Mood Music

On this past Saturday night, I was randomly checking my computer in between 15 other tasks I was trying to get done to get ready for this busy week. One of the websites I now constantly keep open is twitter (follow me @rustincolor). And when I checked Saturday night, I noticed quite a few tweets from the various members of All Time Low saying different versions of “Alex is fine now, thanks for the concern.” Going back through a few hours worth of tweets, I found that the lead singer had had a panic attack on stage, causing the band to play a few covers while he caught his breath and calmed himself down. This apparently is a recurring condition for him, this attack just came at a very inconvenient time.

Now, I have had a couple panic attacks in my time, though nothing too terrible (then again, I did quit one job once, and drop out of school for a semester, then transfer schools, so I guess they weren’t completely harmless). And many of my friends have also had some version of a panic attack or minor meltdown. Incidentally, the friends that come to mind all have similar music tastes as me.

This realization got me thinking: how much of our music taste has to do with our mental state? I have said time and time again that they are directly related: I know when I’m going into an extended state of depression because I unconsciously change my music playlists from the more pop, synth heavy music I have (Cobra Starship, Mayday Parade, new All Time Low) to more dark, rock based (old Yellowcard, Red Jumpsuit Apparatus, Linkin Park).

I can also affect my mood with music: on deeply depressed days, I know that I have to hit my low before I can come back up, and to do that all I have to do is listen to “When We’re Old Men” by Yellowcard and “Adam’s Song” by Blink-182. These songs are part of the healing process.

I often wonder if you can truly get into some of these emo/pop-punk songs and bands if you don’t feel some version of this way. All of my more shallow friends seem to be into more shallow bands (Brittany Spears, Miley Cyrus, The Jonas Brothers – I gotta admit, I’m not even sure what they listen to, the last two were pure guesses).

I have also been wondering more recently to what extent music effects different people. I know for a small group of friends, we put music up with family and air as some of the most important things in the world to us. I have conversely discovered that there are many people who consider music low-level entertainment, background noise for cleaning or driving, but nothing that could be truly life-altering.

So here’s the question I’m left with: How does the music we listen to affect our mental health? And does our mental health affect the music we listen to? Or are they totally unconnected for the common man?