How Music Feels: An Experimental Listening Method

It's been a very long time since I have written a post that wasn’t a summary of recent listening, and even longer since one has gone up without some kind of music suggestion (in fact, I am not sure if this latter category of post has EVER happened). Recent shifts in the Viewer’s Choice results, however, led me down a very interesting research path that may alter the way that I talk about music here and on my channel.

My whole approach to music discovery and advocacy is different from many others in music critique circles. While the Anthony Fantaos out there may try to stay on top of the newest, hippest music, I don’t limit myself to music released within a given calendar year. An album simply has to be new to me to qualify for inclusion in the Disc Course. When this was just a self-study, I was able to look at Spin-Off pairings on relatively even ground, so a given album's status as a “classic” didn’t hold much sway. As I have opened up the process and broadened the participation group, however, albums with a pre-2000 release date have generally dominated the Spin-Offs, resulting in less new music qualifying for the Top 20 (exact statistics TBA).

In truth, this is understandable. While these albums may be “new” to me, in many cases they hold a valued place for many listeners. Honestly, if someone asked me to compare ANYTHING to Moving Pictures, for example, I probably wouldn’t listen to a single note from the challenger’s album. My nostalgic connection to the album and the place that it holds in the continuity of my identity would make any objectivity nearly impossible. This scenario sent me down a path in search of a more nuanced understanding of nostalgia, as it seemed to be a topic that would loom large in our upcoming roundtable discussions. This path led me to the Geneva Emotional Music Scale.

The Geneva Emotional Music Scale, or the GEMS, is a taxonomy grounded in the idea that emotional responses in music rarely have direct connections to survival-based emotions like fear or anger. Instead, musically derived emotions are often more complex and interconnected, so much so that describing them is a difficult task that sends many music reviewers to the thesaurus for an appropriate range of adjectives.

The GEMS model suggests that there are nine emotional dimensions that can be used to describe these reactions (nostalgia being one of them). They are drawn from a research-based framework, but from my perspective they can be used as a listening tool. They can form a shared vocabulary that can help to articulate instincts that the listener may have, especially when an album resists easy praise or dismissal. It's an attempt to slow the listening process down and give us better language for describing how music works emotionally, not just whether it “wins.”

Wonder

Wonder describes moments when music creates a sense of awe, vastness, or being deeply moved, often without words. This might come from scale (huge sound, long arcs), unexpected beauty, or a feeling that the music opens onto something larger than the immediate moment. Wonder often arrives suddenly and can feel almost involuntary.

Wonder is not the same as excitement or intensity. A loud or fast track isn’t necessarily wondrous, and wonder doesn’t require emotional warmth. It can feel cool, distant, or even overwhelming. If the music makes you pause and think “this is bigger than me”, you’re likely in the territory of wonder.

Transcendence

Transcendence refers to music that feels elevating, spiritual, or transporting, as if it briefly lifts the listener out of ordinary time or identity. This doesn’t have to be religious; it can be meditative, ritualistic, or quietly expansive. Transcendent music often encourages stillness rather than reaction.

Transcendence is not simply calm or beauty. Peaceful music may soothe without transcending, and beautiful melodies don’t automatically create elevation. Transcendence implies a shift in perspective—a feeling that the music points beyond itself, rather than drawing attention inward.

Tenderness

Tenderness captures feelings of gentleness, warmth, intimacy, and emotional openness. Music high in tenderness often feels caring or vulnerable, as if it’s speaking softly or inviting closeness. It may feel comforting, affectionate, or quietly human.

Tenderness is not sentimentality or weakness. It doesn’t require sweetness, and it isn’t the absence of strength. Tenderness can coexist with sadness, nostalgia, or even tension—but its defining feature is emotional softness rather than force.

Nostalgia

Nostalgia describes music that evokes memory, longing, or reflective distance, often with a bittersweet quality. This can be personal (your own past) or cultural (a sense of another time or place). Nostalgia doesn’t demand sadness; it often mixes warmth and loss in equal measure.

Nostalgia is not the same as sadness or retro style. An album can sound old without feeling nostalgic, and music can feel nostalgic without making you sad. Nostalgia centers on temporal distance—the feeling that something meaningful is remembered rather than present.

Peacefulness

Peacefulness involves calm, stillness, and emotional settling. Music in this space tends to slow the listener’s internal pace, creating a sense of balance or quiet focus. It may feel grounding, spacious, or gently stabilizing.

Peacefulness is not boredom or emotional emptiness. Quiet music isn’t automatically peaceful, and peaceful music can still be emotionally rich. The key boundary is whether the music reduces internal friction rather than simply lowering volume or energy.

Power

Power reflects music that conveys strength, confidence, force, or emotional authority. This might feel energizing, commanding, or assertive, often driven by rhythm, density, or vocal presence. Power can feel exhilarating or intimidating, depending on context.

Power is not the same as joy or chaos. Music can be powerful without being fun, and power doesn’t require speed or aggression. What defines power is a sense of directed intensity—the music feels like it knows where it’s going and takes up space unapologetically.

Joy

Joy captures energy, playfulness, and physical engagement. This is the feeling that makes you want to move, smile, or lean in. Joy is expressed through motion rather than reflection, often light on its feet and outward-facing.

Joy is not simple happiness or power. A song can feel happy but subdued, or energetic but tense. Joy specifically combines positive emotion with momentum—it feels alive, animated, and socially open.

Tension

Tension refers to unease, suspense, friction, or emotional strain created or sustained by the music. This might come from dissonance, instability, repetition without release, or unresolved gestures. Tension often keeps the listener alert and slightly unsettled.

Tension is not the same as fear or dislike. Many listeners actively enjoy tension in music, especially when it feels intentional or meaningful. Tension becomes a problem only when it feels accidental; otherwise, it’s often a sign of expressive depth.

Sadness

Sadness includes melancholy, grief, loss, or emotional heaviness, often expressed in a reflective or restrained way. In music, sadness is frequently experienced as poignant or beautiful rather than purely distressing.

Sadness is not despair or negativity. Music can feel sad without being draining, and sadness can coexist with tenderness, nostalgia, or even wonder. The boundary here is emotional weight—when the music leans toward loss rather than tension, calm, or power.

As you read through these dimensions, you’ll see overlap, tension, and moments that don’t fit cleanly anywhere. That’s not a flaw in the framework—it’s a reminder that music and emotion don’t behave politely. The way I want to use this taxonomy is still in development, and it will probably change based on how it’s used. For now, we will use it as the backbone for our 2025 Roundtable Reviews.

Moving forward, however, I am working on using the GEMS to help organize the 2026 Tier 1 brackets. I intend to avoid grouping by arbitrary stylistic similarities or raw ratings data, but instead putting albums into emotional “Leagues,” allowing us to compare albums with similar GEMS statistics. More on this later.