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Theory: Less repetitive music = More repetitive listening

Discuss in 1500 words.

Not for me. (1497 left)

Do regular people really listen to recorded sessions of free jazz more than once?

IMHO I think it's the opposite.

The more repetitive tracks (to a degree) generally get stuck in your brain easier, provided they're done well. David Guetta's GRRRR (and before you criticize me.... listen to it... it's amazing, it's tech house and there aren't any vocals, it came out of absolutely fucking nowhere)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJGodT_tiHI&ob=av2e

for instance, has like 70 plays in my iTunes library, Pleasurekraft's Tarantula is #1 most played and Deadmau5's Arguru is 2nd most played, and both are fairly repetitive tracks. Other tracks that are up there are Pryda - Aftermath, The End, Human Behaviour, Melo (I could keep going)

My favourite Tiesto track is Traffic which is extremely repetitive. Now if I look at other tracks that are less repetitive, like Black is the New Yellow by Super 8 and Tab, it's a great track but I can't listen to it over and over again, and 2099 by Leon Bolier and Marcus Schossow, same thing.

It might just depend on the person.

quote:

Originally posted by Seandroid IMHO I think it's the opposite. The more repetitive tracks (to a degree) generally get stuck in your brain easier, provided they're done well. David Guetta's GRRRR (and before you criticize me.... listen to it... it's amazing, it's tech house and there aren't any vocals, it came out of absolutely fucking nowhere) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJGodT_tiHI&ob=av2e for instance, has like 70 plays in my iTunes library, Pleasurekraft's Tarantula is #1 most played and Deadmau5's Arguru is 2nd most played, and both are fairly repetitive tracks. Other tracks that are up there are Pryda - Aftermath, The End, Human Behaviour, Melo (I could keep going) My favourite Tiesto track is Traffic which is extremely repetitive. Now if I look at other tracks that are less repetitive, like Black is the New Yellow by Super 8 and Tab, it's a great track but I can't listen to it over and over again, and 2099 by Leon Bolier and Marcus Schossow, same thing. It might just depend on the person.

quoted so you can't delete it when people make fun of you.

Can I just post one and a half pictures instead?

quote:

Originally posted by Zyklon_Jay quoted so you can't delete it when people make fun of you.

So lame

It really depends on the song imo. Certain songs could be quite repetitive, but have a hook that you just can't get out of your head and want to hear over and over. Other less repetitive songs might have various elements that you can't process all in the first listen, so you want to hear it again to enjoy what you may have missed.

I think the theory may be a bit skewed if one doesn't like repetitive music in general.

quote:

Originally posted by Zyklon_Jay quoted so you can't delete it when people make fun of you.

I deleted it because you were right, it was stupid, lol. If I deleted it because I didn't want you to make fun of me I would've deleted it when you told me I looked like Christopher Walken lol.

wat

quote:

Originally posted by srussell0018 I think the theory may be a bit skewed if one doesn't like repetitive music in general.

My 14 months old son already loves repetitive music now.
My 4 years old daughter still loves repetitive music.
They listen it time after time after time, till I get sick of it...
But even I still do like repetitive music.

So I'm looking forward to see what supports the theory, as my view is personal and not based on much.

I think it'd be hard to find anything to support that theory that doesn't involve subjective tastes. People listen to things they like more than things they don't, so if you like repetitive music you listen to it more, and if you don't, you don't.

quote:

Originally posted by srussell0018 I think it'd be hard to find anything to support that theory that doesn't involve subjective tastes. People listen to things they like more than things they don't, so if you like repetitive music you listen to it more, and if you don't, you don't.

Well, it depends how general the theory is. Looking globally and covering all genres and all ages I think it will be hard to support, but it's just a feeling I have.


I'm also not sure how serious J is about this theory, but I'm in a serious mood, so it doesn't matter.

I should probably give a bit of background for this thought.

My housemate doesn't like the music I listen to. His main criticism is just how repetitive it is. He's a fan of punk, ska and other such styles. However, he tends to listen to the same songs and albums over and over.

