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Repeated Listening Increases the Liking for Music Regardless of Its Complexity


Chris A

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I just ran across this article, and It seems to coincide with personal experience especially when considering top-40s radio from 40-50 years ago that I've recently been collecting and demastering (some of which requires significant demastering EQ from their original released condition to make more listenable). 

 

The breadth of music genres and their variation to which we're individually exposed at a young age seems to set our music complexity preferences. I've noticed the music preferences of many people that I see across this site and other hi-fi and music BBSs.  The relative willingness--or unwillingness--of regular contributors to share and/or stretch the breath of their music preferences seem to say a great deal about the relative breadth of music experiences from our younger years.  The channels of where that music came from tells me a lot about individual life gestalt and breath of acceptance of differing views in general. 

 

My experience in this area indicates that it is wise to keep experiencing new music genres and new music in general that differs from that which we've heard before...and to make sure that we expose our offspring to as wide a palette of music as is possible, not just that which is heard through commonly available sources (notably radio and mass music distribution channels).  YMMV.

 

 

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5374342/

Repeated Listening Increases the Liking for Music Regardless of Its Complexity: Implications for the Appreciation and Aesthetics of Music

 

Abstract:

Psychological and aesthetic theories predict that music is appreciated at optimal, peak levels of familiarity and complexity, and that appreciation of music exhibits an inverted U-shaped relationship with familiarity as well as complexity. Because increased familiarity conceivably leads to improved processing and less perceived complexity, we test whether there is an interaction between familiarity and complexity.  Specifically, increased familiarity should render the music subjectively less complex, and therefore move the apex of the U curve toward greater complexity. A naturalistic listening experiment was conducted, featuring 40 music examples (ME) divided by experts into 4 levels of complexity prior to the main experiment.

 

The MEs were presented 28 times each across a period of approximately 4 weeks, and individual ratings were assessed throughout the experiment. Ratings of liking increased monotonically with repeated listening at all levels of complexity; both the simplest and the most complex MEs were liked more as a function of listening time, without any indication of a U-shaped relation.

 

Although the MEs were previously unknown to the participants, the strongest predictor of liking was familiarity in terms of having listened to similar music before, i.e., familiarity with musical style. We conclude that familiarity is the single most important variable for explaining differences in liking among music, regardless of the complexity of the music.

Chris
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One thing that I should add--and perhaps this is the real punchline...

 

One very important finding of all my demastering experience has been that, when the music tracks have been significantly altered in EQ during mastering, I dislike listening to these tracks, regardless of knowing what kind of EQ has been applied to them in advance.

 

When these tracks are instead returned to an EQ state that is something like how the music would sound if played live in a good music venue (i.e., without multi-track manipulations), my preference for the music tracks increases--quite significantly.  I find that others that have imprinted on a live music experience also experience the same effect.  The closer that these tracks sound to a live music performance (most especially for non-amplified music) the greater the preference in listening.

 

Maybe there's something more to demastering than just "personal preference"...?

 

Chris

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This:  "In fact, a majority of the world's professional musicians earn their living by playing tunes over and over again that are already frequently heard in concerts and on the radio, and found on recordings in millions of homes."

is why I left the profession.

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20 minutes ago, oldtimer said:

This:  "In fact, a majority of the world's professional musicians earn their living by playing tunes over and over again that are already frequently heard in concerts and on the radio, and found on recordings in millions of homes."...is why I left the profession.

 

I left the major because I knew that I already regretted not going into engineering, too.  TCU didn't have an engineering school then, and A&M doesn't have a music school.  :sad:

 

Chris

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But you make the point on the repetition that musicians face, and this is tied to the lack of breath of music tastes by listeners who want to hear the same thing over and over--and not broaden their musical tastes. 

 

I remember the free jazz era that moved so far away from the musical tastes of the listeners that it left its listeners behind.  This is the danger of musicians running well out in front of their audiences' tastes.  Some sort of happy medium needs to be struck between no movement in preferred music at all...and too much innovation/change. 

 

This root issue (lack of breadth of musical tastes by listeners) also reminds me of this sort of thing occurring...but in an internal organizational culture context:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_XXXII:_Stone_of_Sisyphus#Managerial_reception

 

Chris

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7 hours ago, Chris A said:

But you make the point on the repetition that musicians face, and this is tied to the lack of breath of music tastes by listeners who want to hear the same thing over and over--and not broaden their musical tastes. 

 

I remember the free jazz era that moved so far away from the musical tastes of the listeners that it left its listeners behind.  This is the danger of musicians running well out in front of their audiences' tastes.  Some sort of happy medium needs to be struck between no movement in preferred music at all...and too much innovation/change. 

 

This root issue (lack of breadth of musical tastes by listeners) also reminds me of this sort of thing occurring...but in an internal organizational culture context:

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_XXXII:_Stone_of_Sisyphus#Managerial_reception

 

Chris

I think it ignores what this really Is, the music BUSINESS.

 

There is no "happy medium in the music business. It either sells or it doesnt.  

 

The direction of pop mainstream music is set by a demographic of 14 to 24.  Nobody here fits that bill. 

 

The group that buys the most music in the US is 45+, but it is mostly female and they mostly buy catalog music (60s, 70s, 80s and 90s.  It is though to have any influence on the music of today when we are a tiny silver of a demo and the music the demo is buying is all from the past.  We shape nothing.

 

Kids shape music, as it should be.

 

 

 

 

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"Should" implies a subjective judgment, which then demands an explanation or rationale for said judgment.  Either that, or it reflects an objective fact which is widely ignored, such as "people should floss, use a gum stimulator or toothpick along the gum lines, and then use a sulca brush on the outside and inside gum line before brushing at least once a day, besides brushing one's teeth at least one other time per day."  That's what they should do---for teeth and gum health.

