Moody tags

That's my interpretation of the situation. Next to all the other metadata from which to create playlists, Moody's 4x4 grid offers an intuitive and fast shortcut to selecting songs.

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Image: Grid of emotions
Image based on Moody app intro window.

I have written about Moody before. In some weird way, the simple looking grid seems to demand low cognitive effort. More probably though, there is lots of cognition involved, which is lubricated by the emotional response to color. To locate the energy level of a song in terms of your emotional response, there is a vast and complex relationship at work.

Ludwig van Beethoven:

Musik ist höhere Offenbarung als alle Weisheit und Philosophie. Wem meine Musik sich verständlich macht, der muß frei werden von all dem Elend, womit sich die anderen schleppen.

In the context of Moody, I consider a good tag to be one that doesn't get in the way—one that doesn't obfuscate the colorspot I initialy choose. Of all the things that a color, say red, can stand for, it can be either more specific than a word, or more generic, and therefore more flexible. Music is too rich to be subsumable under a single, lowly, word. Yet, the words are essential, as if I wouldn't be able to pinpoint a feeling (or to ensure that one exists) without them. Our emotions are enslaved by our brain.

I feel orange.