This is something else I wanted to mention tonight.
So when I was in kindergarten and we were learning numbers and letters, I rather involuntarily gave each number from one through nine its own color and personality. I remember three was a fat orange slob, four was a red hip guy, five was a very vibrant green and a nice guy, seven had shades and rode a motorcycle, etc. I gave the letters colors too, but not as many personalities. I still do it to this day, which is how I remember it. And the teacher never taught us to do that either.
When I started getting into music, around 9-10, I would "see" colors while hearing certain songs. Not all songs, though, which was/is a huge part of my determining whether something is good or not. Led Zeppelin was the first to really do it for me. The keyboard and guitar parts in All My Love (pinkish red), the eastern melodies in Kashmir (green and yellow), and all of Stairway to Heaven (green). I was into Soundgarden then too, but to be honest most of their music doesn't do many interesting mind tricks as far as colors are concerned, with a few exceptions (a lot of stuff on Down on the Upside as well as songs like 4th of July and Black Hole Sun). Some other songs that really groped my imagination as a kid (and to this day) were I've Seen All Good People by Yes, Scar Tissue and Under the Bridge by the Chili Peppers (mainly the end part with the "choir"), Have a Cigar by Pink Floyd (especially that lead synth melody and the guitar solo), any Hendrix, later Beatles (especially the songs on Magical Mystery Tour), and also a lot of Eddie Van Halen's guitar parts, which is a shame because I hate Van Halen (the band), but I really enjoy some of his guitar work.
I never thought much about all of that, because it was just always there, and nobody mentioned it, so I assumed it was just a part of life. When I was about sixteen Alex and I were hanging out and I learned that he experienced the same thing, and since then I've been exploiting the weird phenomenon when I play/write music.
So I was wondering if anyone else experiences this too. Is it something that everyone does, or am I a mothertrucking idiot? I'm assuming it's enhanced if you're on acid or something, but keep in mind I've never done drugs before so you can rule that out.
Also some other music that produces interesting results for those interested (yeah right):
In addition to what was mentioned earlier:
- Psychedelic music from the hippie era, of course. Hendrix and later Beatles were mentioned and are the best examples, but obviously a lot of music from those days works well.
- A lot of progressive/art rock, like Pink Floyd (any of it works), Yes (Fragile, Close to the Edge), early Genesis, King Crimson, etc. Another band that doesn't really fit in with the "progressive" label but give me the same results is Radiohead (sometimes).
- Jazz fusion: Mahavishnu Orchestra (the first two albums), late 60s/70s Miles Davis (Bitches Brew, Get up with It), some Jaco Pastorius, etc.
Anything with atmosphere: this could be anything from old jazz albums to old electronic music (Tangerine Dream and the like) and anything in between. Pink Floyd also fits here of course.
- Funk, when done by Parliament/Funkadelic, Sly Stone in the early 70s (There's a Riot Goin' On, Fresh, Small Talk), or early Incubus (Fungus Amongus). And by extension, any mellow rap (the mellow part is important), like a lot of OutKast stuff (Liberation, She Lives in my Lap, etc)
- Sitars and Arabic scales and bands that incorporate "world" music, like Days of the New (second album in particular).
- Anything made by crazy geniuses on drugs, like any Syd Barrett, or John Frusciante's first two albums.
And so on. Was this post too full of itself? Am I too full of myself? I didn't mean to be, sorry... :/
That's fantastic. I do the same thing! The number 6 is red, 7 is a royal blue, 8 is orange, 9 is purple, etc. I do it with shapes as well (squares are green, circles are always blue). I've done this since I was a little kid and used to think everyone did until I joined an art gallery and one of the artists said she had this and gave it a name (I can't remember what exactly). She would use it to her advantage in her art and paint some really impressive things. I do it with music as well, with a lot of the bands you mentioned. A lot of Beatles songs are orange and yellow to me for some reason and a lot of Pink Floyd songs are a light baby blue, purple and..well, pink. Ha, wow, I sound like a psycho. But yeah, this is awesome..I don't feel like a total weirdo loner any more!
ReplyDeleteOh wow, I never did that with shapes. I suppose if it's really crazy someone could associate colors with people. I don't know if you ever saw Almost Famous, but there's that chick that keeps yelling "IT'S PURPLE!!! YOUR AURA IS PURPLE!!!!".
ReplyDeleteWhen I was little I also thought everyone associated colors and such to everything. It made sense. Why else would all the kids TV shows and Disney movies have such vibrant colors? I guess it was actually just to keep the kids' attention but whatever. -_- I get a lot of light blue with Pink Floyd too, like the sky or something. Purple I only get with extremely depressing stuff, like Type O Negative or the most bleak Alice in Chains songs like Love Hate Love.
I always feel like I'm on acid when I talk about these things, like srsly. :/
I think ya'llz are on drugs.
ReplyDeleteHa, Whitney.
ReplyDeleteI know, I feel like I'm drugged up when I speak of such things as well. People would always look at me strange in elementary school when they would color a circle red or something and I had to tell them "NO! Circles are BLUE!"
No wonder I didn't have any friends. ha
It is so weird have someone describe something to me inadvertently like this that I have always done subconsciously. I find it even more weird that you mentioned "All of My Love" being pinkish red, because I realize that is totally what I first thought if it when I heard the synth part. That's insane.
ReplyDeleteI have found a lot of ambient stuff has mainly been the cause of colors. Radiohead, being a prime example. But for me, it doesn't stop with colors. My best example would probably be Type O Negative, with their fuzzy overly distorted sound, have always made me think of riding a wave, I guess. It's a colored wave, and it's usually a deep, deep blue or a dark purple or black. It's like going on a roller coaster ride of sound.
...I must be so high right now, but I'm not, haha!
Yeah, when I first started listening to Type O I was around 14/15 and I was just getting into music so I liked it alright because, you know, it rocked, but I don't think I entirely got it at the time. Once I started listening to them again a couple years ago (admittedly because of Aaron haha) I realized how many "trippy" things they had going on past the riffs and his ridiculously low voice.
ReplyDeleteI get a lot of dark blue/purple with them also, which I usually associate with extremely depressing music. Sometimes a dark maroon (in stuff like the song Bloody Kisses, probably in part because of the name), but not much green. Or at least, not as much as Peter Steele wanted me to see. A lot of green in stuff like Everything Dies and Creepy Green Light (of course) but that's about it.