Consciousness and how it got to be that way

Wednesday, March 17, 2010

Why Does Music Seem Faster During Semi-Conscious States?

This morning someone in a nearby home decided to treat everyone to Joan Jett's I Love Rock and Roll at 8:30 in the morning. Laying there half-asleep and annoyed at the disturbance, I noticed how fast the song seemed. This is consistent with my memories of listening to music during breakfast in high school. Songs that seemed pretty peppy during breakfast seemed almost plodding if I listened to them in the afternoon. Why would this be? And how could we objectively measure the subjective experience of tempo to investigate this effect? For this purpose, introspection is a hard sell.

1 comment:

  1. "Ham on the Bone" by GWAR at 7:00AM was my wakeup call in High School. My sense of morning tempo is forever ruined.

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