Music

Advisory: In this post I'm going to refer to the Myers Briggs' Type Theory extensively. So, to better understand this, I suggest that you familiarise yourself with it first.

Everybody listens to music. Everybody has their own choices. Some like all kinds. Some like some aspects of all genres. Some just listen to fill the silence, without really listening to it. People are defined by their music choices. So much are the people defined by it, that at some personality classification site I saw music instruments being assigned to personality types. And I can't deny that the instrument for me is something I really like to listen to, but still, I'm the 'some aspects of all genres' guy (It's piano, btw).

During my hunt for topics to write, I noticed differences in music tastes between me and my two ESFP friends. They listen to EDM (Electronic Dance Music) all the time. Even when sitting in the lecture hall, waiting for the lecturer, they start playing EDM songs on their phone. I don't mind EDM. I like it because it gives you some kind of an energy boost but there's only so much I can listen to it mixed with the noise of the class. While writing this, I am listening to a pretty good EDM mix but I know that if they play it in the class on the flimsy speakers of their phones, I would get seriously irritated. Even when I was sick with high fever and a headache, the ESFP insisted on playing EDM on my 4.1 speakers, which resulted in him being forced by me to listen to slow, old Bollywood songs. In the end, he couldn't stay for more than 15 minutes. Wait... I lost track of what we were talking about.

Yeah, so, basically, it got me thinking what could be the reason that whenever I listen to music, I find my brain mildly buzzing (Its quite pleasant, comparing to the constant loud noise of thoughts). I started with the ESFP's behaviour. It was quite simple. They are known to be the powerhouses of all the personality types. So, with the music also being like a powerhouse, they identify with it and thus, they really like it. Also, EDM represents rave parties and such phenomenon, which is kind of like an ESFP's natural habitat, thus another reason to identify with it. One more thing I noted was that the ESFP didn't only like EDM, but also songs like Backstreet Boys, 'Let it be' (The Beatles)(I can almost squeal like a girl in its approval, forgetting my obvious, overflowing manliness). I find these songs to give off different kinds of energies, all powerhouses of some kind. Some made one feel morally charged, motivated, some made one feel warm and fuzzy (Well, that's what I've been told. I am an INTP. I don't get warm or fuzzy. I'm iceman). So, this adds further to my theory that the ESFP identifies with them.

Then I came to analyse me. I really love piano and cello instrumental music, especially the compositions by The Piano Guys (my favourites are O Come, Emanuel (I actually squeal for it) and The Cello Song). I also like classical, both Indian and Western. What I found was that these songs basically were a complex system of overlapping patterns with multiple dynamic variables, branching out in different directions as they progress, which is basically what my life is (my thoughts are) like everyday. This makes me identify with them. Also, I really like songs with a heavy bass presence. For that, I thought that there is an explanation. I like to be brutally honest, both in my thoughts and my speech. Thus I often live with the dark themes, something everyone else notices only occasionally, much like the bass. Also, I prefer to live a simple life and I prefer moving unnoticed among people, again like the bass. In that way, I identify with them. Also, I am less than fond of love songs (especially Bollywood). I haven't been able to explain it properly, but I think it could have its roots in a bitterness that might have formed from being unable to identify with any person, and being misunderstood or not being understood at all constantly. But the lack of fondness could also be because most of the love songs are about pain and suffering due to mistakes or something, because I don't feel any empathy for people who cry over their mistakes or can't accept that something bad happened to them and can't move on. I think the lack of empathy may be because these people feel strong emotions and are overwhelmed by it, while here I am who has to struggle to feel mild emotion and crave to feel strong ones. This is analogous to how a hungry, poor person cannot understand the worries of an urban teen. Also, I think being overwhelmed by the emotions and falling into the toxic cycle of weeping and complaining shows a weak, dependent person and I really don't like these qualities. I prefer independent, responsible, mature people (even if not mature enough to know that maturity is overrated, I make do with whatever level they have if they are funny or interesting). I think this tendency of mine also roots somewhere from the before mentioned bitterness. Maybe because I am unable to properly identify with anyone, I seek out values, inculcated in me by these circumstances, in others, desperate to achieve some form of identification with another human being. But its all just a thought.

You might be wondering why did I blabber about my problems etc for so long. Well, it was just to stress that the music choices of a person can tell a lot if you have the ability to ask and heart, too, if asking about yourself. I really found this angle of looking at something so common a part of our lives quite interesting.

When you zoom out from this topic, you'll feel the real impact of how profoundly one's internal state affects their actions, and how much can another person read from your actions.

This leads me to answer a question I was asked by the ESFP, that why am I not interested in other people, each hiding a surprise, a new experience. The answer is, why would I go out to explore while my own home is so magnificently unexplored. I do go out from my mind to meet people, but just for a change and also to look for new tools and ideas to break open the gates to new areas in my mind.