music: there it is on paper [in a study by Simon Baron-Cohen and others^[2]]; knew it was right. But it’s that imagery thing that I can’t get over. It distracts from the music, just as lyrics distract, just as rap distracts.

I have nothing to do with the EDM [electronic-dance-music] community. I’ve not once considered myself part of a community in my music taste. My music taste is the most alone thing you can think of. I know no one who thinks like me with music. You see the festivalgoers, obviously; that is the community and something I don’t understand. It’s just not me. It’s something I’ve yet to wrap my head around.

Even just by the names [in a metal track my friend sent me], I can see the imagery they’re trying to get across. It stops being a matter of music and starts being a matter of imagery and portrayal. That’s what I don’t like.

It’s something I don’t look for or want in music. I don’t want a philosophy in lyrics or names. I want only music and whatever the music evokes. I don’t want imagery that can be achieved without music.

I don’t want screaming and lyrics and names. That’s all non-music stuff. When I see crap littered on top of [the music] and connotations layered onto it that aren’t related, I hate it.

There should never be personality cults around music artists. There should never be a culture around an artist or music genre. That’s why [I hate] J-pop and K-pop.’

At age 19, I stated:

‘Don’t know if I told you, but a few months ago, my sister expressed shock that I was still into electronic music. She tried to base it on the fact I was into it years ago, therefore she expected me to no longer be into it.

It’s as if people can’t understand how I’m so rigid. I’ve been into electronic music literally all my life, meanwhile my sister transitions from girlband pop to emo rock to rap music in just a few years.

I’ve already come to a conclusion regarding music tastes: most people don’t listen to music for the music; they listen for the associations, cultural ones, for example. They listen for lyrics and whatnot. I listen for actual music: notes, melodies, harmonies and rhythms. That’s why I’ve been drawn to electronic music.

That’s another thing about me: I could never like an artist or album, only individual songs. The difference with me is that I don’t need lyrics in a song. I only see the voice as another musical instrument. I can’t even pay attention to the words when I’m hearing music. Words are a distraction.

I’ve never met another person with a music taste like mine. I would show an example of music I like, but I know it would get met with instant rejection [or misinterpretation]. That’s just what I’ve received from literally everyone I’ve ever spoken with lol.’

At age 20, in response to a YouTube video in which someone asked someone else why so many people are into metal music, to which the other person responded that it’s an ‘escape from reality’ and ‘a great way to feel a sense of community’, I stated:

‘Hahahaha, that justification at the end. They’re talking about music, or, at least, they’re supposed to be, not a social group, but it is a social group at the end of the day.

It’s the fact it just so beautifully, succinctly proves everything I’ve been saying about rock in general and most other genres of music.’

At age 20, I stated, ‘[A YouTuber] just said, “I love it when musicians put so much into the music videos. I think it adds so much.” Proves everything I ever said about how people see music.’

At age 20, I stated:

More mind-numbing repetitivity and the obligatory asking people to comment their favourite songs to help each other find “something new”.’

My friend replied, ‘Yes. They’d trust someone else’s judgement over theirs, and that’s a crucial one, because you wouldn’t do that. I wouldn’t do that.’

I replied, ‘No, but even expecting others to ever find a song you like. Exactly, or ever expecting them to like a song you send.’

At age 20, in response to a girl stating, ‘This guy’s voice is so autotuned but this song is good. Respect the tune but not the auto tune’, I stated:

‘Hahaha, how she couldn’t even find a song she liked that lacked digital musical production, that as soon as a song gets digital, these girls start hating it.

I’ve never liked a song less due to autotune. I can’t think of a single time it’s happened, and most of the times, I’ve liked it more, or disliked it less. I overhyped autotune back in the day, but I still like it.’

At age 20, my friend stated:

‘You know that thing in a rock concert, the mosh pit, where people “mosh”? Work out what the point is in that. The focus is not the music at all. It’s not music, and that just shows you how they’re not there for the music.’ I replied, ‘Yes. I know of that. All of concerts and their associations are bad.’

My friend continued, ‘Studio-quality music is tonnes better than live quality, for a start. I’d never go to one. If I found myself in that, I’d shit myself. I don’t know how they’re so happy.’ I replied, ‘Exactly.’

At age 21, I stated:

‘For the social-mindset people, they’ll go for Iron Maiden or Eminem, or even K-pop, since that’s not music, just an idea; just like metal, basically, an idea of a rough, grandiose concept.

The music I listen to is auditory information, auditory density, harmonics and rhythms and frequencies. It’s on that level. I pay attention to individual overtones when I’m listening to sounds. I picture the resonance and cutoff. I reconstruct it back in my head, how the sound was made.

The social mindset fundamentally doesn’t alter music; it just alters everything on top.’

At age 21, I stated:

‘That’s another thing I’ve noticed. People describe music in weird ways. They ascribe all sorts of emotions to it, attach all sorts of emotions to it: relaxing, sad, scary, making you want to dance, etc.

For me, there is essentially only one emotion derived from music, and it’s an emotion of pleasure. It pleases me to memorise the complex audio stream.

