Nothing conditions me quite so effectively as music does.  I'm sure I'm not alone in this, but I was reminded today just how strongly I can be affected by music.  My roommate and I have been re-watching the TV show Chuck every so often over the past few months, ever since it was put up on Netflix.

I listen to a LOT of music, and I really mean it when I say that.  I listen to a greater variety of music than probably 85% of the people I meet.  I'm not claiming to be some great musical expert or connoisseur, but music definitely makes up the most sizable portion of my media intake. (This is going somewhere, I promise.)  So about six (?) years ago when Bon Iver started to get some attention, I of course knew about them and listened to their stuff from time to time.  If you've never listened to their music, all you really need to know is that they have a soft, lovely sound and can put you straight to sleep, but in a good way.  They have a song called "Creature Fear" that in my opinion is one of their better ones.  Give it a listen:
Pretty, right?  Before Chuck, this song went under the categories of, "pretty," "soft," "indie," and "soothing."  But then the end of Season 2 of Chuck happened (spoilers if you care) and that changed forever. (For the record, they were only sleeping in the same bed, nothing more- they were on the run from the CIA.)  Before this, we had endured two seasons of these two being painfully, obviously, disgustingly in love with each other but never doing anything about it because of their jobs as spies.  But now...  [watch up to 1:30 or so, the rest is irrelevant]

This scene changed this song for me forever.  It conditioned me so that every time I hear this song, all I want to do is kiss someone.  It went from being a song that could put me straight to sleep to being a song that puts me in "kiss me now" mode faster than anything in the world.  So if anyone ever tells you that music doesn't change people, they are lying to you.