This song, LEGIT triggers me hardcore. Idk why. Please help me.

[SassySnivy]

Right now I want to talk about something that I think is pretty serious, though it's nothing we ever think about.

How songs can trigger overpowering emotions. This has been bugging me for the past two years and now I'm finally sharing my experience with you guys. Maybe you can help me?

There's a certain Keith Urban song that, when played, makes me cry. I don't just mean oh, it's a mushy song so I cry kinda thing. No. It's insane. It's overpowering, and dehabilitating. And thank god I only hear it once in a blue moon.

This song. Oh man, THIS song. I try my hardest to hold it back, but I eventually start SOBBING UNCONTROLLABLY as this song progresses. I don't know why it triggers such a strong response. I can be anywhere, doing anything, and it will happen if I hear it. It's like cyanide to me, in this sense. David, the bas****, just played the damn song. I begged him to turn it off, and he said something along the lines of, "no, you need to be desensitized to it."

I'm still pretty pissed off at him about it. But I know he meant well. He just really likes the song. He even tried to keep me happy and make me laugh during it, but it didn't work.

I've never, ever experienced this before. This song puts me under MAJOR emotional distress. I'm still numb from that right now. I'm crying now and I don't even know why!

NOTHING has happened that's EVER made me associate this song with extreme sadness, trauma, or anything of the sort. David showed it to me one time and liked playing it, but I didn't respond to it abnormally. At all.

There was this one time, though, not even a year after we got together that I had to go out of town for the weekend and David couldn't come along because work or something. I was really sad, and before I left as we walked around at a local park he played this song. That's the only thing.

Having the song in my head used to trigger a response, too, but that doesn't happen anymore.

Does anyone know what's going on with me? This is the only thing I know of that I can't find an underlying reason or explanation towards. Or has anyone else had this same experience, or something like it?

[Suicune's Fire]

Woah, Speed...that's intense. o__o Is it going to traumatise you if I ask what song it is? But holy cow, I've heard similar trigger-song stories, but never one as bad as you're describing!

Mind you, when my brother was little, he used to cry because of that song, Puff the Magic Dragon and he hated it. That was before he even knew what it was talking about--he was too young to understand the lyrics. So yeah... I wouldn't say it's exactly uncommon, but it's certainly strange! Maybe you have a suppressed memory involving that song. o__o

And as much as I understand 'desensitising,' that was cruel of David. -_- You should decide when you're ready, not somebody else! D:

Sorry I can't be of any help. D: I'm guessing you've tried researching this?

[Chakramaster]

Well it would help me if I knew what song, but you don't have to if you don't want, that's fine. Don't wanna trigger anything.

Sometimes I've noticed after listening to music more closely through the years. Certain ways music is played (like a certain melody) can really just sound THAT great to the ear that it instantly triggers something. I noticed it more with video game music lately as well (a lot of tracks may remind me of pieces from an emotional scene or something) and it may trigger my eyes to get a bit watery.

Maybe it sounds similar to something you've heard in the past that has a mental key on that. Where it sounds similar, or the word play for the song, that may remind you of something (whether you know what "that" is or not). Sometimes it's all in your mind and it's hard to tell exactly what it may be causing it

[SassySnivy]

Hahah, no, it won't thank god xD it's "Only You Can Love Me This Way."

Thanks for your feedback. I'm thinking maybe a suppressed memory, too, but I just can't recall anything for the life of me! I mean nothing has ever happened to me that's been so bad that I've repressed it. I don't think. XD I wonder if my brain is just misfiring or something. =_=

I actually haven't researched it very much. What I have found though I haven't been able to relate to, because everyone else seems to cry during a certain song for a reason. Like a traumatic memory or something. I react as if something traumatic happened to me whenever I hear this song, but...it's so weird, because nothing traumatic has ever happened to me.

That's a good point, Eric. I guess it is a high possibility that it reminds me of another song that made me cry when I was just a kid? Mom did tell me one time that there was a certain song that they would play that would make me cry when I was like, 3. The sadness was all in the lyrics I think, and in all honesty I should have been too little to understand what it meant? @Suicune's Fire @Chakramaster

[[Desolate Divine]]

The only thing similar to that with me is a song called Amelia, about a teenage girl who passed away. When I was in secondary school, one of my classmates passed away. I wasn't the greatest friend to her before she was sick, and when she got sick, I never had the nerve to talk to her until it was too late. Hence why that song gets to me.

[Chakramaster]

Hahah, no, it won't thank god xD it's "Only You Can Love Me This Way."

Thanks for your feedback. I'm thinking maybe a suppressed memory, too, but I just can't recall anything for the life of me! I mean nothing has ever happened to me that's been so bad that I've repressed it. I don't think. XD I wonder if my brain is just misfiring or something. =_=

I actually haven't researched it very much. What I have found though I haven't been able to relate to, because everyone else seems to cry during a certain song for a reason. Like a traumatic memory or something. I react as if something traumatic happened to me whenever I hear this song, but...it's so weird, because nothing traumatic has ever happened to me.

