Synesthesia is WACKY.
Synesthesia, by definition, means “the production of a sense impression relating to one sense or part of the body by stimulation of another sense or part of the body”.
In my case, my sense of hearing meshes with my sense of sight, making music a magical aspect of my life.
For the past couple of years I’ve known I’ve had synesthesia, before then, I thought everyone experienced a world of colors every time they heard a song. Apparently that’s not the case…..
I’ve loved music my entire life but there’s always been those few songs that just stick around and end up on repeat. I’m a chronic song repeater, and I mean like, I’ll sit and listen to the same song on repeat for hours, if not days on end. To some this may sound like insanity but it quite literally is the most calming and comfortable feeling for me to find a song that I can keep on repeat for what feels like forever.
I’ve been thinking about it and I believe this is a habit of mine because of my synesthesia. It’s like a high, in a way, for my brain to listen to a song on repeat that invokes these vivid colors and images. Hence, why it is comfortable for me to listen to a song on repeat, because the colors and imagery just go on.
Recently, I started working on music of my own and decided to draw inspiration from my favorite songs of all time. I decided to look up the key of each of the songs I loved so dearly and made a fascinating discovery, every song was in the same 2 keys.
Now, I’m not an expert in this field, but I think it’s just so interesting that my favorite songs that I had on repeat for a ridiculous amount of time all fall within 2 keys, and I really believe it’s because these two keys of music just invoke a significantly more intense experience than any other.
For reference here’s a list of the songs:
Key of E/E flat major.
- Here with me, d4vd
- Hard to Forget, Sam Hunt
- Cancer, My Chemical Romance
- Piledriver Waltz, Arctic Monkeys
- ALIVE, The Scarlet Opera
- Sand In My Boots, Morgan Wallen
- Won’t Go Home Without You, Maroon 5
- Evangeline, Stephen Sanchez
- What Am I? (Live and Unplugged Session), Why Don’t We
- The Pool, Stephen Sanchez
- Lacy, Olivia Rodrigo
- Timeless, Taylor Swift
- Back at your Door, Maroon 5
- Proof, Paramore
- Turning Out, AJR
- Take Yours, Matthew Mole
- Before You Go, Lewis Capaldi
- Wind in Our Sail, Weezer
- Used to, Daughtry
- Lovebug, Jonas Brothers
- Spaceman, the Killers
- Helena, My Chemical Romance
Key of A/A flat major.
- Line without a hook, Ricky Montgomery
- AMAZING, Rex Orange County
- KEEP IT UP, Rex Orange County
- Brutal Love, Green Day
- Green Eyes:: Siena, Nothing but Theives
- Kill Bill, SZA
- You’ll Be In My Heart, Phil Collins
- Before You, Benson Boone
- Adventure is Out There, AJR
- Mother Mary, Foxboro Hottubs
- Rhythm of Love, Plain White Ts
- In the Blood, John Mayer
- Somewhere Only We Know, Keane
- Trade Mistakes, Panic! At the Disco
- This December, Ricky Montgomery
- In Case You Don’t Live Forever, Ben Platt
- Give Me Novocaine, Green Day
- Grow As We Go, Ben Platt
Just to name a few…
Also I’m aware that E and E flat, and A and A flat are technically different keys but they’re so close to each other that I just considered them the same for my personal research purposes.
But, isn’t that crazy??
These are not just songs that I’ve liked or listened to twice over the past few years, these are nearly all songs that I have put on repeat for an unreasonable amount of time. Literally every single one falls within these two keys.
There absolutely has to be some kind of correlation I’m so convinced.
If anyone knows more about this or studies this please comment because I’d love to learn more.
This is a bit out of my usual content but I thought it was a fun and interesting tidbit so, I hope you enjoyed!
