true, there is much noise in the background these days, it amazes me how noise may effect the way people interact, feel, drive, enjoy, think, love, create...

makes me long for an open pasture, grass waving quietly, a trickle from a stream, the sound of the stars shining brightly in the night sky, etc.

I got two pale hands up against the window pane
I'm shaking with the heat of my need again
It starts in my feet, reverbs up to my brain
There's nothing I can do to reverse the gain
I'm looking down to the street below
There's nothing in the way they move to show
They too, know what I know
They too hunger for the beast below

Listening to the radio I feel so out of place
There's a certain something missing that the treble can't erase
I know you can tell just by looking at my face
A word about my weakness
I'm totally addicted to bass
Wow woah ho
Totally addicted to bass
Wow woah ho

(Wow woah ho)

There's nothing I can do to be cool
I don't sleep till I've had my fuel
It frustrates if I am deprived
A hunger that grates from deep inside
I feel like I'm doing time
Imprisoned by dependence on a rhythm sublime
In my mind I must overcome the need to define
The solitary silence of a faceless crime

Standing by the stereo I'm feeling so alone
My back against a speaker and I'm moving on my own
Surrounded by so many and they're staring at my face
They're picking up my problem
Totally addicted to bass
Wow woah ho
Totally addicted to bass
Wow woah ho

Your bassline is shooting up my spine
Wow woah ho
Your bassline has got me feeling fine
It's filling up my mind

Sunrise at my window, I look down on the street
People I see everywhere are tapping their feet
Suddenly I realize in a look that I was wrong
Everybody's groovin' to their own song

Down at the scene below
There's something in the way they move to show
They too, know what I know
They too hunger for the beast below

Rhythm's running over me to wash away my fears
The backbeat of humanity sweetens my tears
There's something that's connected us down throughout the years
No need to feel so lonely, everyone's addicted to bass
Wow woah ho
Everyone's addicted to bass
Wow woah ho

Your bassline is shooting up my spine
Your bassline
Your bassline has got me feeling fine
It's filling up my mind
Your bassline is shooting up my spine
Your bassline
Your bassline has got me feeling fine
It's filling up my mind...

~Puretone

Without a doubt! And we've (almost) all become so accustomed to the ambient noise pollution, that it rarely hits us just how damn NOISY it really is! I'm remembering a study I heard about a L-O-N-G time ago where it was found that when people were asked to just hum a single note, whatever came to them as feeling like a "natural" tone, it tended to resonate with the sound of their electrical system in their homes - the buzzing of our outlets and electrical fixtures and devices! Part of the study compared people in England vs. Americans, and they found that, since the electrical systems resonate at a different frequency in each country, the study's participants would hum a note that was most closely resonant with their home country's electrical hum. (Sure wish I could find that study documentation . . . ) Interesting to me in that we don't know how many different influences converge on a daily basis to influence our moods and choices, and serve to mold us in our daily lives. The chemicals in our foods, fluorescent lights, air conditioning, microwaves, magnetism, electrical currents, etc., all these things we live with on a daily basis and accept as being normal, and almost NONE of these things were a factor of daily life not so very long ago . . . NPR has had an interesting sound campaign going on lately - people have been sending them soundbites of noises that they found interesting - some of them are kind of neat, some are silly, some are thought-provoking. Rock on, NPR! ;o) www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php Enjoy yourselves today!

Yes, sounds definitely influence moods. I'm one of the lucky ones that can (through 3rd eye) see the sound waves... Took a while to learn how to ignore most. Of course, the most painful I've "seen" was my newborn niece, before she learned to communicate with me. Sometimes I just wish that, since she's 7 mo old now, she'd communicate with her momma like she does me. Unfortunately, I'm more sensitive, so that's not going to happen for a long while... Before ya'll ask, yes, babies are much more affected by sounds than you think. They're preferences start in the womb, and take it from my niece, can be completely different from the parents' (she prefers the weird wacky stuff I do).

For a long time at work the sound of the door to the kitchen at work which was 10 feet from my desk drove me batty. So when I changed organziations within the company I moved to another location. I am less stressed now.

Temperature effects mood too. Certain voices irritate me or it could be that I am having one of those days I don't want to be bothered and I tune them out and nod politely never really hearing what is said. Not sure if this is a chicken or the egg type of question, since sometimes we are letting our selves stay in a bad mood and the noise around us just adds to our state.