Repeated Listening Increases the Liking for Music Regardless of Its Complexity

[dirtmudd]

On 3/14/2018 at 12:45 PM, Rxonmymind said:

Unfortunately, this does not work with the wife....

Repeated Listening(to wife) Increases the Liking for (her) 

 

By Chris A, Friday

[Travis In Austin]

Another one worth a glance.

 

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/in-one-lifespan/201507/the-adaptive-functions-music-listening

[Chris A]

An interesting viewpoint from the perspective of psychology:  young people (18-30) listen to music in order to escape social interactions, while older people (60-75) listen to reconnect with mostly pleasant memories and to lessen social isolation.  Nice article.

 

While it is obvious to me that those stated functions of music are typical and pervasive, it also seems to me that there are other functions that music provides that aren't discussed in the article--not only with "self-fulfillment", but also with personal exploration, empathic learning about others (by listening to their music), and understanding the worldviews--gestalts--and experiences of others, especially those whom we might have little connection to and understanding of.  Those functions, among others, seems to me are just as important--or perhaps even more--as each of us continues our own internal learning/growth. 

 

I've found that music plays a key role in effective creativity and problem solving.   These cases are typically not discussed by those that are trained to cut out music from their working environments (since silence is the only generally acceptable state for intellectual work--like going to a library or quiet place to work).  [I would think that legal environments are governed by this sort of "social constraint".]  Many times I've found that silence is not the answer, but rather listening to music is like a stimulator or mental lubricant to get over conceptual impasses to get through certain types of problem solving activities.  This is historically rejected in business environments where many people must share a relatively small office space in order to "collaborate" and save on real estate costs...to the detriment of the performance of individuals solving problems.  Having music playing openly in these environments is socially rejected by others that may dislike the musical selections that others might prefer, due to the differing musical preferences and tasks that each person is concurrently performing.  Even "earbuds" aren't socially acceptable in such places and instances.  I've found this to be highly counterproductive to achieving the best performance. 

 

The privilege of listening to mentally stimulating music to problem solve ranks up there with other human privileges of taking coffee breaks, exercise, or any other more culturally acceptable methods of breaking the monotony, mental gridlock, and opening up new paths of thinking. There are other functions of music, such as intellectual and emotional focusing and stimulation, and as a tool to help unwind or develop solutions to other non-related puzzles and challenges (sort of like solving a Rubic's Cube or any other mental task). 

 

Even more functions exist for music--including bearing and lessening painful and discomforting experiences (recovering from injuries, sickness, or chronic discomfort), sort of like a "relaxation response" phenomenon, or re-imagining oneself in a completely different life situation to release oneself from the constraints and the grind of your current status or life situation.  Music permits us the freedom to re-imagine ourselves unencumbered by current reality, to allow us to transcend our current constraints on "who we are", to "what we can imagine" a life or situation.  This is not escapism but rather a means to constructive re-imagining our current situation to solve problems.

 

Other functions of music allows people to gather together and share in religious or patriotic services, or perhaps just bear life's weight a little easier by singing along or just sharing the musical experience.

 

All of these topics (among others) are not really discussed in that article, but they clearly are just as real.  Not everyone takes advantage of these functions of music, it seems.

 

Chris

[dirtmudd]

1 hour ago, Chris A said:

An interesting viewpoint from the perspective of psychology:  young people (18-30) listen to music in order to escape social interactions, while older people (60-75) listen to reconnect with mostly pleasant memories and to lessen social isolation.  Nice article.

 

While it is obvious to me that those stated functions of music are typical and pervasive, it also seems to me that there are other functions that music provides that aren't discussed in the article--not only with "self-fulfillment", but also with personal exploration, empathic learning about others (by listening to their music), and understanding the worldviews--gestalts--and experiences of others, especially those whom we might have little connection to and understanding of.  Those functions, among others, seems to me are just as important--or perhaps even more--as each of us continues our own internal learning/growth. 

 

I've found that music plays a key role in effective creativity and problem solving.   These cases are typically not discussed by those that are trained to cut out music from their working environments (since silence is the only generally acceptable state for intellectual work--like going to a library or quiet place to work).  [I would think that legal environments are governed by this sort of "social constraint".]  Many times I've found that silence is not the answer, but rather listening to music is like a stimulator or mental lubricant to get over conceptual impasses to get through certain types of problem solving activities.  This is historically rejected in business environments where many people must share a relatively small office space in order to "collaborate" and save on real estate costs...to the detriment of the performance of individuals solving problems.  Having music playing openly in these environments is socially rejected by others that may dislike the musical selections that others might prefer, due to the differing musical preferences and tasks that each person is concurrently performing.  Even "earbuds" aren't socially acceptable in such places and instances.  I've found this to be highly counterproductive to achieving the best performance. 

 

The privilege of listening to mentally stimulating music to problem solve ranks up there with other human privileges of taking coffee breaks, exercise, or any other more culturally acceptable methods of breaking the monotony, mental gridlock, and opening up new paths of thinking. There are other functions of music, such as intellectual and emotional focusing and stimulation, and as a tool to help unwind or develop solutions to other non-related puzzles and challenges (sort of like solving a Rubic's Cube or any other mental task). 

 

Even more functions exist for music--including bearing and lessening painful and discomforting experiences (recovering from injuries, sickness, or chronic discomfort), sort of like a "relaxation response" phenomenon, or re-imagining oneself in a completely different life situation to release oneself from the constraints and the grind of your current status or life situation.  Music permits us the freedom to re-imagine ourselves unencumbered by current reality, to allow us to transcend our current constraints on "who we are", to "what we can imagine" a life or situation.  This is not escapism but rather a means to constructive re-imagining our current situation to solve problems.