It makes no sense; how can music make you feel sad if you want to go out to listen to it? It has to be providing pleasure, reward. All music provides reward at the base level. Anything else is created by the social mindset and is fake, basically, an episodic memory, not the music itself.

Basically, it’s like anime; I’ll be able to see, clearly, that the anime character is intending to portray or elicit cuteness, but I won’t be able to feel it. Likewise, I’ll be able to tell that a certain song is intending to convey a scary, sad, happy, etc. atmosphere, but the only emotion I’ll feel in response to it, if it’s a good song, is pleasure, if it’s one that replays in my mind and that I want to learn.

Relaxing music does not compute with me. It’s nothing you can gain from music. Music provides basic pleasure. Where does relaxing come from that? Where does one extrapolate that from that?

In fact, the concept of relaxing doesn’t exist to me. It’s stupid. It’s another fake social-mindset creation produced from the ability to pursue unproductive and pointless activity due to the reward from episodic memories, which I don’t have, so my only choice is to be productive.’

At age 21, my friend stated:

‘I have no choice but to recognise the units of distinction [for music] that have been put in place [i.e. albums]. You don’t have to, because the music you listen to doesn’t have that.’

I replied, ‘They do. I have liked every single song off a multi-track release before. It means nothing for the multi-track release. I don’t even remember anything about it.

Fundamentally, music is memorisation of a single audio stream, so anything that’s not that is not music, any valuation, that is, any reward from something that’s not that.’

My friend continued, ‘If an artist existed for you that produced songs and released them in batches, and you happened to like every single one of their songs, it would be another 12 or so songs you get to enjoy, so it would have to have a meaning attached to that event.’

I replied, ‘It doesn’t really work like that for me. There’s no meaning. If there were one, it wouldn’t be music, anyway. The reward from music is only the reward from music, and that’s what I go after.’

My friend continued, ‘If there were an artist called “songs [you like]”, and it released a batch of songs every year, you would be awaiting that release. You would, and you’d be referring to it that it was even better than the last or whatever. I’m just using the official terminology for it, because there isn’t another one, and that happens to be album.’

I replied, ‘Let me try to imagine that. The only way I can do that is to imagine an artist whose songs I liked who had not posted in years, who I’d be pleased to see post again to see what they sound like now, but I still wouldn’t attach that to a multi-track release.

How good an album is is irrelevant to me. I never even consider making that assessment. It’s always about how good the song is. When I see an EP with a few tracks, I listen to each, and I remember how good each one was. I think, “Oh, that track was good. I might listen to that again”, and it stops there.

I never think about the EP at all, never assess the EP as a whole, never give that any weight or value or thought. It’s only about the songs in it. How good an EP or album is just doesn’t matter when it comes to music, because fundamentally, it’s not music, not a continuous, memorisable stream of audio.

I just never pay attention to albums, so I never even know. It’s literally not something I ever go after. I never await an album, and when an album comes out, I never even happen upon it. I happen upon the SoundCloud stream or YouTube notification for each song.

That’s actually how it always goes: I’ll see a bunch of new songs from the same artist, and it’ll be obvious they’ve been released from a single release, but I’ll receive them as independent songs and listen to each and quite often never even know what album or release they came from, never know the name.’

My friend replied, ‘Fair enough, but you really can’t ignore when you like the music I do. You have to accept it, basically, even when the music that I’m listening to is for a totally non-social reason.’

I replied, ‘The reason I’m sceptical is because people do it for the music I listen to, the very same music. They value the EPs and albums of the exact same songs I listen to, so I find it hard to believe there’s an inherent distinction in genres. I hear people go on about [one artist I listen to]’s EPs, for example. Noise to me.’

My friend replied, ‘I like stats. The only attention I paid towards albums was for statistics.’ I replied, ‘But I believe that’s what other people do too. They rate albums. I can’t rate an album, because it’s irrelevant to me, not music. I think, it just doesn’t matter.’

I continued, ‘I think, why it is something people are spending any time on, like fiction? Where’s the reward in it? The reward comes from the audio, not a concept extrapolated from multiple independent items of the audio.

It’s good that I’ve realised I can still get reward from music without it having to remind me of childhood or anything at all, really. It’s good to know that reward was always there from the start, always served as the core basis, that anything else was just layers on top.

It’s true. I don’t get lost in imagery in my head when listening to music, and I can clearly remember having done so years ago, but yes; it’s all in the moment now. It doesn’t conjure up memories or imagery, doesn’t conjure up nostalgia. I get the reward directly from the audio, how it sounds in the moment.’

References

1. ^ "Why British Singers Lose Their Accents When Singing". Today I Found Out. 2013-08-09. (Archive version from 1 October 2020.)
2. ^ Greenberg, David M.; Baron-Cohen, Simon; Stillwell, David J.; Kosinski, Michal; Rentfrow, Peter J (2015-07-22). "Musical Preferences are Linked to Cognitive Styles". PLOS ONE. PLoS Journals. 10 (7): e0131151. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0131151. ISSN 1932-6203.

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