Me, My Sensory, and My Synesthesia

Dark vs. Bright Songs

When I say "dark", I don't mean depressing or concerning lyrics. I'm referring to the dark background color I see when I hear it. These colors tend to be black or dark shades of blue or purple. I usually see this when I listen to rock or the harder edge pop type music.

Bright songs usually have a white or pale gray or some similarly colored background. I usually see this when I listen to piano music or hymns.

Not every song fits into these two categories, but it's where I start when trying to describe the color of the songs. No one else in my family seems to see colors like I do, so they tend to be really confused whenever I try to describe it.

I prefer listening to dark music. Bright music tends to be higher, which can hurt my ears, although not all of it is like that. Blessings, by Laura's Story is one of my favorite bright songs. She is a true master. I know she probably didn't try to, but this song is soooo beautiful to me. The background is white and on top of that is like a cloud of pastel blue, but translucent or something. Then there are lilac and lavender hues mixed in and a hint of pink here and there. It's not really very kinetic like some songs are, where the colors dance around in my mind, but it's so soft and soothing that I just couldn't help but fall in love with it at first listen.

There is one problem with dark music, though: when the only radio station you're brave enough to listen to ONLY ever plays the EXACT SAME dark colored songs (like seriously, they all look the same), it gets so... irritating? annoying? boring? I have no idea what adjective I'm looking for. I listen to 99.7 FM (Family Life Radio). I've been listening to it for as long as I can remember. They used to have lots of variety, but then they started to only play the same dark songs: black background with royal blue. Not that exciting and you start craving something, anything different. No one will ever know how relieved I was when Burn the Ships by For King and Country came out. It was finally, finally, FINALLY something different! I see it as orange swirls, like fire, ironically, on a black background that's barely even visible. Lately they've been playing a bit more of a variety, so I'm no longer quite as "EVERYONE BE QUIET THE ONLY ORANGE SONG IS ON!" anymore. XD

Another thing: I can't stand brass instruments. Warm colors like red and yellow tend to give me headaches, and brass instruments are ALL gold. I was SO happy when my sister gave up playing trumpet. Headaches almost everyday from it.

Dark music also has this special quality that bright music doesn't. Bright songs tend to feel more surface, like only the one who wrote it can relate to it. But dark songs feel so much deeper, like they're inviting everyone and everyone to come get wrapped in it's comforting wings, allowing any and all who will to relate.

It's like the difference between a rainbows and sunshine fairy tale and a more down-to-earth novel: you can enjoy both, but you'll likely have a deeper emotional response to the novel rather than the fairy tale.

Some of my favorite dark songs are:

You Are Not Alone by Owl City and Britt Nicole

The Cure by Unspoken

Breath of Heaven by Amy Grant

My Everything by Owl City

Drops in the Ocean by Hawk Nelson

(Don't Fear) The Reaper by the Blue Öyster Cult

Move by Audio Adrenaline

Be Prepared from the Lion King

Can You Feel the Love Tonight also from the Lion King

Danger by BTS

No More Dream by BTS

I highly recommend all of these. Some of my favorite bright songs are:

Diamonds by Hawk Nelson

Blessings by Laura's Story

Thrive by Casting Crowns

As you can see, it's a lot easier for me to list dark songs than bright songs.

Some songs, like Pushing Back the Dark by Josh Wilson, are both dark and bright.

Then there are some I don't know how to classify. You Will Never Run by Rend Collective, for one. I fell in love with this one in a unique way. It was shortly after my aunt's death a few years ago. I was sitting in my room crying and for some reason I thought that everything would be okay again if I just "ran away" from my Christian faith. That's the first time I ever heard this song. Right after I'd thought this, the song came on the radio, blasting out the words:

You will never run away
You're forever mine
You will never run away
You're by my side

It was the strangest comfort I've ever felt. I went from wanting to hate God to feeling cradled in His arms. The words don't even sound that comforting, now that I look at them; more ominous than anything else, and yet they were comforting and I still find comfort in them today.

But any time I try to categorize it, I can't. First I thought it was red. Then I thought it was dark. Then bright. Then yellow. Then yellow with a black background. I've decided that this song is just everything.

Well, that's all really. Sorry for the large amount of Christian songs, but I really do suggest trying them if you haven't already. :)