Song Meaning and Emotion

Song meaning and emotion is mostly unexplainable in science. But everyone will tell you how the music created by emotional songwriting affects the emotions and mind. The emotional impact of music is subjective. An emotionally powerful song hits each person differently.

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Memories of the song, where the song is played, the mood of the person hearing it and cultural differences all affect the emotion felt by individuals. This makes it hard to know exactly what emotional response will be experienced.

Have you ever watched a movie without the music score? Sound a bit flat and uninteresting? Again its music or the song meaning that helps set out mood. The music or song meaning selected in movies is very consciously placed to match the mood at any particular time in the show.

Music causes significant emotions to be experienced by listeners. Music also has the ability to calm and relax. Ever have a song put you to sleep? Love of music is universal across cultures.

Scientific research suggests that a song played in major keys with fast tempo create happiness while minor keys and slow speed result in sadness. Minor keys and dissonance cause fear. How many songs do you have etched in your mind around significant events in your life?

Marriam-Webster defines dissonance as 1: lack of agreement; especially: inconsistency between the beliefs one holds or between one's actions and one's beliefs —2: a mingling of discordant sounds; especially : a clashing or unresolved musical interval or chord.

They go on to define cognitive dissonance as an instance of such inconsistency or disagreement. There is whole branch of Psychology that believes this is the precondition to people changing.

Music sets up constant need for change in the listener. It can be small and but it’s still there, however sometimes a song feels like a life changing event.

It appears dissonant sounds are unpleasant to people in all cultures. Yet dissonance is an integral part of music. There is a Ying and Yang to our music experiences too.

Again it’s the balance the songwriter creates that makes a song stand out as enjoyable to listen to. If you create too much of either for any length of time makes people uncomfortable or bored.

I think this is why the guideline called the “guideline of twos” seems to be such a tried and true method of creating the balance needed. Basically it says usually only do things twice before introducing a change. Once you do that you can go back to it again. This seems to hold true for all aspects of a song.

The role of dissonance is also a critical part of how we experience the chords within a key and is tied to the feeling of motion we get in music. It’s what’s behind the feeling of “going out” to the fourth chord in a key and “coming home” from the fifth chord in the key you’re in.

If you’re unfamiliar with the Nashville number system, this means if you are cording in the key of “C”, the fourth cord in the key is “F” and the fifth chord in the key is “G”. You just count forward from “C”. You always include the chord you start on as the one cord in your count.

The feel of the chord “going out” or “coming home” sets up expectations in the listener. The songwriter then meets those expectations or surprises the listener. People have listened to songs all their lives and so have expectations whether they know it or not.

Your job as a songwriter is to use this information to your advantage and your listener’s pleasure. As a successful songwriter you need to practice customized songwriting to create emotional song connections with your listeners.

Now let’s leave song meaning and emotion to talk about its first cousin “tension and release”.