 

Therefore, why should juveniles shape music?

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On 3/9/2018 at 9:16 AM, Chris A said:

My experience in this area indicates that it is wise to keep experiencing new music genres and new music in general that differs from that which we've heard before...and to make sure that we expose our offspring to as wide a palette of music as is possible, not just that which is heard through commonly available sources (notably radio and mass music distribution channels).  YMMV.

Continuing on in the spirit of the stated subject of the thread--that it's good to broaden our musical tastes, not just keep playing the old, familiar tunes from our childhood.  In that light, I'd like to recognize at least some individuals on the "Right This Minute" forum that have consistently challenged others to expand their music palettes.  Two that come to mind--@pmsummer and @Tigerman(among a few others)--have generally made their living on this forum posting their music selections from a very wide and deep library of music that is well outside the streaming music channel libraries of popular music.  This is precisely what I was referring to above.  Dave @Mallette has also shown a proclivity to draw upon less known music from time to time (sometimes enduring more than just gentle ribbing in the process). I view these individuals as being hosts to increasing the breadth of our musical palettes.   There are also other individuals that I know that I've missed, but I wanted to single out these guys for particular recognition.  These gentlemen are actually doing a public service to the Klipsch-owners community.

 

In my own case, I do not participate in the RTM thread, not because I don't wish to share my musical tastes, but because I've already shared much of my digital musical library in its entirety in the demastering threads, including the following list.  By no means do I consider my musical tastes to be as wide and deep as I wish it were, but I'm in process of continuing to expand that list to include lesser known artists and music genres:  Album list.txt

 

Here is a portion of what I refer to--the book entitled 1001 Albums that You Must Hear Before You Die (represented by the red bars below, which is decidedly not very broad in its musical palette) as compared to the genres in my digital library (blue bars) a couple of years ago, which has continued to grow steadily in its diversity, along with actually listening to the newly acquired music in less popular genres.  I expect the bar entitled "World" to continue to expand relative to the other genres found here:

 

5aa52846bdcb8_1001AlbumsGenreComparison.gif.bf7214d6a7e70b41af44156513f600ea.gif

 

Chris

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Some time back I put together the beginning of a music genre digraph based on Wikipedia sources (which is admittedly western music focused to date):

 

5aa576e850cf8_Musicgenredigraph.png.4cdf698ac1caa5a886a56309209915bb.png

 

The follow-on portion of the chart after 1980s is extremely difficult to chart in the same format due to the explosion of "micro-genres" that center on the input genres shown by the lead lines extending to the right of this chart.  Note that the genres shown that still live on today aren't really indicated as such in this chart.

 

I've noticed that the users posting on this forum tend to gather readily for chats on hi-fi hardware (and other subjects not related to audio), but when the subject turns to music, all that I see in the way of sustained discussions is the Right This Minute thread(s).  You have to go over to the Steve Hoffman forum or perhaps some of the other big forums (AudioKarma, AudioCircle, AVS, etc.) before people consistently talk about the music that they listen to. 

 

The type of loudspeakers that Klipsch produces would tend to favor those that like music genres with greater dynamic range including:

  • percussion
  • "audiophile" recordings (which tend to be more avant-garde in terms of its musical genres)
  • acoustic guitar (like classical, flamenco, and its modern offshoots)
  • big band (including modern equivalents)
  • world music (like traditional Indian music...sitar, etc.)
  • acoustic jazz
  • certain classical subgenres (like percussion and 20th-century neoclassicism)

These genres of music are the ones that consistently show off the real dynamic capabilities of Klipsch loudspeakers.  When people own loudspeakers that have trouble reproducing those genres, I find that they they tend to shy away from owning and listening to these genres of music.

 

Chris

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Here is a partial listing of those "micro-genres" that I referred to above, in indented list format.

 

image.thumb.png.cc968165916d5749d1282fb9b95c37c0.png

 

Chris

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I grew up listening to folk music, i.e., Woody Guthrie; Koerner, Ray and Glover, pop folk groups, PP&M, Kingstom Trio, etc. As an adult, a friend loaned me 20-30 classical albums form the Nonesuch catalog (he had bought the entire catalog. It was mindblowing to say the least. I will listen to just about any genre... Had a job working 2:30-midnight, wore headphones and listened to Afropop on a PBS station. Always listening to something new.

 

Bruce

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Good Grief, Chris A...you are seriously into analysis. I like it. My own approach is a bit more free form. You really probably have no idea just how far I range in music. The earliest piece I have is "The Hurrian Hymn" of about 1400 B.C. I have Hebrew and Christian hymns from the first few centuries. I enjoy 12th century Chinese music. Ambrosian and Gregorian chant. And Midnight Oil and Black MIDI. "If it sounds good, it IS good." As mentioned, when one knows that a piece of music is acclaimed by others, it's a matter of time and listening to comprehend it. I found this true with Conlon Nancarrow, who I now understand why Georgy Legeti stated "If Bach were alive today, THIS is the music he would write." It also led my to understand my good friend Dr. John Tennison's 36 movement Texarkanon: Symphony for Unprepared Piano" that is an advance on Nancarrow's already pure genius work. As I write this, the lot where the home stood that Nancarrow was raised is what I see from my kitchen window. It's humbling. Music is a vast area and, IMHO, the greatest aspiration of humanity and our connection with the Devine. The issue is simple: When one is exposed to a work of music that is well formed and well performed, if you don't like it, it's NOT about the music. It's about you. I purchased records decades ago that I just now appreciate. 

 

Good topic and appreciated!

Dave

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