It's not unusual
This reminds me of the John Mulaney standup bit :) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mw7Gryt-rcc
Haha you got it, that's what I was going for. I was hoping someone would respond with the line.
It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
31–40 of 191 posts
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#32Can't abide hearing the same stuff repeatedly. We have more material now than we could ever get through in several lifetimes. No more than once a day per tune, please.
> Can't abide hearing the same stuff repeatedly.
It depends.
Sometimes I'm doing "critical listening" and I'll repeat the same song many times carefully examining the interplay between instruments, vocals, effects, rhythms, whatever - and intentionally re listening to it over and over so I can concentrate on one specific interplay each time through.
Sometimes I'm just drowning out next doors power tools of vacuum cleaner, and one song on repeat is just as good as a playlist.
But I grew up in the golden era of albums, and I love to listen to a whole album in the order the artist carefully curated them into. I _can't_ listen to a single song off Dark Side Of The Moon, I need to hear the entire album end to end. (And I will stab anyone who plays the songs out of order - let that be a warning to any Spotify engineers or product managers I ever meet...)
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#33Semi professional musician here. Repetition goes way beyond what the author mentions: - Most music is highly repetitive, often recycling 2 or 3 short segments (chorus, verse) with minor variations to fill out a whole song. Coltrane is known for his avant-garde composition, and even he repeats (often on a much smaller scale than a pop tune). - The work of being a musician is repetitive. Learning (memorizing) songs tak…
I’ll add to this—when writing music, a lot of people (myself included) make the mistake of not using enough repetition!
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#34I often listen to the same song on repeat for days in a row during periods of intense work. Usually "Djohariah" by Sufjan Stevens. It helps that it's like 17 minutes long. But I also listen to "Saturn" by the same artist, which is only 3 to 4 minutes long. It kinda puts me in a trance.
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#35Semi professional musician here. Repetition goes way beyond what the author mentions: - Most music is highly repetitive, often recycling 2 or 3 short segments (chorus, verse) with minor variations to fill out a whole song. Coltrane is known for his avant-garde composition, and even he repeats (often on a much smaller scale than a pop tune). - The work of being a musician is repetitive. Learning (memorizing) songs tak…
Some composers are more repetitive than others. There’s an old joke:
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Philip Glass
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Philip Glass
Knock knock
Who’s there?
Philip Glass
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#36Can't abide hearing the same stuff repeatedly. We have more material now than we could ever get through in several lifetimes. No more than once a day per tune, please.
I have what feels like an infinite backlog of bands and albums I want to listen to.
My quirk is deep dives. I'll discover a new band or style to me, then listen to as much of it as I can. Very often someone's whole catalogue at a time.
I'll occasionally repeat an album many times - recent examples are both Pixvae's albums or Ott's new album Heads (after 8 years waiting)!
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#37" And is it cognitively normal -- not to mention socially normal -- to listen to so many songs[...]on repeat, day after day after day?"
Even provided it wasn't normal, how any person engages with art is up to them and it doesn't require someone else's approval. No need for your tastes to be normal.
And as Nabokov used to point out, a good reader, that is an active and creative reader is a rereader. Same goes for music. Many incredibly talented people spend their entire lives studying and playing a handful or maybe only even one composer, so why shouldn't listeners do the same.
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#38Semi professional musician here. Repetition goes way beyond what the author mentions: - Most music is highly repetitive, often recycling 2 or 3 short segments (chorus, verse) with minor variations to fill out a whole song. Coltrane is known for his avant-garde composition, and even he repeats (often on a much smaller scale than a pop tune). - The work of being a musician is repetitive. Learning (memorizing) songs tak…
Some composers are more repetitive than others. There’s an old joke: Knock knock Who’s there? Philip Glass Knock knock Who’s there? Philip Glass Knock knock Who’s there? Philip Glass
On the opposite end of the spectrum is Elliott Carter. He intentionally tried to avoid repetition in his works.
I was into his string quartets for a while about forty-five years ago but haven’t heard them since. Maybe it’s time to listen to them again.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wse3ZoUXo5M
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=waQgZEGsUpw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6njANe60Evw
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#39I'll sometimes play a new song on repeat with some strange aggressive need to hear it over and over, and then the very next day wonder why I was so into that song.
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#40> I’ve listened to Montgomery’s Impressions recording for as long as an hour straight I've spent many consecutive days with the same song on loop for several hours a day. Was hoping this article would validate that a bit more, but I'll take what I can get.
Yeah really, I've listened to the same 11-second loop for over an hour! (William Basinski's "El Camino Real")
By the way, for all you loopheads out there, here's a protip: drop the song you're looping into Audacity and slow it down by 5%. It tricks your brain into processing the song as "new" again, so you can wring a few more listens out of it.