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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)

#181

Post by FumblingBear »

joveian wrote: post #171
FumblingBear wrote: post #158

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…

Thanks for sharing some insight!

I definitely have a similar experience with initial repetition for new albums and burning them into my memory. I used to manage all my FLAC files in a similar manner, but the benefits stopped outweighing the costs as my library grew larger.

I think the generational aspect of age and preference for singles vs. full albums probably has some correlation, but I mostly grew up in the age when mp3 players picked up (I'm 27) and I'm definitely part of the latter.

For a more intentional listening experience, I prefer enjoying a full album from front to back too. Many artists I listen to have songs that directly feed into each other or motifs that recur throughout so a front-to-back listening experience is the best way to fully appreciate the composition.

Sometimes though, I just want to jam to a specific song to fit the vibe :)

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

#182

Post by JetAlone »

amelius wrote: post #95
JetAlone wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"In the War on Terror, the US used the songs "The Real Slim Shady" by Eminem, the Meow Mix theme song, and "Fuck Your God" by Deicide to torture.[6]" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SbyZDq76T74 Now we got an extended club version MeowMixTape, on Youtube, for kids!

Did they pay the royalties?

That's a great question. I don't know.

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

#183

Post by geoelectric »

FumblingBear wrote: post #139
Transfinity wrote: post #17

Semi 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…

Thanks for sharing your experience with us! I'm not a professional musician, but I've played and performed in different settings for about 15 years. Until reading your comment, I didn't realize that many people don't get songs stuck in their head. I often get very long and complex songs stuck in my head for hours to days. Sometimes it's just portions, but sometimes it can be the full song. I don't quite know how to d…

I have aphantasia, and I also remember songs in multiple parts vividly. I won't go so far as to say it's eichoic--I can't, for example, turn around and just play a version of it on piano like some people I know, and I'm fairly sure I'm recalling an approximation in a lot of cases--but it's a detailed enough recollection I can "listen" to songs that way by recalling them. It's very much in contrast to my non-existent ability to recall even a familiar image.

I've considered cause/effect on this before and personally just decided it was probably coincidence combined with my poor visual memory making the other types seem that much more impressive. There's no particular compensatory mechanism I can think of that would explain remembering sound better because I remember vision worse.

Interestingly, I've never been any better at composition (i.e., imagining novel music) because of this. To the extent I've composed, I still pick stuff out a part at a time and figure out how it fits rather than starting with a finished sound in my head to recreate.

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

#184

Post by tsimionescu »

dhosek wrote: post #155
tsimionescu wrote: post #96

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'll give them a listen. I've tried to listen to a few things like Marillion and Dream Theater before, but it didn't seem to me that they get anywhere close to something like Yes' Close to the Edge. I'd be happy to find some other band that maybe does, especially if they are even newer.

You might like Spock’s Beard. The first 6 albums with Neal Morse have kind of a Yes meets Gentle Giant vibe to them. I like the later stuff as well, but I remember introducing a prog-loving friend to them with a post-Neal show and it was interesting how he managed to pick out the Neal Morse–era songs (and only those) they did as his favorites.

Thank you for the suggestion! Tried out Beware of Darkness and I really enjoyed it, it did remind me of Gentle Giant and Yes in various places!

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

#185

Post by NonNefarious »

creativenolo wrote: post #74
NonNefarious wrote: post #57

Sadly, 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.

I often wondered what the term / production technique was, and "dynamic compression" it is. Makes me think of Oasis records from the early 90s that were mastered to be the loudest sounding songs on the pub jukebox, and they were, then.

Yep. It's so insidious, stupid, and destructive. Every recording artist and consumer has superb fidelity available, and yet today's music sounds like absolute shit.

I have 45s from the '80s whose sound quality utterly destroys all-digital masters from the last decade. And that's not a digital-vs.-analog thing; I can make MP3s out of those 45s that will still destroy "lossless" versions of the same song on Apple Music.

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

#186

Post by tkgally »

dahart wrote: post #146
tkgally wrote: post #38

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bi0…

My stepfather is a composer who follows in the path of Ives, one of Carter’s influences. Have been to quite a few concerts by many composers and musicians emulating Ives and Carter and others. As an amateur jazz & classical musician myself, I can understand some of the ideas my stepfather talks about, in the sense of academic concepts. The music in general doesn’t grab me or move me other than in fleeting moments per…

> I’d love to hear how you ... enjoy this music ...

I can’t say I do enjoy that music, to be honest. When I was in my late teens and early twenties—as I said, around forty-five years ago—I was attracted by the notion that some 20th century classical composers were breaking new ground, throwing off old-fashioned constraints, being revolutionary, etc. I had studied traditional music theory and learned to play Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, etc. on the piano, and those more recent composers’ formal experimentations seemed exciting. My youthful rebellious infatuation with their music didn’t last long, and ever since I have listened to more conventional tonal music—not only Western classical but also rock, folk, jazz, reggae, etc.

I did get a bit more out of Elliott Carter when I was young, though, than I did out of other avant garde composers. Amid all the disorder there was something trippy and emotive about his music. These days, for a similar effect, I listen to Bach fugues, which have been mentioned by other commenters here. If anyone is interested, here’s an arrangement of the Art of Fugue that I listened to for the first time the other day and really liked:

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lRi9N_I7iJUGXi...

As of this writing, the musicians’ channel has all of 14 subscribers, including (just now) me.

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

#187

Post by thorin »

thorin wrote: post #82
tsimionescu wrote: post #72

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.

A mid period band I don't hear about much anymore is Queensryche.

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

#188

Post by jmiskovic »

HKH2 wrote: post #178
pornel wrote: post #105

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 unweight…

That sounds brilliant. Did you roll out your own player?

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

#189

Post by FumblingBear »

geoelectric wrote: post #183
FumblingBear wrote: post #139

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks for sharing your experience with us! I'm not a professional musician, but I've played and performed in different settings for about 15 years. Until reading your comment, I didn't realize that many people don't get songs stuck in their head. I often get very long and complex songs stuck in my head for hours to days. Sometimes it's just portions, but sometimes it can be the full song. I don't quite know how to d…

I have aphantasia, and I also remember songs in multiple parts vividly. I won't go so far as to say it's eichoic--I can't, for example, turn around and just play a version of it on piano like some people I know, and I'm fairly sure I'm recalling an approximation in a lot of cases--but it's a detailed enough recollection I can "listen" to songs that way by recalling them. It's very much in contrast to my non-existent…

Thanks for sharing!

I view things like perfect pitch as distinct from a strong musical recollection. With effort, I can transcribe music and eventually learn it, but it's a separate skill in my mind.

The ability to "listen" to songs by recalling them is more what I was referring to when discussing my experiences. I'm with you on the non-existent ability to recall imagery.

I have no idea if there is some type of connection between the two, but it's interesting that at least two of us seem to have similar experiences!

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

#190

Post by HKH2 »

jmiskovic wrote: post #188
HKH2 wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 unweight…

That sounds brilliant. Did you roll out your own player?

Thanks. No, what I wrote just selects tracks. I use mpv to play them.
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