I really enjoyed this book which covers the subject deeply https://www.amazon.com/Repeat-How-Music-Plays-Mind/dp/019999...
That book is mentioned throughout the article ;)
It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
51–60 of 191 posts
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#52Can'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 think you're missing out. There's plenty of music that almost requires repeated listening to even begin to appreciate. Leonard Cohen definitely requires this treatment. His texts are so laden with multilayered metaphor you simply can't even begin to unpack most of them by merely listening to them once. A lot of hip-hop also falls in this category, because just like with Cohen, the emphasis is on the lyrics and their delivery rather than the beat.
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#53" 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 musi…
Interesting that you bring that up (rereading). I found that the first and foremost reason to learn at least a few poems by heart is that you will be able to "reread" them at will without the printed text: on the bus, in the shower, etc. It helps you appreciate the text so much more.
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#54" 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 musi…
Active listening is a real pleasure. Qualitatively, it’s a very different experience to having music on in the background while doing some other activity, and it merits listening on repeat.
Mentally separating out the different voices in the composition, listening for how they enter and exit the soundstage, how that layering of sound builds up the texture of the music, not to mention melody, harmony, dynamics, pacing, phrasing, repetition, structure, timbre, rhythm, and the interplay of all these factors.
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#55"But this gem of musical dervish-ness"
Hits on the key point, in my opinion. Repeating songs, phrases, rhythms can by hypnotic and put the listener/performer into a trance-like state. Something that can be quite enjoyable and even addictive.
I find that listening to music with lyrics simply won't do it for me. It must be instrumental only. Something like Keith Jarrett, Earthless or a good Frank Zappa vamp. Time no longer has meaning. It's wonderful!
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#56Can'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 cle…
The thought alone of playing Dark Side Of The Moon on shuffle makes me shudder. Why anyone would butcher albums that way is beyond me.
Even my own playlists (of electronic music, which doesn’t tend to be released as albums) very quickly attain a ‘canonical’ order to my own ear. It’s jarring when the anticipation of the next track is disrupted.
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#57Sadly, the enjoyment of popular music has been so decimated by dynamic compression that I rarely repeat a song mastered (or, heaven forbid, "remastered") since the mid-'90s.
What should be very catchy music is now a fatiguing wall of noise that you just don't want assaulting your eardrums any more.
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#58Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#59I appreciate this. I’ve had days where at work I’ve played a new song I’ve gotten into at least 30 times, sometimes with a few songs to break it up, often not though. I’ve always assumed it was slightly strange, but also probably not that strange. I also relate to the authors explanation. I’ll get tired of a song eventually, for a while, but one day come back to it and get into another usually less intense loop. I do…
When I was younger I would get hooked on a CD. I'd do it so much that the current game I was also hooked on and the music I was listening to get intertwined into a single memory (if I see the game I remember the music, and vice versa). These days with Spotify I get hooked on a single song and will often play that song over and over for a week or two.
I had this with books! I would play one album per book. And still when I pick up the book I hear the music and know where I was when reading it. And the other way around. When I hear the album I see the pages of the book again.
Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)
#60And then there's this. People making 10 hour long videos of the same song on repeat:
https://youtu.be/4T0QUdQu7RY
https://youtu.be/xm3YgoEiEDc
It must be a challenge or something.