Feeling something from a song, but not knowing what it is

Ever had a song hit you in a certain way, but you can't put your finger on why?

Here's my big one. "On the Road" by Lee Roy Parnell.

I don't know why, but this song really stirs up a bit of sadness in me. I don't know if it's because:

• It came out a month after we took a huge road trip over to Beloit, Wisconsin to visit my grandpa, who died while we were there
• It takes me back to being six years old, and some of the on-a-whim road trips mom would take me on just because I would pick a town on the map that sounded interesting
• There's that wanderlust still in me
• The song's positive-yet-melancholy vibe
• I really think Lee Roy Parnell should've had more hits, damn it

Are there any songs that you really feel, but don't know why?

Taylor Swift's "I Knew You Were Trouble".

I should hate this song. I do hate this song. I absolutely hate this song. This song sounds awful. It's Taylor Swift's absolute worst song (of course, as a non-fan of hers, I'm not sure how much weight that holds). It's a confused mess that tries to mish-mash country (to a lesser extent, of course), pop, rock, and dubstep into one horrfyingly Frankenstein-esque package. It's terrible. It's horrible. It's awful. It's simply an abomination on humanity.

...so then I ask you with all the shame in the world...why do I love it so much?!?? I can't help but get it stuck in my head, and I've found myself singing it at times, and I don't even feel any revulsion whenever it comes in the radio. I'm so confused. Taylor Swift, you are an evil girl.

Same here.

For me, it's at the end of the chorus The vocal aftereffects in the chorus actually convey emotion, something that I think she lacks. Unrelated, but she looks absolutely fantastic in that video.

Everything else in the song makes me want to hate it. There are smoother transitions when you shuffle a playlist than in that song.

edited 26th Feb '13 7:34:39 AM by Completion

The only feeling I get from that is "The Four Chords of Pop" flashing constantly in my head. The Dubstep part wasn't as bad as it could've been, though.

Anyway...

This. Especially the part at 0:45. The choice of instruments, the arrangement, the melody, it just all invokes this... I dunno. I just love it to death.

edited 26th Feb '13 8:47:39 PM by PhysicalStamina

@Twentington: I think that you might be feeling what the Portuguese call saudade.

All I know is that I freaking love it. I have NO IDEA what I feel during this epic Mind Screw, I only know that I love the feeling.

Wow. Someone knows about "saudade".

Maybe it's not saudade per se, but you, Twentington, got close to that.

edited 14th May '13 3:50:09 PM by Quag15

It is a great word for a very complex emotion. I love words and I find mixed emotions fascinating. So I know it. But it is always cool when someone else does, too.

Now, to the topic at hand:

This song played endlessly in my head while I was going through a very intense period of pining after a close friend that I was convinced would reject me. To this day, I am not entirely sure why because I am not sure what I was feeling with respect to the song. The lyrics are on the surface sweet, but are at their heart bitterly critical of the mechanics of monogamy; the chord progression and arrangement are seemingly quite upbeat and poppy yet wry and a bit sour in places, with a certain melancholy throughout that is hard to place. To some degree, I think it was my mind's way of balancing the books on my own hopeless romanticism, desperately trying to ease my fear of being pushed away through gently telling me that it was nothing worth fixating upon.

I don't think it worked.

I am in a relationship with that person now. He doesn't like St. Vincent, nor did I think that he would.

Sometimes I just don't know.

edited 16th May '13 1:39:25 AM by JHM