Confession time: I like to sing along and play air guitar to music when no one is around.

You’re probably thinking, “What? Everyone does that.”

Yeah but does everyone put on headphones, and lose themselves in the song? Possibly too.

This is probably true for almost any person that 1) has access to music and 2) feels a connection to music.

For me it can be any genre of music. It can even be music that is purely instrumental. Just listening to the music creates a story in my head that, like a good book or movie, can make me feel lost in it for hours. Sometimes I become attached to a song because of the lyrics, other times it’s because of the actual music that makes me feel connected.  It’s also really good at helping you escape when you need it. If you put on headphones and focus on the music, the rest of the world just disappears for a few minutes.

I realize the majority of you who will read this post will either a) not click on any of these videos to listen to the music or 2) if you do listen, it won’t be the same experience for you that it is for me. And that’s fine. That’s the pretty awesome thing about music. It’s very subjective and what works for one person, doesn’t always work for another. Heck, it sometimes doesn’t even work on the same person. I could like a song, and then 10 years later listen to it again and be like “What on earth was I thinking?”

For me right now, the songs I’m listening to feel like they are part of a bigger story. Either they describe a character, a plot, or the entire theme of the story can be summed up by one song.

So what songs am I currently listening to that make up my current stories? Here’s a random sampling.

“Found Out About You” by the Gin Blossoms – So this song originally came out in 1992 and I think I discovered it in 8th grade. That’s 17 years of me listening to this song. Every couple of years the lyrics become extremely relevant. It’s actually kind of scary how accurate the song can become in my life.

 

“False Alarms” by Josh Groban – No music post these days is complete without a Josh Groban shout out. But no really, this song has been on repeat in my car lately because I really like the music and can relate to the lyrics.  This may possibly be the only one of his songs that I will know by heart when I see him in concert this summer. I still haven’t really listened to the rest of his songs yet.

“Heaven” by The Walkmen – Yes, this is the song that was featured at end of the finale of How I Met Your Mother but I try not to let my feelings of that taint this song. It’s a sad sounding song. But when I hear it, I can see a story. If that makes sense.

 

“El Scorcho” by Weezer – This has been my favorite Weezer song since high school but in the past few months I may or may not have changed some of the lyrics to fit recent circumstances.

 

“Time” from the Inception film score – This song, I can listen to over and over again. I actually wrote a story based on this piece that had nothing to do with the movie, just how the music made me feel. I also would love to incorporate this somehow into my future wedding one day (if my future husband would consent to it). Though by stating this publicly means it won’t happen. But one can still dream.

So what songs are making stories in your head lately?

Photo credit: http://500px.com/photo/5644024/ostin-by-mariana-mikhailova?from=popular