Musical Typing: Intro

{Update 5-29-14: *Sigh* I really want to rewrite this post.  While the theory is completely sound and I’m actually impressed that I understood the Four Types of Information this thoroughly, just a month into the blog… no one else did at the time and I didn’t realize that I hadn’t explained it anywhere yet!  If I were to write a “Musical Typing: Intro 2.0,” I would explain the concepts more thoroughly and demonstrate *why* each type-set’s music sounds the way it does.

Also, while I was good a year ago at understanding which first-and-last letter type-set each song went into,  a) I’ve learned a lot in the past year and b) I felt the need to give middle letters to each song, which I wasn’t really prepared to do.  For example, James Taylor’s Fire and Rain is definitely an IP song, like I talk about here… but James Taylor is an INTP, not an F as speculated.  While I personally think anyone should be impressed that I could predict that James Taylor would be an IP from his music, I shouldn’t have nailed down the middle letters before I had completed the theorem for doing that.  I will probably rewrite this post after we release facial typing when I can use that as reference for artists.  In the meantime, you can still enjoy the general theory, because it’s still really cool 😉
<3 Calise}

We interrupt this broadcast to bring you something I like to do in the bathtub!  TMI?  Well I do some of my best thinking in the bathtub!  The type graphs I base a huge majority of my data on were invented in my bathtub written in hair until My INFJ brought me a pad and pen.

Point is, my bathtub rocks… and it’s a great place to listen to music.  It’s also where I discovered musical typing 😀  How do you type music, you ask?  Well, I find there are two main factors in musical typing.

1)  Musical feel.

2)  Lyrics and Theme.

It is important to keep in mind, though, songs are often collaborations.  Weezer, for example, has a very ENTP/INTP combo feel which I assume is what makes it so popular with people who like to consider themselves nerds… but cool nerds.  Just because a person sings a song of a certain type, doesn’t mean they are that type.  Celebrity Types has Britney Spears as an ISFP (and who am I to argue with that, for I choose to know very little about Britney Spears) but “Oops!…I Did It Again” has EP written all over it.  Not all musicians write their own music and even if they do, we don’t know what kind of behind-the-scenes pressure they get to write their music a certain way, or what emotional issues they’re dealing with.  Not that writing or singing a song outside of your normal type is out of necessity a bad thing; we can learn from and appreciate music of every type no matter what our own type is.  The examples in this post are all among my favorite songs! <3

So what exactly do the different types sound like?

IJ Songs
IJ songs sweep you away on journeys that span years and worlds within a matter of minutes.  Their musical quality conveys epic scope and often make you feel like you’re being carried along in a river or up to the stars.  Or running.  IJ songs often make me feel like I’m running.  Orchestras, tumbling drums, yearning voices; all good indicators of IJ songs.  Movie soundtracks are commonly IJ.

Lyrics are based on IJ’s cognitive pattern, so the focus is placed on principles leading to action with a weakness in character judgments.  This means the words will usually start with talking about the way things in general are or can be and then talking about future action or citing examples of action.  Another very common IJ theme is lamenting bad character judgments, either “you don’t know me” or “I thought I knew you.”

Unhealthy IJ songs are not super common, but come when a deliberately wrong character judgment is stated as a principle.  Usually this is in a play or movie context where there is a story and the audience can tell the character judgment is wrong, such as in this clip from Disney’s The Hunchback of Notre Dame (gah!  That’s pretty darn creepy, isn’t it?).  There could probably be non-story examples but I haven’t come across any yet.

This is “I’m Still Here (Jim’s Theme)” by John Rzeznik of the Goo Goo Dolls.  Hear the sweeping motion of the music?  Notice the “you don’t know me” themes drawn from sweeping principles?  He even says that verbatim!  This one is very IFJ, though S or N is debatable.  Jim from Disney’s Treasure Planet, whose theme this is, is an ISFJ, but it really has elements of both.  And yay, running!

This next one, “Cosmic Love” by Florence and the Machine is all about being blindsided by a bad character judgment, but it has an incredibly epic feel (epically epic even).  I was going to embed this My Little Pony music video instead of the original.  This is the video that introduced me to the song; it is impeccably edited by YouTube user mmmandarinorange and makes the song feel far more epic than the original music video, imho, but it wouldn’t let me embed either of them for copyright reasons 😛  (Be warned, this was just the beginning of my embedding woes.)  This song sings INTJ to me.  It’s very abstract and potential-oriented (so N) and has a “you hurt me, I’ll call fire down from the sky” feeling that we love our ITJ’s for.

This one is “Hero (The Legion of Doom Remix)” by Skillet.  Also ponies.  If anything can make colorful cartoon ponies feel epic, it’s an IJ song.  That’s actually why I like these so much; I love the contrast of a show made for little girls and the feel of an action-flick.  This one is less mellow, but it has the same kind of sweeping feel as the other two.  The words talk about needing a hero, but the singer/protagonist doesn’t feel like they are worthy of being a hero.  Again, principles while lamenting character judgments, in this case a character judgment of himself.  This is another song with an IFJ feel, although the pony “singing” the male part is an INTJ.  This video was edited, excellently, by Youtube user TheeLinker.

