Music Scales... but not the kind you'd think

I've been listening to a lot of Duran Duran and Depeche Mode the past few days. I reflected last night about why I decided to listen to these two bands. Did I pick out the songs because of my already angsty mood, or would I have listened to them anyway? Would my mood have progressed the same way if I had chosen more uplifting music? 

I decided that, while I might have listened to the music casually, I  would not have listened so intensely. Most of the time I listen to music and it's completely normal. But when I get in a "mood" I start playing the same songs on repeat, over and over until it completely synches and saturates with the way I'm feeling. 

I realized that if a person knew me well enough that they would be able discern my state of mind solely by my playlist. So I have created a sort of empathy scale with the songs that affect my mood most deeply. These are many of the songs that I will play on repeat when I feel a certain way. 

Here's the Manic Scale. The songs start ballady and smooth, but as I get more hyper they become more upbeat and jumpy and nearly as crazy as I sometimes feel.

MANIC SCALE

You'll notice there are no techno songs. I couldn't decided if they were actually happy or if I should put them on the Depression Scale, so I left them off, along with songs that tend to make me angry.

The Depression Scale is a more frequently visited list. If I'm at 8 or 9 on the Manic Scale, but something or someone causes a blow to my self esteem, I drop to -4 or -5 pretty quickly. I've always tended toward mercurial emotions though, so it's probably not the same for everyone else.

DEPRESSION SCALE

So there you have it. And it's not just the music to pay attention to. The pictures are helpful too! If someone starts plummeting down the depression spiral and then suddenly gets this glazed, calm, completely withdrawn countenance they are probably on drugs, hurting themselves, or about to commit suicide. Psychotic trance is also a possibility. 

I'm all over the positive scale today, but I have dipped into the negatives for today's post. I've come to the conclusion that while the music may lend to my present mood it can't be held responsible for the mood itself. If so my head would have been screaming after listening to Eraser. It was more like a shadow in the recesses of my emotive memory. "Oh, I remember how it felt to listen to that song 20 times on repeat one... Thank goodness I don't feel that way now." And there it is. I'm going to listen to "Don't You Want Me" by The Human League (Yes, I am all 80's this week!) 

What songs would you put on your scale?