Btw why is this. Why do i have to listen 10 times to a song before i start enjoying it? Some ofy favourite songs are ones that i didnt like for a while.
I posted this in a different comment thread on this post, but I would be interested to hear your perspective:
While they aren’t generally stylistically complex, some songs with complex nonsense lyrics seem, at least to me as a young American, to be the ones that are simultaneously easiest to appreciate for a great many people, and also have huge staying power, despite being quite old. For example:
American Pie
Hotel California
We Didn’t Start the Fire
Don’t Stop Believing
Bohemian Rhapsody (or, really, most things by Queen)
These, at least among the places I’ve been here in America, are the ones to which everyone in the bar starts singing along.
Sure, these have underlying meaning, or make references to specific events, but in my experience, most of the people I hear singing and dancing to these have no idea what they’re referencing, and often don’t even know the words. Perhaps it is simply that they are so overplayed that they get those “multiple listens” of which you speak? Or is there something inherently compelling in the seeking of meaning in complex, random lyrics, such that people are immediately drawn in?
I think the thing with these hit songs is that they have a part of their lyrics that is very simple that everyone sings along to(even if incorrectly) and general sound of them is also so ordinary and simple that people get used to them fast. If you hear a song thats very different from everything else you ever heard you need time to get used to it but if you hear one of these you can relate it to something you already heard. Thats my two cents i guess.
Btw why is this. Why do i have to listen 10 times to a song before i start enjoying it? Some ofy favourite songs are ones that i didnt like for a while.
I posted this in a different comment thread on this post, but I would be interested to hear your perspective:
I think the thing with these hit songs is that they have a part of their lyrics that is very simple that everyone sings along to(even if incorrectly) and general sound of them is also so ordinary and simple that people get used to them fast. If you hear a song thats very different from everything else you ever heard you need time to get used to it but if you hear one of these you can relate it to something you already heard. Thats my two cents i guess.
Hmm, interesting. I’ll have to consider other cases of this.
I’m sure it’s some psychology name to it.
Thinking through it from my perspective, it’s because we put up barriers with anything new.
First thought: “Does this fit with what I know this musician for?”
Second thought: “Does this hit the vibe or energy I want?”
Third thought: “What is the hook or thing that makes it memorable?”
If any of them fail, I immediately feel disgusted. Not to say I won’t change my mind.