That's a good point, Eric. I guess it is a high possibility that it reminds me of another song that made me cry when I was just a kid? Mom did tell me one time that there was a certain song that they would play that would make me cry when I was like, 3. The sadness was all in the lyrics I think, and in all honesty I should have been too little to understand what it meant? @Suicune's Fire @Chakramaster

With things like suppressed memories it. Even if you have things like that come up, things can leak out and you not know anything about it (like with the case I had recently, you really gotta be careful. It could be good or bad, or flat out painful. Suppressed memories can be dangerous). You may be fine with it, it may show itself at times, but you may never know what's urking out. Let's just say, if you do figure it out (only press it if you want, so press on with caution. No telling what it may really be, if it be bad or not). Hopefully it won't be anything super bad.

Like I know certain sounds from things like the piano or violin really get to me. It's certain keys that just hit the right way. I'm one of those people that really love music now and can understand how music, if played just right. Can tell so much story even without any words at all. Some people connect music with their own lives, which is understandable. Many of songs are created by someone who has experienced the same thing many others are still facing. Some people it's the music, others it may be the vocals. It'd honestly be hard to go any further without pressing on and I'd rather not press too much into it =3. Yeah though, that's about all I can think of without going to far into the thoughts behind it all.

[Chibi Altaria]

I'm a very emotional person so I tend to cry at the drop of a hat. xD; But when I cry to songs, it's not usually the lyrics that get me, it's the sound. And I've found that mostly softer songs tend to do this, but it's a kind of harmony between the vocals and the chords/sounds being used. It's so intense that you have to cry, as a kind of release.

For you, it seems like it might be more of a repressed memory or something. Or it could just be the sound that elicits a response from your brain. *shrugs* I've never had anything like that happen to me, so I can't help you much, sorry. :c

[Neo Emolga]

Oh Speed, you think you're the only one that feels stuff like this? I present to you, my own personal feels train worth of songs that trigger a pure melancholy feeling inside of me.

Just be careful with these.

9 Crimes - Damien Rice
Mistake - Moby
Jealous of the Angels - Jenn Bostic
I've Changed - Josh Joplin
Untitled 02 (Morissey Song) - Brand New
Where'd You Go - Fort Minor [Explicit Lyrics]
Anthem of the Angels - Breaking Banjamin

And here are a few from some video games.

Are You Coming Home, Love Mom - World of Goo
Arnhem Knights - Medal of Honor Frontline
Pain - Max Payne 3 OST
Aerith's Theme - Final Fantasy 7
Pokémon Mystery Dungeon 2 - I Don't Want to Say Goodbye (Not a chance I'd forget this one)

Anyone that says music can't trigger emotions can go take a hike. They definitely do.

[Corey]

I don't have any songs that affect me as strongly as some songs do for some of you! I was going through a very rough period and was almost literally crazy in love, so I listened to Lana Del Rey's Million Dollar Man (and various other Lana songs) and for the longest time I couldn't listen to it because it'd give me pretty bad anxiety. Every time I hear it I still think of the guy, but I don't get really upset or anything! I got over it after a little after a year, and after that I handled triggering stuff pretty well.

[Neo Emolga]

Every time I hear it I still think of the guy, but I don't get really upset or anything! I got over it after a little after a year, and after that I handled triggering stuff pretty well.

Same here, I've found time and repeated listening often numb the melancholy feelings, but traces are often still there. The songs I listed above don't cause nearly as much of an emotional burn as they used to, but at one point they did. Usually it's the lyrics, sound, and what I'm currently going through in life that tugs an emotional cord. Some of the songs I mentioned above, such as 9 Crimes and I've Changed touch on suicide while Jealous of the Angels, Where'd You Go, the Morrissey Song, and Anthem of the Angels deal with the loss of a loved one, something I was hit brutally hard with when my mom passed away. Heck, when Harry first showed me Jealous of the Angels only a short while it happened and I blogged about it, I was freaking bawling and avoided listening to that song. I couldn't stomach a second round of that.

The stuff from video games is often from the way they sound and the moment in the game where they're played. The Arnhem Knights song doesn't really have the same effect unless you've played Medal of Honor Frontline and went through the level where that song is playing and you're fighting through a village that's been absolutely brutalized by war, struggling your way through pure hell, all while watching your NPC allies get killed. Meanwhile, the whole time, you know in the back of your mind that grizzly stuff like that really did happen in World War II. It makes you choke up and feel sympathetic or angry. Some of the others can cause pings, especially if you can relate to and feel sympathetic with the characters. In Final Fantasy VII, when Aerith/Aeris dies, Cloud's quote of something along the lines of "she'll never laugh, cry, or get angry again" burn hard and deep, especially when that music is going on. You've gone through half the game with her, seeing what makes her personality up and feel like a real person, so you can sympathize with Cloud when he's holding her dead in her arms and has trouble letting her go. The same thing goes for the whole ending of PMD2. The emotions and events those characters go through are things we often see in ourselves, and that's how you connect with them.

There's nothing wrong about having melancholy feelings about stuff like that.