This got me thinking, and I had a look at my Last.fm stats. While the music I listen to is generally fairly repetitive, my most played songs are, by some considerable margin, pop songs, vocal tracks and short tracks. I don't listen to much short, vocal-oriented poppy music but a lot of the albums I've really hammered fit that description.

So don't be too literal about the word "repetitive". I went with it because it had snappy parallelism. I also mean shorter tracks with pop structures. Not all longer tracks are more repetitive, but as a general rule they contain more phrase repetition and so forth.

a punk lover telling you that electronic music is repetitive is hilarious considering that 95% of tracks in that genre use 3 chords or less.

Maybe the less repetitive tracks offer more mental stimulation, which your subconscious craves. I know in my case I listen to shorter tracks more often than longer tracks. It doesn't mean I like the longer tracks less, but I'd usually rather listen to two 5 minute tracks that I like a lot rather than one ten minute track.

I don't know if you're listening to entire albums from start to finish, or selecting specific songs, but in general if I'm listening to individual tracks, I usually prefer shorter songs which tend to be less repetitive.



Bravo, though. It's not often interesting discussions are started in the MD forum, ironically enough.

I just listen to albums/compilations/mixes.

I somewhat agree with that theory. It certainly seems this is the case for your standard radio/pop-listener.

Re: Theory: Less repetitive music = More repetitive listening

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Discuss in 1500 words.

Interesting question. For me the easiest way to look at it is that I would prefer music to have repetition then no repetition at all. my definition of music would have some sort of repetition in it, i am not sure if repetition is actually required. I know thats not exactly the question.

I think people enjoy repetition based on the patterns that listeners can process. If the repetition takes too long, people may not be able to make a pattern out of it. If the repetition is too short and the pattern is predictable it may make the music not interesting unless there are other things going on in the music.

Patterns & repetition can add some sort of suspense in the music because the brain is trained to follow the sequence. When the sequence changes it makes the music interesting.

Yes, i support this theory.

quote:

Originally posted by srussell0018 Maybe the less repetitive tracks offer more mental stimulation, which your subconscious craves.

I'm not sure it's a case of mental stimulation. I think it's more that shorter, non-repetitive songs don't give you your musical fill, so you come back to them more often. It's not a case that a twenty minute track is less stimulating than a three minute track, more than you get over six times the value for your listening.

Also, less repetitive tracks derive more effect from one-off moments within the track. There are a lot of moments in pop songs I come back to over and over, because you only hear them once per listen. One of my friends calls these moments "Greatest Bits".

quote:

Originally posted by SYSTEM-J Also, less repetitive tracks derive more effect from one-off moments within the track. There are a lot of moments in pop songs I come back to over and over, because you only hear them once per listen. One of my friends calls these moments "Greatest Bits".

don't most people like the catchy repetitive parts in pop tracks? isn't that what makes them "pop/popular"?

quote:

Originally posted by sandstorm03 don't most people like the catchy repetitive parts in pop tracks? isn't that what makes them "pop/popular"?

I'm not saying they don't. But poppy music is still more likely to use one-off elements, such as a guitar solo, a middle eight or a distinctive intro.

When I think of non-repetitive stuff, I think of epic things that move through a whole bunch of different melodies and moods, like a symphony or multi-part prog rock track. So it would be the opposite for me.

Shorter songs probably get listened to more often just because it takes less time and energy to attend to them. Listening to an entire eight-plus minute track is more of an investment, one most people will not frequently feel is worth making.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles Shorter songs probably get listened to more often just because it takes less time and energy to attend to them. Listening to an entire eight-plus minute track is more of an investment, one most people will not frequently feel is worth making.

This, too.

quote:

Originally posted by MrJiveBoJingles When I think of non-repetitive stuff, I think of epic things that move through a whole bunch of different melodies and moods, like a symphony or multi-part prog rock track. So it would be the opposite for me.

Multi-part prog rock tracks still tend to involve far more repetition of phrases without notable development than pop music.

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