

Why we love repetition in music - adamzerner
http://aeon.co/magazine/culture/why-we-love-repetition-in-music/

======
dfan
As a musician I was prepared to roll my eyes at this article but it's really
good.

When I was a kid I would play with Music Construction Set on my Apple ][,
"painting" lots of random notes into one or two bars and then putting repeat
signs around then. What sounded totally random and annoying at first became
kind of catchy once you listened to it eight times in a row.

The composer that I really admire for unabashedly using repetition before the
Minimalists really took off with it is Olivier Messiaen (the Turangalîla
Symphony has lots of great examples). Classical music is historically largely
about continual transformation, and he was unafraid to just cut and paste big
sections. It worked magnificently.

~~~
theOnliest
I had the same reaction when I saw the title, but then I saw the author. Her
book on repetition won the outstanding publication award from the Society for
Music Theory this year. I haven't read it yet, but I've heard her present and
she was really fascinating (even though I'm normally not interested in
cognition at all).

~~~
dfan
I didn't realize she had a book on the subject (although of course now I see
that it's mentioned in her byline). Thanks for calling my attention to it.

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jen729w
I heard somewhere - reference long lost, sorry - that repetitive music makes
us happy, but _slightly unpredictable_ repetitive music keeps us _really_
happy.

It's like the brain has a threshold; under the repetitive threshold is boring,
but too far above it is also boring. We need this middle ground where
breakdowns or middle-eights or whatever they're called have this magical
property.

This supposedly explains the popularity of jazz. Which leaves me personally
baffled, but there you have it. The sciences!

~~~
fjk
The first thing I thought about while reading the article was minimalist
classical music, like Philip Glass.

I think Glass does the repetitive/unexpected thing exceptionally well, though
it's often subtle.

If you're already familiar with Glass (or if you like Beck) you might want to
check out Beck's song from Rework, an album of remixed Glass:
[https://soundcloud.com/dunvagenmusic/nyc-73-78](https://soundcloud.com/dunvagenmusic/nyc-73-78)

It's repetitive, but has enough of the unexpected mixed in to make it a
stimulating listen.

~~~
keithpeter
The _second_ thing I thought about was Brian Eno and his attempt to 'learn' a
sound recording of a city street by listening to the recording many times. He
began to anticipate certain sounds and hear them as belonging to a structure.

I'm not finding a Web reference. It was described in a book by David Toop

------
zxv
Great article. It's wonderful to see rhythm celebrated for how it makes us
feel.

The Guardian had an article a few days ago on an emerging emphasis of bridge
rather than chorus, and the role of repetition, in recent blockbuster hits by
Ariana Grande, Iggy Azalia, Nicki Minaj and others.

The article has a great quote from the founder of Motown:

    
    
             "Don’t bore us, get to the chorus!” Berry Gordy once joked, understanding that this is what listeners truly gather around.
    

[http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/dec/22/2014-...](http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2014/dec/22/2014-when-
songwriters-burned-the-chorus-and-built-the-bridge)

~~~
natejenkins
This is a weird article. What is referred to as the bridge is the pre-chorus,
a common element in pop music. Bridges are also common, but generally only
happen once in a song (I can't think of any exceptions) and are typically a
'journey' to somewhere else before coming back to the original theme. An
example of a bridge is about 2.5 minutes into John Mayer's Find Another You:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QcaHBTfGU8&t=2m38s](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_QcaHBTfGU8&t=2m38s).

~~~
analog31
Amusingly, a lot of the tunes that are familiar as jazz standards, e.g., "Take
the A Train," have a short AABA form, that the musicians refer to as the
"bridge." But I suspect that jazzers abuse music terminology.

The bridge is where you find out who really knows the tunes.

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dirkk0
This question might be slightly off-topic: some time ago I read an article
(might have been on Wikipedia) which explained why music more than other art
forms sticks with certain atmospheres, memories or moods. I unfortunately
didn't bookmark it, and I couldn't find it again. Does anybody have an idea
where to find it?

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edgyswingset
Fantastic article.

For those interested, certain artists like Swans[1], Godspeed You! Black
Emperor[2], and ISIS[3] really take it to the next level with subtle changes
in each refrain. As an added bonus, they are all _fantastic_ for programming.