 

Other functions of music allows people to gather together and share in religious or patriotic services, or perhaps just bear life's weight a little easier by singing along or just sharing the musical experience.

 

All of these topics (among others) are not really discussed in that article, but they clearly are just as real.  Not everyone takes advantage of these functions of music, it seems.

 

Chris

well said.....so where do the 40-50 year olds.....fit into this equation ?

 

" young people (18-30) listen to music in order to escape social interactions, while older people (60-75) listen to reconnect with mostly pleasant memories and to lessen social isolation. "

 

but all age groups.....also gather

together for a live event.....

 

And interact with each other....

 

music is still a live event....

 

and still envolves social interaction..

 

whether it's going to a concert...

 

or just simply putting on a vinyl record....

 

listening to vinyl is a event within

itself....

 

only technology has made listening easier....and not for the best..

 

 

[Chris A]

2 hours ago, dirtmudd said:

well said.....so where do the 40-50 year olds.....fit into this equation ?

Psychologists aren't always the most PC in their writings even though they try.  I think that the issue is getting enough lab subjects to enter into a study, and to have something to write about once the data is reduced.  Psych researchers are chronically out of money to do proper studies it seems.

 

2 hours ago, dirtmudd said:

but all age groups.....also gather together for a live event...And interact with each other....music is still a live event....and still envolves social interaction..

Yes, all kinds of music--not just arena pop, rock, and C&W at extremely large venues (costing the participants money to attend), but also folk music in homes, religious assemblies and even in open public places for special events such marriages, remembrances and memorial services, or just camaraderie in night clubs and pubs, bed time lullabies, or campfire singalongs.  Religious assemblies host both sacred and secular music performance, and local festivals host folk music played on period instruments.  All these performances are part of the live music experience. 

 

2 hours ago, dirtmudd said:

only technology has made listening easier....and not for the best..

Well it depends on your perspective and the functions that the music fulfills. If you prefer older music from your youth to reconnect with your past and to feel less isolated, then that's clearly part of the article's focus, above.  Many of the activities and functions of music that I wrote about are then part of that which you find "too easy", but still useful to the listener--performing an important function.

 

Chris

[Chris A]

4 hours ago, Chris A said:

I've found that music plays a key role in effective creativity and problem solving.

I think it's worthwhile to expand on the types of music that help to perform this function.  In particular, I refer to "Mozart Effect"  that was proposed in the press ~25-30 years ago and was popular with young parents at that time.  I think that the over-reliance on one composer's compositions (W.A. Mozart) is probably not terribly useful, i.e., there are many composers from the common practice period that I also find performs the same role of lifting the spirits and helps to focus the mind on problem solving tasks. 

 

Other people may find that other types and genres of music work for them, but generally I find it's those types of music that inspires subtlety and invention that seems to work the most effectively--rather than very loud pop, C&W, or rock type music genres.   If the breadth of your music genre repertoire consists only of "top 40" hits, then I find that perhaps a broadening your musical tastes might be useful for those times when you are trying to enhance creativity and problem solving skills. 

 

Try it.

 

Chris

[Travis In Austin]

Bono, 57, talks about how he finds new music (his kids).

 

https://www.rollingstone.com/music/features/bono-u2-state-of-the-world-what-he-learned-from-almost-dying-w514442

[Chris A]

More discussion on the benefits of broadening musical tastes on performance and overall health: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Music_education#Significance

 

It's interesting that this subject is something that I found was the most positive experience from my own public school days.  Apparently one of the offshoots of American football programs in public school is inductive support for wind ensembles (bands) to accompany those "culturally significant activities" endemic to the region of the U.S. that I live.  I look at this as "sometimes good things happen for the wrong reasons".  YMMV.   Some high school bands locally can be extremely good--effectively college level in some instances.

 

Generally, I don't watch American football but have been known to attend a local high school and college band, orchestra and choir performance.  I find the musical experience to be "live music"--one that the students perform enthusiastically. 

 

Highly recommended.

 

Chris

[Travis In Austin]

99% of all streamed music comes from just 10% of what's available.

 

To get to new music you have to get "outside"

 

https://www.digitalmusicnews.com/2018/02/14/spotify-apple-music-top-songs/

 

 

[Chris A]

One of the characteristics of music streaming is that it is still very much like radio...it doesn't necessarily encourage the listener to change their basic musical tastes. 

 

While streaming presents immediate choices to the listener that radio doesn't--unless you dial to another radio station, but that's still very limited in terms of the breadth what you typically hear.  So in terms of choices, I look at streaming just like radio used to be.  It's good for background music when you need something with little fuss but in terms of broadening listener's music pallets, it typically does very little to stretch the repertoire of music genres and list of artists. For those streaming services that play like radios, then the problem is much worse.  However, the hi-fi quality of the music played is typically better than radio (FM or HD radio, that is). 

 

If you want something off the beaten path you'll have to find streaming services and their special playlists that stretch the listener's tastes, sort of like NPR or your local "off the center of the dial" radio stations used to do.  These are apparently available for many genres of music on streaming services, but not all and especially not those genres that I find myself currently exploring. 

 

To date, I'm still not a streaming music aficionado due to the differences in fidelity that I get from demastered CDs over your typical lossy codecs, using the codec settings that commercial streaming and online sales outfits typically use, which really aren't the best quality, but rather the smallest music files and bit rates that they can get away with...

 

I worked hard to get my setup to the point where I can hear the differences and I like to hear the music at a slightly better fidelity--including demastered stereo tracks.  For multichannel music recordings, you're basically out of luck using streaming services...but the streaming services could easily change that.  Multichannel audio is currently the default for Netflix and Amazon Prime videos, and video itself is 100x more bitrate intensive than audio.

 

Chris