This is a response to the following interview that's linked below. The link contains an article and pod cast that talks about an interview with Dr. Margulis, a director from the University of Arkansas, who explains why we can stand listening to the same song over and over again.
From reading this article its eye opening to me to realize that today's music is very repetitive. Its almost the same beat, the same topic, the same feeling you get when your dancing to it. Its fascinating to know that as we listen to a song over a few times it starts to kinda grow on us whether we like it or not (much like a guilty pleasure). That's an example of human evolution and adaptation in action.
A personal example of this, is the time I worked at Hollister Co. I worked in floor sales, so I stood around greeting customers and folded clothes that on the tables. If you didn't know, Hollister's head quarters sets up a seasonal sound track of about 8 songs that go along with their season clothing line. This season happened to be spring and there was a particular song that got on the sound track that I got to hear about 4 months before it even hit the radio. It was One Republic's- Counting Stars. I enjoyed it the for the first couple of shifts, but soon after having working 6 hours a day and standing on the floor having to listen to the same tracks over and over.. It got to the point to where I almost couldn't stand the listening to the music. So a few months pass by and I quit my job at Hollister before school ends. Weeks later, next thing you know the jams for summer starts to play on the radio. Guess whats playing on the radio? You guessed, that song that drives me nuts but at the same time is my guilty pleasure.
http://soundcheck.wnyc.org/story/why-we-love-listen-over-and-over/
I actually just had this happen to me recently. I lived in a rural part of Alaska for the summer and we didn't have radio, so when I got back to the states I turned on the radio and began listening to what new music had been out since I had left Washington. The first two songs I heard was Taylor Swifts new song "Shake it Off" and the other popular song by Meghan Trainor, "All about that Bass". I hated both of them and thought what is music coming to, but now I really enjoy both of them, go figure. Did you really quit your job because the song was driving you nuts or was it just a contribution to a number of factors. As some people say the straw that broke the camels back?
ReplyDeleteSo the same song that you ran from became a guilty pleasure, something you loved listening to?
ReplyDelete