Head Songs

[brightrosefox]

Someone asked me once, and then I stopped thinking about it, until just now.
I always have music in my head. A song, a melody, lyrics or instrumental. Doesn't matter, it's just always music. My brain is never quiet. When it does quiet down for a few minutes now and then, I feel strange and incomplete. I ask my friends what goes on in their minds when they're alone and quiet, but nobody ever says there are constant songs. I feel like a radio, switching stations randomly. Here, a song by Sting. There, a song by Tangerine Dream, Then, a song by Lifehouse. Now, a song by Enya. Over and over, different songs, no matter where I am or what I am doing. Always music.
Synesthesia: Songs have different colors too, different sensations on my skin. Words have personalities, physical sensations. I dissect songs and stare at lyrics and wonder at the songwriter's intentions. I am not satisfied until I can interpret the song in any way possible, preferably from the artist's own words.

Tell me, each of you, what songs do you hear in your head? What do they mean to you? How would you interpret them?

Comments

[greenteadragon.livejournal.com]

I don't have songs I have constant chatter in my head. My brain jumps around like a jumping bean. I have to compulsively share whatever comes into my brain. Sometimes having a conversation with me can be like having a conversation with a 5 year old. Ben calls it "child-like innocence", doctors suspect it's OCD. Ha!

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

Ooh, interesting! What sort of chatter? Just random thoughts or actual conversation?

[greenteadragon.livejournal.com]

Kinda both. If I'm bored or in an uncomfortable social situation my active brain shuts off and I "watch" movies in my head. The rest of the time it's random thoughts with some dialogue mixed in. Ben and I will be talking and walking down the street, I will see a pigeon, I'll say, "Look! A pigeon!" in the middle of the sentence I was saying:

Ben: "What do you want for dinner?"
Me: "Hmm...I don't know, how about we have look a pigeon pasta and vegetables I love pigeons.
Ben: Cool. Yeah, that sounds good. Should we stop at the store on the way home?
Me: That would probably be a good idea. I love the colors of pigeons, I think my favorite color is purple now, yeah, we need to pick up some pasta from the store. Not every purple, just that deep purple.

Etc, etc. That's only the outer monologue. Inside, all of those random phrases have a conversational context, it's just a conversation with myself.

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

Hmm. I like that! Adam and I will sometimes do that, bouncing the randomness off each other. So I understand.

It almost reminds me of those "Pinky and the Brain" moments where Pinky blurts out whatever odd thing he's thinking of.

[ronin-lethe.livejournal.com]

I don't have music. i have a constant internal monolouge. someone is always talking in my head, either a running commentary or stories or...something.

the only time i can remember that not happening is when i went skydiving.

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

Is it your voice or someone else's -- or impossible to tell?
Running commentary, stories... I wish I had that. Sometimes my fiction characters talk in my brain like that, but only as background to music.

[ronin-lethe.livejournal.com]

um.
it's always the same voice. it's not quite my voice, and it's not quite not-mine. my super-conscience, maybe? (as opposed to my sub-conscience)

[greenteadragon.livejournal.com]

I agree with this. I think it's how I imagine I sound, rather than how I actually sound. Kind of like a mental imprint of my voice as it sounds from inside my own head.

[ronin-lethe.livejournal.com]

exactly!!!

wow, i'm glad you understand. i was actually kind of worried that writing that might make me sound totally cracked =)

[greenteadragon.livejournal.com]

Well, you might be cracked, but then at least you'll have company! :)

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

It actually makes perfect sense, from a transpersonal psychology perspective...

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

Nice! *perks up*
Makes me want to do some research on the various levels of a person's conscience and how they come across to the individual.

And speaking of random, now I just thought of that episode of the Simpsons:

L. T. Smash: It's a three-pronged attack. Sub-liminal, liminal and super-liminal.
Lisa: Superliminal?
L. T. Smash: I'll show you. (Leans out of window) Hey, you! Join the Navy!
Carl: Uh, yeah, all right.
Lenny: I'm in.

[greenteadragon.livejournal.com]

Me too! (See above comment!)

[scyllacat.livejournal.com]

At this time, I have Matchbox 20's "Real World." I try to write them down when I notice them, but I really am not aware of it most of the time. If the day is bad, the music is missing. If the day is ok, the music is stuck in a loop. If the day is good, the whole song comes in, and I sing. I feel that this is a neurological correspondence, but it could be biorhythms or some stuff. I just know if I'm singing, it's very good, and at least song-stuck-in-my-head is not lonely.

I had Boom-de-yada yesterday, until it morphed into "Heart and Soul." I think I've had Bare Naked Ladies or Hootie and the Blowfish. I know I've had Barry Manilow. I used to get Billy Joel a lot as a kid, which prompted me to buy his albums. Most things I didn't know until later what they were (like, I had no idea that was a Matchbox 20 song!). Does this say something about taste, or just flavor... do some songs stick easier than others? Simon and Garfunkel the other day... they show up a bit: "The Boxer," "Sounds of Silence," "Scarborough Fair".... The other day, I got lonely and had "One is the Loneliest Number" mixed with Dido's "White Flag" in a mashup.

Is this helping at all? I can't see any sense in my inner jukebox.

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

I think there are some songs that are easier, show up in the collective unconscious more often. I've had all your songs, especially Simon & Garfunkel. Easy rhythms, I suppose! I've also had songs morph into each other, although I've never had Boom-De-Yada turn into "Heart And Soul" -- and now that I think about it, it just did. ;)
I do love when they mash up.

I've had moments where the music is so loud in my head, I can barely hear when someone calls my name.

*nods*

[scyllacat.livejournal.com]

I wonder if we started asking a bunch of people, whether there would be a collection like that. Maybe I'll do a survey.

Re: *nods*

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

That would be a great idea!

[fire_my_spirit]

I get songs stuck in my head, and I imagine most people do. When it becomes troublesome for me is when I'm having some kind of bad stressful negative energy night -- then the song will run in my head very "loudly" until I listen to it; doing this "lets it out", if you will, so that my own thoughts and the song itself can sync and quiet down. The worst time like this I can remember was one of incredibly high stress, and I had two completely different songs playing at the same time, over and over, and I could "hear" both of them clearly. It took a lot of energy out of me. I wonder if it's some kind of subconscious way of coping, my head trying to divert my attention forcibly to something else? I wouldn't be surprised.

More of my sort of audio stuff has to do with my alter-egos. Often when I have a thought I can tell which "direction" in my head it came from. I think of my mind as being a sort of house, and everybody has their own corner, and the one who has a tendency to make perverted comments -- whenever one of those pops into my head I always know it came from her corner because of the sort of personality the thought has coming with it. It's less of an audio-sensory thing than a. . .feeling kind of a thing, but they've meddled with that before, toPr

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

That is a fantastic theory, one I share and have experienced. In times of stress, my mind will play certain songs, and they'll get louder and louder until the anxiety passes. It can be quite tiring, because a lot of concentration and energy is thrown into it.

[wikkidgothbabe.livejournal.com]

i get that too! it's like i've got a built in CD player or something! It's not constant, like how you describe it, and the songs basically depend on my mood, but i've "listened" to entire Sarah Brightman CDs without being near a CD player...

[brightrosefox.livejournal.com]

Mmm, Sarah Brightman...
I would be so happy if my brain started playing a bunch of her songs.

[wikkidgothbabe.livejournal.com]

i can sort of *program* my brain to do so at times...