It seems to me, people use the term "emotion" in regards to music too broadly and say "I like music which has emotion to it" or some such thing. What exact kind of emotion is one (or perhaps, you specifically) usually deriving from music when one mentions music being "emotional", can one be more specific about it, and why is "emotion" necessarily a good thing?
Of course, it's understood that different songs will create different emotional responses within the listener, but when a song is just say, "happy", no one calls that "emotional". It seems a song has to be say "intensely" blissful or profoundly sad or say, nostalgic, to a listener, in order to be called "emotional", or at least that is often the case.
Anyway, what do you normally mean when you say you like music with "emotion" to it. It seems that's just as vague as saying you like the "musicality" of a piece (I'll get to that in a later Q).
Also I'd like to make the claim that music does not actually "have emotion" to it, music in itself is just notes/sounds, the listener projects emotion onto those notes/sounds. I'm not sure if that will be relevant but I'll throw it out there anyway.
MQ2: Most "emotional" piece of music or song for you, and what emotion does it mainly convey? Try and analyze it.
MQ3: Favorite "unemotional" piece of music/song? And if you can answer this, what exactly is the appeal? Is there something inherent in music which is "good" that does not have to do with any sort of emotional response?
Update:@GESM: Yeah you're getting sort of at one of my points here, which is, is the purpose of music necessarily to convey emotion?
It's odd that most people from this section would say "conveying emotion" is the only purpose of music, while it seems like those in the Classical section for example would give me a far different answer.
Likely the answer would start with, "there is no objective purpose to music", but then I'd ask, what is it's purpose "for you"...
****, now I might have to ask something in the Classical section.
Update 3:@ismoke: Even if this were for a HW assignment, that wouldn't necessarily mean I haven't formed my own opinion on the issue, I'm just asking for others as well.
Answers & Comments
Verified answer
Well, of course music does not have any motion. It's just soundwaves.
When music is "emotional", it can convey emotion. It can altar the emotion of the emotion of the listener. This is, of course, subjective.
What I have read about the emotiveness of music is that the emotional response of various intervals is based on the similarity to human vocal patters. "Sad" music follows the same patterns that are exhibited by a sad person's speech.
Personally, I find important to be able to hear subtle (or not-so subtle) inflections and imperfections to help convey emotion, which is why I prefer recordings not to be too clean as to be "sterile".
MQ2: I'll go with Converge's "The Broken Vow". Lyrics that I can relate with, dissonant chords, and a vocal approach that just sounds very pained, to me.
edit: Actually, I would still argue that the major point of music is to convey emotion. Even when there is some auxiliary motive, such as selling a product, or chronically historical or spiritual traditions, the reason someone puts it into music is to appeal to, and manipulate the emotional state of the listener. As much as humans like to think of themselves as complex and intellectual beings, we are still mostly just controlled by emotional responses to stimuli. Music, as with all art, is simply a recreation of these stimuli. Even if it may not be outwardly apparent, nearly every decision you make is based on simple emotional response, from which justification is formed. From the most commercial of pop songs, to the most contrived advertising jingle, to the most complex classical piece, music may not have a profound emotional effect on the listener, but the listener will have some emotional response to that music, as they will to any environmental stimulus.
In general, responses to music are able to be observed. It has been proven that music influences humans both in good and bad ways. These effects are instant and long lasting. Music is thought to link all of the emotional, spiritual, and physical elements of the universe. Music can also be used to change a person's mood, and has been found to cause like physical responses in many people simultaneously. Music also has the ability to strengthen or weaken emotions from a particular event such as a funeral.
Music doesn't have emotions. Music is a concept more than anything.
People have emotions. People make music.
See how great being forthright can be?
Or..wait a minute, I may have just created an anomaly, there....
This is how I look at things: if the music makes you (being a person, of course) feel something, then it's accomplished what it's set out to do.
That is, assuming that the idea is to convey emotion.
Dream Theater is a show-off band if I've ever heard one...but a lot of people really 'feel' them. Which I don't get. Then has the music lost its purpose, or...?
And of course, we can't just completely disregard the songwriter's relationship to his own work.
This is too damn complicated for me to answer, KC.
MA2:
Ehhhhm...maybe "Heroin". But I'm not sure.
MA3:
I don't know, KC. I just don't ******* know.
See, the beauty of music (and art in general) is that it is different for every one, both as a whole subject, and as individual pieces. I could choose to like a song for many reasons, whether I like something about the composition (the beat or the vocals), or something about the message (you may call it emotion). When I say the ladder, I mean what the song is about to me personally, the basic tone of the song (is it slow and haunting, or maybe slow and passionate), and the actual lyrics (so sort of what it means to the artist). All of those things make up the "emotion" of a song. That's what I'm talking about when I refer to emotion in music anyway.
In answer to your second question, I think alot of Fiona Apple's stuff is really passionate. I like her because she writes poetry. She doesn't just rhyme, she actually writes her songs like poems, which is what lyrical music is really supposed to be about. Her mood is usually sullen, regretful, and also sometimes empowering and hopeful. Aside from that classical music usually does an excellent job of portraying emotions with instruments and not words.
It's kind of hard to answer the third question because I know of very few songs that are void of emotion, and if I feel that they are I don't continue to listen to them. The whole point of art is to convey an emotion and touch people on an emotional level, if music never touched us emotionally we wouldn't enjoy it. Music started out as an expression of inward feelings that primal human beings wanted to share, and even through all of its evolution it still remains to be a basic form of spiritual expression.
Lastly, if this is a homework assignment, I'm really disappointed you went to Yahoo Answers for such an interesting question in which you get to explore your own opinion. If this isn't a homework assignment, I like the question. Props.
This is something I believe can't be qualified or explained. It's so subjective it will mean 100 different things to 100 different people.
All I can tell you is it's many things to me, from Kerry King pouring all his rage into a guitar riff to Joe Yamanaka sobbing out every last drop of feeling in his soul singing Hiroshima.
MA2: Wicked Witch by Demons & Wizards focuses melancholia like few other songs have ever accomplished
MA3: Evil Eye by Malmsteen. He might be dead inside but gawddamn can he shred
Emotion is meant for someone.
When a musician makes a music he/she plays it for someone not to no one. Even to him/herself.
A music that is meant for no body has no emotion on it. It's like racing a car but no one's actually racing with you.
Every music has a meaning to it, which gives it a significant amount of emotion to it. (except for most Techno music)
Lets say a music has a very loud part on it. WHY DO YOU THINK ITS LOUD?-----BECAUSE the musician tries to express something to the audience. Loudness could mean anger, or a very deep emotion.
Music is in the head of the listener. I like music that stirs primal memories.
Here's Lenny Kravitz, ~ Believe
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pegka3cW9hA
Primal Scream ~ Loaded
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3O9sLkn3nz0
Music with a message. Animals ~ Sky Pilot
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_gL3HTlfW0A
Peace.
Well to me it means that the singer is actually feeling the emotions of the lyrics at the time of recording.
You are turning an art into a science. Something will be lost in the process.
Music is emotion.