Every year when it gets darker and colder, I am 100% certain that I do not have a "winter depression" or something like that - and every year in spring, on the first day that the sun is really shining again, I feel my mind brighten up from what I was sure I didn't have. Do not get my wrong, luckily I am very stable mentally and I don't really have a depression in winter, but my mind gets far darker, less motivated to do stuff, more overthinking, etc....
But isn't this supposed to be a blog about music? So why do I start with my mental state over the year? Well, in this blog I'll analyze how these things correlate and what that says about my mind.
During the last weeks I wasn't outside very often, because I had to prepare for my exams at university. So I had in mind the dark weather of a few weeks ago when I went to university to write the first exam for this semester, one and a half weeks ago. But the weather had changed (at least here in Germany), and the sun was bright, there were almost no clouds, and I was instantly smiling. In the car, I decided to put on one of my favourite records which I hadn't listened to for quite some time - Hollywood Undead's American Tragedy. This album has such an happy/positive spirit, but also has a huge bunch of this summer-late-night-campfire-melancholy (I hope you know what feeling I mean), the best example for that are the songs Bullet and S.C.A.V.A. Since that day, my playlist has changed massively. During winter my by far most listened record were Ice Nine Kills' The Silver Scream, Asking Alexandria's From Death To Destiny and Architects' Holy Hell - since that day I listen very much to bands like PVRIS, The Pretty Reckless and Tonight Alive, as well as very much acoustic stuff (by bands like AA, Bad Wolves, etc.) and Blues Rock. One example for that is the song Vor í Vaglaskógi by the band Kaleo, which I will forever connect to beautiful Iceland in the sunset. I was obsessed with this song last summer, but hadn't heard it for at least half a year. Also PVRIS were a band I listened to very much last summer/fall (thanks to Danny Case btw for mentioning them so often in his insta-story until I checked them out xD), but hadn't really listened to for the last 3 months. I could go on with so many examples, such as the acoustic versions by Asking Alexandria and Stone Sour), but I think you got what I wanted to tell.
So in general you could say, during winter I listened far more to darker/heavier Metalcore, while now with the better weather I listen to this more relaxed, happy but kinda melancholic rock again.
All of this isn't completely new to me, for example I remember having this uplifted feeling on the first sunny day last year - funny enough it was the day of a break-up, and still I was far happier than the months before simply because my mindset changed with the weather (and no, this wasn't the reason for the break-up xD). And the years before, I remember stepping out of school one day in spring each year, and feeling this uplifted. Two or three years ago, I remember listening to the Light Me Up record by The Pretty Reckless, one of the records I connect with summer and relaxing after a soccer match (especially the opening track My Medicine).
But what does this show? Well first of all, I see that my mind tends towards darker topics in winter. In summer on the other hand, I tend to think more about "bigger" things, philosophize about the world and get a bit melancholic at some points, instead of thinking about yourself all the time. So in summer, I am more opened to the outside and other people, while in winter I am more turned inside.
This also shows, that the picture of the acoustic guitat at a campfire exists for a reason, this more relaxed and personal kind of music speaks to exactly these feelings described above (yes, more personal music, but it contains far more open thinking in my opinion than words hidden behind many layers of distorted guitars, at least I feel it that way).
So yes, I think it's safe to say the weather has a huge impact on everyone's mental state, but this also shows what everyone in the rock world already knew, but Pop music tries to make people forget: Music has an enormous impact on your mental health, and the music you listen to probably can express your feelings far better than you can yourself!
To show the kind of melancholy I meant above I created a playlist of acoustic songs I love and I listened to very much during the last days. Give it a listen and tell me in the comments whether you've recognized something similar in your own head!
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