[1]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HKIjG9JH6c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9HKIjG9JH6c)

[2]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NivY_iRdSBQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NivY_iRdSBQ)

[3]
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3S3zuHRqlk](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g3S3zuHRqlk)

------
shmerl
_> this illusion demonstrates what it means to hear something musically. The
‘musicalisation’ shifts your attention from the meaning of the words to the
contour of the passage (the patterns of high and low pitches) and its rhythms
(the patterns of short and long durations), and even invites you to hum or tap
along with it. In fact, part of what it means to listen to something musically
is to participate imaginatively._

That's exactly how mysticism sees music. As a level above speech.

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z3t4
When I watch or listen to anything for the second time I only get about 75% of
the enjoyment out of it. But it might be something wrong with me ...

~~~
kosoy
Novelty effect is strong, but there might be a u-shape there. Have you ever
tried to get past the valley?

~~~
z3t4
I really enjoyed Spotify and had many play-lists with my favorite music. But
when the discovery of new music declined and I got bored with my play-lists I
closed the account and have never opened it again.

The curve never go up, but with some songs it have flattened and those are my
favorites. But it has more to to with the feelings associated to those pieces
then the music itself.

------
xpda
The sequence "sometimes behave so strangely" exhibits syncopated notes on a
diatonic scale, 2/4 type meter, and a progression that adheres to chords of a
melody. It seems unlikely that something this musical would often appear in
normal speech, never before noticed.

~~~
kosoy
Yeah, the sample was quite clearly handpicked for increased impact (and faster
habituation, probably). But the argument is (I believe) about the fact that
you can easily handpick such samples from perfectly normal spoken phrases.

------
rdlecler1
Boots and pants and boots and pants and boots and pants

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NARKOZ
It's called – stutter edit.

> The stutter edit[1] is a musical production technique, most often known for
> its use in electronic music, in which fragments of audio are repeated in
> rhythmic intervals.

Electronic musician Brian Transeau (better known as 'BT') developed the
"technique", coining the phrase, and later released it as a standalone plug-
in.

[1]:
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stutter_edit](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stutter_edit)

~~~
skrebbel
No it's not. A stutter edit is about much shorter pieces, and notably _not_
about repetition. I'm not sure where Wikipedia got that from. It's about
adding little silent gaps to tracks.

~~~
NARKOZ
Did you even read the wikipedia page? Check out "Skylarking" and "Tomahawk" by
BT for a good sample of what it sounds like.

~~~
throwawayaway
that wikipedia page, not to put too fine a point on it, is complete bollocks
and reads like a marketing script for the izotope plugin.

check out the date on this announcement:

[http://www.kvraudio.com/news/dblue_releases_glitch_v1_1_9_39...](http://www.kvraudio.com/news/dblue_releases_glitch_v1_1_9_3973)

this program was "old" and wasn't the first. ableton added beat repeat in
2005, and there was vst's i can't remember the name of that did it before
that.

you've hit a nerve anyway, BT is easily my least favourite electronic music
artist ever and so I am probably not capable of reasonable debate hereafter. i
think he's possibly the most overrated producer in the world.

~~~
pistle
I can pull examples of sample mangling that fall under these definitions from,
at least, somewhere around 1993-1995. Someone seriously is saying BT invented
this shit?

~~~
throwawayaway
yeah people are seriously saying it. read that wikipedia page, it's beyond
ridiculous.

earliest i can think of is the aphex remix of flow coma and i'm not even
trying.

> Electronic musician Brian Transeau[3] developed the "technique", coining the
> phrase, and later released it as a standalone plug-in. Until this point the
> majority of stutter edits were created through deliberate manual editing
> techniques rather than automated processes (such as the eponymous plug-in).
> The audio plugin is named "Stutter Edit" and was co-released by iZotope and
> Sonik Architects.[4]

it's not like izotope release a plugin in 2002 which does the same thing, oh
wait it is:

[http://www.kvraudio.com/news/bitshift_audio_release_phatmati...](http://www.kvraudio.com/news/bitshift_audio_release_phatmatik_beta_for_macos_31)

"developed the technique" is such a weaselly phrase. did he develop the
technique, or did he further develop a technique that already existed. to my
understanding neither is true. he's a crap musician to boot.

~~~
NARKOZ
Transeau found that software tools to accomplish this weren't readily
available. So, he decided to develop his own, forming his own software
company, Sonik Architects. And later Sonik Architects was acquired by iZotope.

It's like saying: "Columbus didn't discover America because it already
existed" or "Newton didn't discovered 'Law of inertia' because it already
existed".

~~~
throwawayaway
> Transeau found that software tools to accomplish this weren't readily
> available.

he could have used google, but keep believing!

