In classical

Music for sure. I'm fascinated by how the timing around when I hear a song can magnify the emotional sensation. I have a folder on my phone called "megamix" that I drop all the songs I like as I come to them. But a song that straight up makes the hair on my arms stand up at one time might have me reaching for the skip the next time it rolls by. But at another time, chills again. I'm particularly drawn to the melancholy at times. Elliott Smith, for sure among others. But other times it's old funk, or rap, or metal, or blues, or the odd pop song that will give me chills on the joyful/giddy side of the fence. It's almost like time travel too how a song can take you back. I read "The Sword of Shannara" while listening to the first "Boston" album. Yet another rambling response.

Music has always been the most important thing in my life. I was lucky to have been exposed to it from an early age. I had a strong aptitude for it, and found solace, sustenance, and profound joy in listening to a wide range of it. I taught myself to play acoustic guitar when I was a teen, and gradually got proficient enough to be able to earn a modest living. I'm still playing at 72, though not as much as I used to. It's awfully hard to be specific about why certain types of music move me. I dislike anything "lite" (Neil Diamond, Lawrence Welk, and Kenny G make me want to puke) while Steely Dan, Beethoven quartets, fusion, flamenco, Joe Jackson lift my spirits immeasurably. I also love musical satire---the compositions of PDQ Bach (a character created by music professor Peter Schickele) are drop dead wonderfully funny. I have listened to my favorite songs so much that they're contained in my memory---I can play them in my mind and I can hear every detail and nuance. Can any of you relate?

Usually it's classical music. Beethoven's Ninth is the pinnacle, but I find others as well. Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky have written pieces which absolutely transfigure me. Now that I've said that, some country songs reach down into my being as well. "Where've You Been" by Kathy Mattea is one, but there are others.

It depends entirely on the mood I'm in.

Emotion? For restless longing try this. Here's the best sung version imo of Rachmaninov's Vocalise. Many instrumental versions are also fantastic as well.

I am a progressive rock musician. So Yes, Genesis, The Moody Blues, Rush, Pink Floyd, The Who, The Beatles..the list goes on and on.....

we are going to see orchestral manouvers in the dark on monday. romance with a hint of protest set to a dance beat

It varies with my mood. Most commonly it's Iron Maiden or The Who. Sometimes it's classical. On occasion it's classical. Now and then it's The Grateful Dead, Doors, or Hendrix. It's never rap or country.

Oh, so many choices! Why do you make me choose? A few that are known to evoke emotions for me: Emotional songs about parenting: Harry Chapin "Cat's In The Cradle" and Brandon Rhyder "Freeze Frame Time"; Lamenting love not yet found: The Corrs "Somebody For Someone"; Unselfish love, probably about a young adult child of the writer: Resless Heart "New York (Hold Her Tight)"; Silly and optimistic: Sarah Buxton "Outside My Window"; A ghostly love story: Michael Martin Murphy "Wildfire"; That is a very small cross section of an exceedingly large, eclectic, and ever changing list with elements that may be ephemeral and others that are anything but ephemeral.

Electro-bossa music, especially if the accent on a beat is particularly heavy, is good at stirring the loins.

I love listening to tunes by the rat pack, performed in french...
Duo Guago, Pink Martini and others.

90's/2000's/now pop music, rock, and hip-hop.

What a great question!!!!!

Heavy metal played very loudly. I love the energy, the vibration, it gives me goosebumps. And that's generally, certain riffs just magnify it......e.g. The Smoke on the Water riff, I have to feel it, not necessarily emotionally but physically, not just hear it, it has to be loud!

I'm not sure that I have a genre - but I have albums that when I first hear them they fill a hole in my heart that I didn't realise was there. Just two examples - Iron and Wine "The Creek Drank the Cradle"; Gillian Welch "The Harrow and the Harvest."