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.

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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.

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> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

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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.

Last edited by srussell0018 on Oct-26-2010 at 21:50

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.

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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.

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Yes, i support this theory.

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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".

___________________
Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/

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"?

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Time exists so everything doesn't happen at once. Space exists so everything doesn't happen to you

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.

___________________
Mixes:
> Maximum Elevation [Progressive House]
> DI.FM 26th Anniversary Guest Mix [Progressive House]
> Live @ Dance:Love:Hub London, 11.10.2025
> Higher Peaks [Progressive House]
> Dance:Love:Hub Afterparty (The Return) 23.11.24

Like these sets? Come see me play live at Kibosh in Manchester: https://www.instagram.com/kibosh.mcr/

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.