TITUS PINTO
As you’re reading
this, hundreds of
songs are making their
way to streaming platforms
across the world. Barring the
commercial music (read marketing
collaterals rather than a representation
of an artist’s sensibilities), most music
ends up seeing nothing more than double-
digit plays. If you glance at your playlist
history, almost all the music you hear on a
daily basis is something you have heard before.
Is it the familiarity that gives us a fleeting
sense of comfort? Or does music really have the
power to erase boundaries and pull you right
in? It’s a little bit of both a lot more than that.
Now that we know what it is called, here’s why
we do it. You’re sub-consciously going back
to your song over and over because of the
tiny amounts of dopamine your brain
releases. When we like particular music,
it appeals to the brain. Give the brain
what it likes and it releases happy
chemicals - the same dopamine
that’s released when you
bite into your favourite
burger or get your
cheeks
The mood of songs is also a big factor
that affects the number of times you
loop it. A 2014 study published in the
BPS research digest states that bittersweet
songs received the highest number of replays
- on an average 790 times as compared to 515
for calm songs and 175 for happy songs.
The music we listen to says a lot about how our
minds are wired and what kind of people we are. It’s
this need to consume and be consumed that keeps
music alive. This behaviour invariable expands our
music vocabulary and taste. While we’ll stick to our
go-to jams, this need to simply listen makes us embark
on quests to find that next earworm. This eventually
exposes us to different forms of music - different in
terms of genre, place of origin and time period. This
may just be the fact why some forms of music have
sustained over time and not become obsolete. Also,
the more you hear, the more you listen. For example,
repeated plays are bound to reveal multiple layers,
layers the artist didn’t want to make apparent on the
first listen. Listen to Since I’ve Been Loving You by
Led Zeppelin. Once you hear Bonham’s squeaky
bass drum pedal, you can’t unhear it - an addition
to the music that was intentionally placed but not
with the sole purpose of being the highlight.
Music is one of those rare art forms where you can
consume the same piece over and over without losing
interest. Think of restarting your favourite movie as
soon as the ending credits hit and the whole premise
seems highly unappealing. Not music, though. The
songs you grew up to are songs you look forward to
on days you’re feeling particularly nostalgic. Playlists
get segregated as those meant specifically to welcome
the weekend and those meant to nurse the hangover
that invariably follows. There’s work music, there’s
gym music. Scour the internet and there’s also ‘study
music’. What binds all of them are the songs that
we look forward to revisiting. This syndrome of
maniacally hitting play over and over is what the
internet calls ‘extreme re-listening’ and TBH we’re
all guilty of doing this at some point or the other.
clapped. Just
like the music, your
brain happens to really like
dopamine and hence can’t stop
repeating things that give it its fix.
t
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As is with most things that catch our attention,
we run a very real risk of wearing a song out
by playing it multiple times. The sad bit -
the song will devolve from your jam to
just another song. The good bit - there’s
always a song out there waiting to
replace your demoted song.
So…what are you listening to?
The
Score Magazine
highonscore.com
35