EP Songs
EP songs are all about people experiencing; whether that means, “Oooh girl, you look so good tonight,” or “We got in a fight and it was stupid, but I still love her.”  It also means experiencing yourself.  And what is one of the best ways to experience yourself?  Dancing!!  Feel your body move, look at you go; you are so awesome!  EP music has a strong, round rhythm to it, often the type that’s best to bob your head or shake your hips.  It’s funny that “Pop” is called what it is, because that’s exactly what EP songs (including Pop songs) do.  Even the slow songs have a bounce to them.  EP songs have a cohesive feel; all musical changes fit into the whole rather than feeling like separate moments.

EP lyrics will be about people observations and drawing conclusions from them (ie. “this is what you, I, the cat *are*”) which EP’s excel at, but have major themes of either past mistakes or current “don’t know what to do” since EP’s weakness is understanding action.  EP songs become unhealthily vapid, however, when they imply actions don’t matter; “Girl come run away with me, because it’s not like that will have any affect on your life whatsoever”… although everyone enjoys the occasional “These bad times I’m going through; just dance!”

“Canned Heat” by Jamiroquai.  “I don’t know what to do, but that’s nothing new…”  Yeah, EP.  Although Napoleon is decidedly not, but we’ll get to that some other day.

I love Taylor Swift’s “Mean”.  If you want a good picture of the inside of a female ESTP’s mind, listen to Taylor Swift.  Being just the second letter off, I find ESTP’s have a very similar method of thinking to mine and a lot of her songs really speak to me.  This song has the EP bounce and the lyrics talk about the subject being “Mean”, a character judgment if I ever heard one, but it comes off humorously, rather than with a bad taste in your mouth because it’s from people observation (sweeping does) which EP’s do so well.  It’s kind of an ETP’s job to tell jerks what they are with a smile on our faces.  She also talks about what she’s going to *be* rather than do which is classically EP.  I also relate to the little girl in the video who feels left out and eats her lunch in the bathroom.  The first day after I transferred high schools, I was told by some other kids that I wasn’t allowed to sit at a table because it was “theirs” and I ended up eating on the back steps of the school alone.  It really sucked.

I’m slightly embarrassed to post this next one… but it was either this or Nick Carter of the Backstreet Boys.  But hey, I was once a teenage girl and ENTP’s don’t grow up they just get larger-than-life 😉  Well, healthy ones anyway.  In any case, I really enjoy Jesse McCartney music and that’s just the way it is.  Speaking of which, this song is a lot about the very EP problem of wanting to be able to do something, like overcoming an emotion, and just not being able to do it.  “I don’t know how to be fine when I’m not, ’cause I don’t know how to make the feeling stop.”  EP’s often say, “I can’t” whereas EJ’s often say “you can’t” or “you can”.  And even though this song is more mellow than the other two, it still has the EP bounce.

IP Songs
IP songs have a close, intimate quality.  Beats are often repetitive to the point of being geometric or if softer, can have a music-box-esque lullaby feel.  The music is detailed and very purposeful on a specific level.

IP focus is placed on specific details and draws character judgments from them.  Usually an IP song lyrics will start really detailed and then zoom out to what those details say about people.  Often this comes in the form of, “If I did this, what would you do?” type questions.  IP’s biggest weakness is understanding of the world at large so IP songs often state they don’t know what to do about the world.  When IP songs try to make blanket implications about the world rather than just asking questions, they tend to oversimplify the way things are (think Marxist hippies’ music).

This song, James Taylor’s “Fire and Rain,” always reminds me of my dad who is an INTP who I remember singing it when I was young.  The lyrics start with specific things James Taylor’s observed (fire, rain, lonely days when he could not find a friend) and draws an understanding about people and the way they function from those things (“But I always thought that I’d see you again”).  This song is very IFP to me (INFP probably); with an emotion rather than a data emphasis.  It’s hard to explain the difference between F and T when discussing songs because all songs deal with emotion, obviously, but I know the difference when I hear it.  T songs will generally have straighter lines and sharper angles… if you get what I mean 😉  I’ll figure out how to explain it later, but I know how to call it when I see it.

This one, on the other hand, like all Death Cab for Cutie songs, is remarkably INTP.  Super geometrical and  repetitive musically with a specific feel; the words talk a lot about specific circumstances and draw observations about how people settle because they’re too scared to go outside their comfort zones.  The kind of thing an IP would lament 😉 aww.

I love this next one kind of ridiculously much.  “Boats & Birds” by Gregory and the Hawk.  This is what I was talking about with the music-box quality.  The whole song is about “if I do this specific metaphorical thing that says a lot about me, would you do this specific metaphorical thing that says a lot about you?”  I have a hard time typing this song besides the first and last letters.  It seems S to me; very physical in its metaphor.  This beautiful video was made by Youtube user imaginarylights.

