Had an interesting discussion at work today which ended up being an introvert/extrovert debate. I had spent last night listening to what I call “Suicide Songs”. You know, Damien Rice, Nick Drake, Wilco, Ryan Adams and Kings of Convenience. While listening it made me think of a guy I work with and I wondered if he ever sat down at some speakers all alone and listened to sad music purely to feel melancholy (with the ultimate aim of feeling better). Being an upbeat type of guy, he confirmed my suspicions today by answering that he had never done that and couldn’t think of anything worse. After a while, it kind of dawned on him that maybe it was an introvert thing to do – sit and reflect while listening to sad songs. He said if he is feeling sad he’ll listen to dance music to make himself feel better – what turned out to be the typical extrovert response.
Now, after a short poll of the four introverted and two extroverted people I know, it seems that the pattern is emerging. 100% of introverts do the suicide song thing while a 100% of the extroverts don’t. So what I want to know is, if you consider yourself an extrovert, have you ever listened to melancholy music to make yourself feel better?
For a sample of the type of music I’m talking about, checking out my mixwit tape in honour of this post (just press the play button on the tape):
Woot – am I an extrovert? Was I the one in the survey? YAY!