Situation and Mood

Blog Post No. 583

Many years ago, when I was in high school, I went to the mall with my buddy Matt. We had a usual route we took that led through the music stores and while browsing, I bought the (then) new album by the band Limblifter, Balaclava. I’d loved the first album and as soon as we got to Matt’s house, I put it on his stereo and was immediately disappointed.

A while after that, I was in my room reading and the CD I’d been listening to ended. I randomly chose the Limblifter album I’d discarded a few months before thinking it would be good for background noise. I didn’t get much reading in that evening because I was so interested in the music.

Now Balaclava is one of my favourite albums. It’s different from the first one, which is why I think I was initially turned off. It expectation didn’t match the reality. But in the right situation, I was able to appreciate the differences. I’ve been thinking about how the right mood or specific situation can change my opinion on things.

Often times I’ll hear a song in the car and find it catchy, but if I try to listen to it at home, or when writing, it doesn’t fit properly. I found it’s the same with some television shows, movies, food, and even politics. A lot of it comes from tastes changing with age or experience flavouring my opinions, but sometimes you just have to be in the right frame of mind to really appreciate something.

Specific situations make just as much of an impact, like wanting to listen to a song with more energy while doing something tedious or more mellow at the end of the day.  I like to choose the music I listen to while writing to match the tone of the subject. Opinions are dictated by situation and mood.

Does any of this mean anything? Maybe it’s good to look on what influences us from time to time? Maybe it’s just neat to talk about? Or, maybe it’s really important with how the world is nowadays? But probably not.