Do You Ever Imagine How Other People Feel When They Listen to Your Favorite Songs?

No matter which songs are in our list of favorite music, we all love them for the way they make us feel. So often I listen to my favorite songs by myself in the privacy of my own room. For some particular songs, I wonder how they make other people feel. I believe we all feel somewhat similarly when we listen to them together, but how do we know if we are actually feeling the emotions to the same degree? Some songs really get to me. I believe the environment and setting plays a significant role into feeling the emotions of the song.

My room has no lights on and the only light that comes into my room is that from the hallway, as my door is open. As I listen to the ending of The Lion King at night while lying side-ways on my bed and looking out the window into the dark and peacefully quiet night of my suburban neighborhood, there is such an unmistakable mix of feelings that permeates my mind and body as not a single thought comes into my consciousness to interrupt those feelings. As the soft, tender notes of the individual instruments unite to form the song, Can You Feel the Love Tonight, I feel a sense of loneliness that is not overwhelmingly sad or burdensome yet profound and even yearned for. This type of loneliness is a feeling I actually enjoy and want to bask myself into. As I write this I wonder why. Why in the world would I enjoy this feeling of loneliness? Perhaps it’s because this song elicits a mix of emotions including feelings of deep emotional closeness along with the feelings of loneliness. Perhaps the reason this song stands out to me more profoundly than any other average love song is because it elicits feelings of both extremes. It is because when I listen to this song, I can feel those feelings of connection- almost a soul like connection with someone- with the feelings of loneliness that together magnify for the ultimate expression of human connection.

The breaking of the fellowship soundtrack for the Lord of the Rings: the Fellowship of the Ring elicits similar feelings as well. Feelings of despair, fear of the future and unknown, loneliness, misfortune, and pity for oneself arises and dominates the opening minutes, followed by a swift rise in hope and feeling of camaraderie stemming from an unexpected union and companionship that sweeps one off their feet when tender feelings prevail over previously capped-up burdened emotions. The vast majority of all emotionally powerful songs have a sad element to them. They wouldn’t be loved if they didn’t.

It might be possible that I am overly sensitive to the more powerful human emotions. But the sad thing is that we will never know. I can’t know with certainty whether someone listening is feeling the exact same emotions to the same degree as I am. The fact that we may all feel the same emotion generally but to varying degrees can be scary if someone can’t seem to grasp why you would feel so strongly about a specific song. Although there is no precise method we can use to measure our subjective experience towards our favorite songs as a method for comparison, it’s the belief that the vast majority of us feels very much the same way towards specific songs that allows these songs to thrive, to still be listened to, and loved to this day and on.