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Monthly Neurodiverse Megathread #5! Theme: Music

Hello neurodivergent comrades and allied neurotypical comrades! This month's megathread is all about music, so feel free to talk about anything music related.

Share songs and artists you listen to, talk about musical instruments you can play, debate about music theory, or just vent about how your neighbors always have the bass turned up too high in the middle of the night.

If you have music OC you'd like to share, then you can share it here and/or in the c/music OC Thread, just make sure not to dox yourself.

If you can't think of anything to talk about then here's some questions to consider:

  • What type(s) of music do you like and why?
  • What type(s) of music do you dislike and why?
  • Do you dislike all music and why?
  • How does your neurodivergence effect your relationship to music?

Or feel free to completely ignore the theme and post what you want! We’re just happy to have you!

Previous Thread: Megathread #4: TV Shows

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  • I have autism and suffered from very rigid thinking when I was younger, and I'd only listen to very narrow genres of music. (Not particularly good stuff, either.) I only really started branching out in my listening when I was 21-ish. It's amazing how much good stuff there is that I was missing out on, and some of it was music I was ignorantly trashing on. I really enjoy music in general a lot more now.

    • I'm sort of similar. I've never been one to trash on music I don't listen to, but I definitely have my comfort zone and don't venture much outside of it. Part of it is down to rigid thinking. For example, I recently started getting into Techno, but in the beginning I was definitely plagued by a vague sense of "I don't listen to Techno, therefore I'm not supposed to enjoy it."

      It's also partly because of practical reasons. While I genuinely enjoy all the music I regularly listen to, most of it can also double as background noise, so I'm basically using music as a coping mechanism for ADHD. For example, I listen to a lot of Drum & Bass, Jungle, Techno, Synthwave, etc., because on the one hand I enjoy listening to those songs, but also because they typically don't demand too much of my attention when I need to focus on other things. There's also a lot of the music I like but don't listen to, precisely because they demand too much of my attention to listen to the while doing other things.

  • How does your neurodivergence effect your relationship to music?

    My ADHD effect the music I listen too quite a lot tbh. The types of music I listen to have stayed mostly the same for the past few years, but the specific styles and sub genres vary significantly month to month or even from week to week. For example, just within the past month alone: I started out listening to loads of Jungle, then completely switched to only listening to Techno for about a week or so. Then I did another stylistic and genre 180 and got really into Foghorn Drum & Bass last week. I'm still kind of in that phase right now, but I'm slowly starting to listen to more music from Current Value and to more Jump Up in general, so I'm kinda in a mood where I'm just listening to a bunch of Drum & Bass thats some combo of cheesy, abrasive and heavy. I'm starting to get a bit burnt out with this style though, so who knows what I'll be listening to by next week lol.

    Anyone else also go through similar cycles/phases when they listen to music?

  • To hopefully bring a little bit on life back into this thread, what instruments can y'all play?

    Personally, I started playing Trombone in 6th grade and stuck with it to the end of high school. I was pretty good at it, but I never really put much effort into trying to improve, so I probably could've been way better. I graduated years ago now though and I've played maybe twice since then, so I'd probably be garbage at it if I tried to play right now though lol.

    Idk if it really counts as an instrument, but I recently picked up a DDJ-400 (DJ controler). DJing is probably more comparable to being a conductor for a band/orchestra than being a musician playing in a band/orchestra, but it does involve a fair amount of skill. Mainly things like timing, knowledge of key signatures, knowledge of how music is structured, etc., so personally I'd still consider being able to DJ somewhere in the category of being able to play an instrument.

    So there you have it: I can play Trombone (not as good as I used to), and I can DJ. What can y'all do?

  • Alright, the month's almost over and we should have a new mega-thread with a new theme up by next week. But before that happens, I'd like to share with y'all a Techno mix I made recently:

    Techno Mix 2 by DXMTHL (Not looking for likes or subs or anything, just hope y'all enjoy if any of y'all are interested)

    I've slowly come to like Techno over the past couple years, and especially came to really liking it in the past couple months. There's just something about it that really vibes with me. Techno's obviously very robotic and unemotional sounding most of the time, and that's kinda the whole point of it. It's House music taken from its Chicago origins and placed into the industrial powerhouse that was Detroit at the time. But despite its robotic, industrial and unemotional sound, it's still got a whole lot of soul in it, 'cause it's made by people who genuinely and unapologetically enjoy making robotic, industrial sounding music.

    Aside from enjoying it, I also find Techno useful as someone with ADHD. The biggest utility it has is as background music. Techno's repetitive, unemotional nature makes it so that it's easy for me to tune out when need be, providing a nice rhythmic background droning that drowns out distracting noises without demanding any of my attention in return. Techno's other utility that I've personally found for it is as depression music. RSD can really wreck my emotional state at times, and I feel like Techno's emotional neutrality really helps to get myself back to a more neutral state. Music can have a really big effect on our emotional state while we're listening to it, and Techno's unemotional, bass heavy, 4-on-the-floor droning really helps to kill off any emotional excess I may be feeling. Its groove also really helps me, since I just can't stop myself from nodding my head along and maybe dancing a little, which helps to get some good vibes back into my system. So lately anytime I've been feeling down, I've found myself blasting Techno for hours on end.

15 comments