EJ Songs
EJ Songs are action songs.  The music creates “situations” for lack of a better term.  There is often a musical theme introduced at the beginning of a song that’s repeated at the end or during the verses to give you an experiential feeling.  The intro may make you feel excited and then the first verse or the chorus will start out with a flash.  Whereas IJ songs tend to be more otherworldly, EJ songs are more rugged and forceful with their action.  Action may include jumping and head-banging or twirling and swaying, depending what kind of song it is.

EJ’s focus on action leading to principles and are weakest in knowing when they’re missing details.  Most EJ songs are some form of either, “This is what happened and this is the principle I draw from it”, “Do or don’t do this” or “This is what I’m going to do”.  A lot, but not all, story songs are EJ.  If a song tells a story to draw a character judgment, it’s more likely EP or IP; IJ songs will emphasize principles foremost… but, you know, there isn’t a rule somewhere saying IJ songs *can’t* use stories… after all I don’t know if anybody else has even noticed these patterns.

Activist songs are often EJ.  Where they get it right is sharing what experience has taught them about the world and what needs to be done.  Where they get it wrong is assuming that they couldn’t be wrong in any detail and have all the information there is.  Considering there are activist songs on both sides of every issue ever, clearly they weren’t all 100% correct… but try and find one that doesn’t think they are.

The Kelly Clarkson song “Breakaway” makes me excited every time I hear it.  It makes me feel like a little girl again… you know because that was so long ago 😉  It’s such a movement song; definitely of the twirling variety.  It’s words too are all about the action she wants to take.  She starts with her experience and from it draws principles; implying it’s worth it to “take a risk, take a chance, make a change and breakaway.”  This particular song is so ENFJ it makes me giggle.  Also it shows clips of The Princess Diaries 2 and in what other movie will you find Catwoman in a romantic relationship with Captain Kirk who is the son of Gimli?!

“The Last Song” by All-American Rejects is an old favorite for me.  Good times jumping up and down for the entire song by myself in my living room.  Man, my thighs killed after that.  Again, we have the great musical situations, especially the intro and the awesome violins solo in the middle.  It pretty much requires doing little violin motions while you listen. *Cough* okay enough about my dance habits.  The lyrics are about him leaving and how this is the last song.  He’s mostly talking about what he’s going to do and phrases include “my foot is out the door, you can’t stop me now.”  “You can’t stop me” is usually a good EJ hallmark.  I’m thinking ENTJ again.  Hey at one letter off from me, I suppose you can’t blame me for liking ENTJ music.

Combination Songs
Combo songs are great and often the ones that end up lasting the longest because they have something for everyone and provide interesting contrast.  This seems to be why the Beatles are so timeless, they wrote balanced music that had a little bit of everything.

“Hey Jude” is so balanced!  It has such an IJ sweeping feel, but it creates scenarios like an EJ song out of both IP geometric and EP bouncing rhythms!  How cool is that?

Embedding is Against Copyright?  Seriously?!
In making this post I was thundergasted (flabbergasted + thunderstruck… somehow my brain melded them together and I had to ask My INFJ what the real words were.  This happens unfortunately often.) at how many of the music videos I wanted for the post couldn’t be embedded.  Actually, I soon discovered that the ones that could be embedded were the anomaly rather than the rule.  Any song that was recent or by a large company was un-embed-able.  Even though I was giving them free publicity and possibly introducing new listeners to these artists.  I wasn’t downloading the songs; I was embedding videos that linked back to the original posters in the sheer fact that they were from Youtube.  I couldn’t *not* give credit if I wanted to.

Most companies function in an EJ manner; that is they focus on action foremost and are weakest at knowing when they’re missing information.  When a company is unhealthy, just as a person can be, they’ll focus on specific actions of people at the expense of what people *are* and everyone is blanketed guilty until proven innocent, which they’re never given a chance to do.  The restrictions they put on music stops honest people from using the music they spent money on while it doesn’t stop pirates at all; like using a baby gate for a burglar but the baby can’t run away.  It doesn’t matter to them what your reasons are for wanting to embed a video on a website or using a song in a music video; it’s all about trying desperately to hold on to what they’ve created for themselves at the expense of anything else.  The funny thing about typing that last sentence is that I can picture many people responding with “yeah, isn’t that what companies are supposed to do?”  Well something we seemed to forget a long time ago is that companies are made of people.  When *people* act that way, after-school specials tell us it’s called “selfish”.  But we get over it because, hey, they’re a *company* :O Ooooo.

I thought it was ironic that *none* of the EJ videos I found would be embedded.  Not one.

All the types at their healthiest are equal, but if EJ record companies continue to focus on limiting the *actions* of individuals rather than what people *are*, a newfangled little invention called the internet is going to bite them back with consequences they can’t possibly account for.  You don’t have all the information; it’s your weakness.  You do however understand consequences… and they’re coming.

As Princess Leia, a remarkably healthy EJ, says in Star Wars Episode IV:
“The more you tighten your grip, Tarkin, the more star systems will slip through your fingers.”

In other news, Blogger spell check wants me to capitalize “internet”.  I politely refuse.