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It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)

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Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)

#171

I'm curious about other people's experiences with how they choose what music to listen to. Many of my friends carefully curate playlists on Spotify, or listen to the playlists they make for you. Others listen to the radio and just enjoy whatever comes on. On the other hand, I have a large library of music (~13k songs) and just kind of decide what I'm in the mood for on a whim. No playlists, just a large collection of…

I do that with a currently similar size library, although a fair chunk of that is new so maybe more like 5-8k songs that I've usually been listening to, mostly in albums. Maybe more repetition than you, particularly when I first get an album (for me there is a "burn this album or song into my memory" aspect of repetition), but I often pick out an album or artist I'm in the mood for and haven't heard for a while. For me it is mostly FLAC files that I play with mpv, organized in directories by artist and album (often shortened to easily type, in the /a directory). I think many people don't like albums for some reason but for those of us that do it much easier to pick a few albums to play than to pick a bunch of random songs. Of course, more people used to do this out of necessecity when music was mostly distributed by CDs or records, so it may partly depend on age as well how often people do that and for the people who don't like albums it was a relief to be able to easily make playlists or pick randomly from all songs. I have a few playlists that I've made but not many, although I have been thinking that I should make a few more (partly because I have a bunch of songs that aren't in any album, although I also often listen to everything I have from a particular artist). I've been trying to do more of a mixtape thing, matching the music and getting the right amount of silence between tracks. The few playlists I have I think of as just another album.

I do keep most game music separate since that tends to be short and have excessive repetition, although the few games with music that stands on its own I put in my general collection. I'm also working on creating an alternative tree with volume normalized opus files, but I still have a ways to go.

I've always had a better memory for music than most things and can play a bunch of music in my head fairly well, never complete songs but maybe up to a minute or two with quite a bit of detail (and usually but not always accurately :/). From various threads, it sounds like a lot of people can't do that. Although it is also mostly as I happen to think of it, intentionally recalling particular music is harder and takes some time (and depends on how long it has been since I heard it). I have some challenges with memory in general due to health issues but can still pick out the albums I'd like to hear from memory fairly well.

Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)

#172

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are some songs that I think I enjoy because of their brevity. I sort of look forward to the encounter, pine for the song again when it's over. Rather than put it on repeat though I always shuffle, preferring to (impatiently) await our next visit. (My music library is such now that it can be a while before it comes along again.)

wow. what a great comment There must be a certain amount of discernment and refinement that comes with savoring songs in such a way... though having built said music library must have been fun.

I was looking through my playlist (sort by duration) and the obvious example that leapt out at me was Simon and Garfunkle's Bookends (under 90 seconds).

Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)

#173

I'm terrified of this. I've no idea why, but if I hear a song too many times in a couple day period I have a night of fever dreaming where I wake up over and over again to the song in my head. It's like my brain has over conditioned the pathway for that song and as soon as it starts trying to dream it falls into it and the dream breaks and I wake up. It happens to me a couple times a year and when I hear any of the s…

Ironically, this happened to my daughter after listening to Duran Duran's "Last Night in the City" which starts with the prominent lyric "I'm not gonna sleep tonight"

Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)

#174
post #81

I'm opposite; more than one hearing of same song per day and something inside gets triggered. Books, movies, shows, I need to wait something like two years before I can enjoy them again. My mind for some reason dislikes repetition. For background music I put on chill-hop which has a lot repetition inside individual songs but the live stream doesn't repeat tracks. I've noticed than my enjoyment in any song peaks at ar…

I feel kinda similar, would like to know your opinion to this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6WNB9JN_2o

Works great, cozy and doesn't draw attention.

Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)

#175

Somewhat the opposite, but are there tips/tricks to get a song stuck in head -- sort of in a controllable manner? I enjoy having songs stuck in my head, but usually it's not the song I want!

It's my personal experience that songs that I haven't played to the end get are more likely to get stuck. What's more, it's usually the span around the point at which I stopped the playback that keeps echoing on andon andonandon. Same thing with any other media. I remember books I've left midway with incredible detail. Books I've finished, I find hard to remember titles let alone the name of the main character. I bel…

Thanks. Come to think of it, that rings true in my experience.

Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)

#176
post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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). I'll note that a pop music current that has, I think, even less repetition than someone like Coltrane was the Progressive Rock genre, especially the originals in t…

Prog is still alive and well. I love King Gizzard and the Wizard Lizard. My fav lesser known prog is Caravan.

Prog metal can be fantastic, too. Opeth is a band I seem to listen to daily.

Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)

#177

Earlier quoted context omitted.

wow. what a great comment There must be a certain amount of discernment and refinement that comes with savoring songs in such a way... though having built said music library must have been fun.

I was looking through my playlist (sort by duration) and the obvious example that leapt out at me was Simon and Garfunkle's Bookends (under 90 seconds).

Seems boring; Would rather move to Canada and make juice

Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)

#178
post #105

I'm opposite; more than one hearing of same song per day and something inside gets triggered. Books, movies, shows, I need to wait something like two years before I can enjoy them again. My mind for some reason dislikes repetition. For background music I put on chill-hop which has a lot repetition inside individual songs but the live stream doesn't repeat tracks. I've noticed than my enjoyment in any song peaks at ar…

I have the same! I wish music players and recommendation systems had support for this. I'd like an option "This song is great, but stop playing it for a month or I'll start to hate it".

My player is not as precise as that but it works for me. I have a dedicated skip button and I keep adding meta keys to make it skip more (each meta key is x2).

I seldom want to choose a track to play. The next track to play is automatically selected based on the combination of two factors: being skipped less and being selected less.

I get to hear my whole collection in a way that's far more enjoyable than an unweighted shuffle.

Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)

#179
Very late to the discussion here, but I often put a single song on repeat and listen to it all day long. Well, "listen" to it -- it's usually something that I can tune out (heh) or fits as background music for whatever mood I'm in at the time. Could be anything from Timber Timbre's Hot Dreams to Air's Sexy Boy.

Re: It's normal to play the same song over and over again (2016)

#180

I'm terrified of this. I've no idea why, but if I hear a song too many times in a couple day period I have a night of fever dreaming where I wake up over and over again to the song in my head. It's like my brain has over conditioned the pathway for that song and as soon as it starts trying to dream it falls into it and the dream breaks and I wake up. It happens to me a couple times a year and when I hear any of the s…

♪♪♪ Wake me up before you go go, don't leave me hangin on like a yo-yo! ♪♪♪
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