Music in Mind explores concept or story-based albums and the stories they tell the listeners and how when we listen to these types of albums as we create art, it can affect our minds and even the art we produce. My thesis for the show was, How Genres of concept albums affect the creative flow of the Mind in Art and Design.
I chose this topic because I not only enjoy concept albums and hold a deep love for music, but I find it very interesting how not only can our minds and moods change when we listen to music, but how it can also alter how we make art. I looked into the history of concept albums and noticed it is mostly alternative or metal bands that mainly produce these types of albums. I listened to some albums that I had never heard of that fit the category that I was looking into. I also looked into the science of how music can affect the mind and how it may affect the mood of the person or people who listen to it. For My visual research, I just looked at all the album art of the concept albums as a whole.
For my project, I wanted to show how genres of concept albums can affect the creative flow of the mind in art and design and how they can tell a story through songs. I am taking these concept albums, and the stories they create, and seeing if playing these albums while designing affects anything that others could make both with playing the playlist and then absolutely no music. It allowed me to see if there is an apparent effect on the mind and the creative process with these concept/story-based albums. So I created a YouTube and Spotify playlist for all the albums that were concept albums. Spotify playlist is listed under my artist handle instead of my real name for the sake of having a form of privacy on my end. Once those were done I sent out a post on some of my social media accounts that had a link to the playlist and a brief explanation of what I was asking for. I asked them to listen to the playlist, some chose specific albums and just draw. Once they reach a stopping point they had to draw something else without music. Many stated that they had difficulties when they were not playing music, but the music made some feel power, anger, and other strong emotions as they drew. Some sent their submissions to my private email, while some submitted through the Google Form I created for them. Spotify playlist is listed under my artist handle instead of my real name for the sake of having a form of privacy on my end.
For my own personal side of my thesis, I listened to each album and illustrated the story the songs told me in my mind and heavily used colors to showcase the overall mood of each album played. My own personal book really challenged me since I do not use color in many of my illustrations and designs as a whole.
Video URL: https://youtu.be/JnoHpfAcs6Y
