Mood

In affective computing and music research, the emotional quality a stimulus evokes in a listener or viewer, commonly characterized along dimensions such as valence (pleasant–unpleasant) and arousal (calm–energetic). Mood is a core target for music information retrieval systems and for accessible media descriptions: captions that convey mood (e.g., 'tense', 'joyful', 'melancholy') give Deaf and Hard-of-Hearing audiences access to affective content carried by music and non-speech audio. Mood labels must be grounded carefully because they are subjective and vary across cultures, age groups, and listening contexts.