People find comfort listening to the same songs over and over, study finds

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This is definitely true for me. Sometimes, I'll listen to the same set of songs for weeks or months, before I change it up. There's certain songs that really speak to me; right down to specific parts of them. Even repeating the song just to listen to a certain part that I really enjoy. For example, a solo, or line of singing.

With the frequency that some people play their favorite song, it's a good thing vinyl records aren't used often because they might wear out.

University of Michigan researchers have found that people enjoy replaying a favorite song many times even after the novelty and surprise are gone. In a new study, participants reported listening to their favorite song hundreds of times.

The mean among the sample was more than 300 times and this number was even larger for listeners who had a deep connection to the song—something that was particularly likely if they had mixed emotions, such as "bittersweet," while listening.

The availability of digital music through streaming services and YouTube makes it easier than ever for people to listen to virtually any song any time.

"Niche listening may enable listeners to develop the kind of personally meaningful relationships with particular songs that allows their affection for those songs to persist across very large amounts of exposure," said Frederick Conrad, professor of psychology and the study's lead author.

The study's 204 participants completed an online questionnaire in fall 2013 about their experience listening to their favorite song, including how it made them feel and the frequency with which they played the song. Although people's favorites songs fell into 10 genre categories, they were mainly pop/rock songs.

About 86 percent of the participants reported listening to their favorite song daily or a few times weekly. Forty-three percent of those who listened to daily replayed the song at least three times a day. Sixty percent listened to the song multiple times consecutively and about 6 percent indicated they urgently wanted to hear the song before they played it.

"Clearly, these listeners were very engaged with these songs," said Conrad, who directs the Michigan Program in Survey Methodology at the Institute for Social Research.

Jason Corey, associate professor of music and a co-author of the study, said certain features of the song were particularly important reasons why respondents listened many times. The most important features were the song's "melody," "beat/rhythm" and "lyrics." For songs that made listeners happy, beat/rhythm was especially important for relistening.

Finally, the more times people listened to their favorite song, the more the listeners could hear it internally, the researchers said.

"Listeners...should be able to 'hear' large amounts of the song in their heads, potentially including all the instrumental and vocal sounds," Conrad said.

In fact, the more times they listened to the song, the more of it they could hear in their heads.


https://medicalxpress.com/news/2018-02-people-comfort-songs.html
 
This is definitely true for me. Sometimes, I'll listen to the same set of songs for weeks or months, before I change it up. There's certain songs that really speak to me; right down to specific parts of them. Even repeating the song just to listen to a certain part that I really enjoy. For example, a solo, or line of singing.

Yeah, me too. :) With most songs, though, after a few months I don't listen to them as frequently.

There's a core group, though, a special playlist, that I listen to probably at least once a week.

Annoyingly, I also sing along to a lot of them. :)
 
Yeah, me too. :) With most songs, though, after a few months I don't listen to them as frequently.

There's a core group, though, a special playlist, that I listen to probably at least once a week.

Annoyingly, I also sing along to a lot of them. :)

Me too, I sing them especially in the car on the drive to and from work.

When I show someone a song I like, they've never heard before; I need to resist the urge to sing the lyrics over the song. But sometimes I do anyway :)
 
I wonder if the same applies to genres...I had periods where I'd listen to one genre and when that period is through, I couldnt care less of that genre in favor of another one

btw I would never sing while listening to my favorite songs, my voice is low to the core and unattractive. I've always had a lower than average voice even as a child, it's extremely masculine and demonic/growly. I'm the exact polar opposite of a castrato.
 
That's incredible! I don't think I have ever listened to any music more than a few times in a single year, and probably not any single piece of music more than 20 times in my life (I mean outside my head). But I almost never listen to music voluntarily by myself. I have an extremely good auditory memory and usually can replay any music I have heard more than a few times whenever I want in my brain. That's a double edge sword though. If I hear a piece of music I like by chance somewhere, it will get stuck in my mind for weeks on end, playing incessantly. It's usually classical music. I try to shield myself from any music so that I don't become crazy.

That's why I have never used an iPod or MP3 player, haven't bought any music of any format since my teen years. I also never listen to the radio - something I have abhorred since my childhood as I can't stand some types of music. The absolute worst is to have a music you hate playing incessantly in your brain. That's would be the main reason I would choose to listen to something else, i.e. to replace the tune playing in my head. I am aware that I am not typical. If more people were like me companies like Apple and Spotify would never have flourished the way they did.
 
Yes! I can listen to a song on repeat for weeks or months. I feel like it’s all about the sentiment whether expressed in the music; a particular harmony or just lyrics.
 
There are not too many songs I could listen repeatedly to, and only when they are very knew. The more I listen to a song, the faster it looses its luster. The longer the intervals between listening (weeks or months), the better it sounds. For that reason I couldn't be a musician and play same songs every night.
I'm jealous of Maciamo's memory. Mine is quite the opposite. I practiced singing and playing about 300 songs through my life, and there are probably only 5 I could play from memory from beginning to the end, ... on a good day that is, lol.
 

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