Mood Driven Playlists

Have you ever listened to music and then suddenly gotten into a line of songs that drove your mood either up or down and then continued to choose songs that further pushed that mood deeper either way? Well, that’s what I’m doing right now, driving my mood in one direction and further in that direction.

Sometimes when I get depressed I’ll listen to music to drive myself further into a depressed state, instead of doing the logical and listening to mood lifting tunes. When I’m lifting I’ll listen to songs that drive me to push harder or that drown out those voices that want me to quit. When I’m running I’ll listen to music with lyrics that distract my mind from my screaming legs, songs that take more mental horsepower to comprehend. I want to push my limits until I break, whether mentally or physically.

This may sound a little odd, but I use to create playlists and use the date as the title. That way I could go back and see how I was feeling on that date. When reviewed that playlist I could feel those feelings again and know how I was feeling at the time. It’s like creating a lyrical time capsule for me to open a year later and delve back into my own head. Unfortunately I gave my old Ipod away and lost most of my playlists from the year before.

At the moment I’m kind of at a loss for what I’m thinking. I’m sitting in the corner of our maintenance/MWR conex listening to an interesting mix. I started with some Ingrid Michaelson, then moved on to some Seether, followed by Kings of Leon, then back to the Kings, which I’d like to see in concert when I get home. Now I’m listening to Ludacris…

I think what I’ve taken away from my music choices while I’ve been here is that they aren’t very much different from my music choices back home. I have my down days, like I always have, I’ve had my up days, like I always have and I’ve had my status quo days. Other than a different location, different situation and different people, life goes on like it always does.

It might be a stretch, but I also believe musical selection reflects a person’s ability to deal with various situations. It’s just a matter of determining how you feel when you prefer one song to another. I’m willing to wager that if you ride with me somewhere when I get home that there will be a lot of up beat music playing.