“Repetition draws us into music,
And repetition draws music into us.”
Music of every genre and culture employs repeated musical phrases for effect and success. So why do we love to listen to the same things over and over and again and again?
What is music? There’s no end to the many people who have wondered about this, but most of us feel confident saying: ‘I know it when I hear it.’ Put the most music-apathetic individual in a household where someone is rehearsing for a music recital, and they will leave whistling the song.
Repetition is a fundamental music concept that connects our cultures and people. We love to listen to the same music, the same song, the same band, or the same recording. Go to any concert, and see groups of people singing the same song. Out loud. Together!
The same songs, symphonies, or operas we love are often built on patterns that repeat – drumbeats, rhythms, melodies, harmonic cycles, and lyrics. But, instead of being bored by the fact that we know a particular moment, or phrase of so many songs, our enjoyment increases the more we hear them. Far from diluting our pleasure, repeating them only seems to amplify our increased involvement in all musical experiences.
“Some of my favorite music is incredibly repetitive, or on the surface has an element of repetition. But once you go beneath the surface, you realize in the repetition is constant variation. ~ John Dieterich.”
Why do we listen to our favorite music over and over again? Because repeated sounds work magic in our brains. Psychologists have understood that people prefer things they’ve experienced. It doesn’t matter whether those things are triangles or pictures or melodies; people report liking them more the second or third time around, even when they aren’t aware of any previous exposure.
Instead of thinking: ‘I’ve heard that song before, that’s why I know it,’ they seem to think: ‘Gee, I like that song. It makes me feel clever.’
Even involuntary repetition against our musical preferences is powerful. Repetition is why the music we dislike, but we’ve heard repeatedly, can sometimes engage us unwillingly. Repeated exposure makes one sound seem to connect almost inevitably to the next, so that when we hear ‘What is love?’, ‘Baby, don’t hurt me’ immediately plays through our minds.
Repetition makes a sequence of sounds seem less like an objective presentation of content and more like a kind of tug that’s pulling you along. But, of course, we love to be tugged along in life, regardless of the music!
This sense of identification with music, listening with it rather than to it, is a big defining concept apparent within the idea of repetition. Repetitiveness carves out a familiar, rewarding path in our minds, allowing us at once to anticipate and participate in each phrase as we listen. So it makes us feel more connected to ourselves and connected to others. And that is a very cool thing!