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Different kinds of music listeners

Posted on June 28, 2012 by thefullmusician

Are there different kinds of music listeners?

I had a recent chat with a non-musician friend of mine. We were talking about music, and started comparing two different songs. One song was a commercial, American rap song, and the other, an underground, Australian rap song. I suggested that the reason the underground song was ‘worse’, was because it used a strange juxtaposition of instruments (drums, flute and some sort of mandolin – it didn’t come off that successful), and it used very repetitive, uninteresting chords that didn’t “go anywhere”. The song never really reached an apex, it just stayed flat the whole way through. I suggested that the reason the more commercial song was ‘good’, was because it used a more pleasant-to-the-ear chord sequence, a rising structure that built up towards the end, and more recognizable instrumentation for the genre (synths, a funky bassline, etc).

My non-musician friend had different insights. He didn’t really think about the difference between the music at all (though I suspect that on some level he noticed it). Instead, he liked the more successful song because the lyrics were aspirational. Instead of telling a personal, involved story like the underground song, the lyrics were sort of encouraging, along the lines of  ‘my life is awesome, let’s party, throw your hands in the air’. He said the song made him ‘feel good’. Me, I liked the other song’s lyrics better, though. They were more original and personal, and made me ‘think’, whereas I felt the successful song’s lyrics came off pretty braggy, and sounded like a million other rap songs out there.

Therein lies our difference, though. My friend is clearly the sort of listener who considers the ‘surface’ lines of the music. He notices lyrics in a song’s chorus, and catchy melodies, moreso than anything else. I’m not bagging him out, by the way – this is just his approach to music. It made me stop and think, though, because I definitely notice music in a different way. I am pretty sure that I notice the progression of the instrumentation, more than anything, when I first hear a song. That’s why it sometimes takes me a few tries to listen to popular music and ‘get’ why it is popular. A lot of very ‘pop’ music out there at the moment sounds so uniform throughout the song (eg: Katy Perry’s songs). As I listen to the music, I often think “what’s so good about this? It just stays the same nearly the whole song through! Oh there’s the middle 8 – how predictable”. Then after a couple of listens, I will notice that the vocal melody line is insanely catchy, and understand why it’s popular. (Then it will mercilessly get stuck in my head…sigh). Sometimes I do notice the vocal melody over everything else, but only if it is very unique, or if the singer has a special voice.

It’s hard to find any one definitive ‘study’ of different kinds of music listeners/fans. I found a couple of interesting opinions I will outline here, though:

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Different kinds of music listeners

Posted on June 28, 2012 by thefullmusician

Are there different kinds of music listeners?

I had a recent chat with a non-musician friend of mine. We were talking about music, and started comparing two different songs. One song was a commercial, American rap song, and the other, an underground, Australian rap song. I suggested that the reason the underground song was ‘worse’, was because it used a strange juxtaposition of instruments (drums, flute and some sort of mandolin – it didn’t come off that successful), and it used very repetitive, uninteresting chords that didn’t “go anywhere”. The song never really reached an apex, it just stayed flat the whole way through. I suggested that the reason the more commercial song was ‘good’, was because it used a more pleasant-to-the-ear chord sequence, a rising structure that built up towards the end, and more recognizable instrumentation for the genre (synths, a funky bassline, etc).

My non-musician friend had different insights. He didn’t really think about the difference between the music at all (though I suspect that on some level he noticed it). Instead, he liked the more successful song because the lyrics were aspirational. Instead of telling a personal, involved story like the underground song, the lyrics were sort of encouraging, along the lines of  ‘my life is awesome, let’s party, throw your hands in the air’. He said the song made him ‘feel good’. Me, I liked the other song’s lyrics better, though. They were more original and personal, and made me ‘think’, whereas I felt the successful song’s lyrics came off pretty braggy, and sounded like a million other rap songs out there.

Therein lies our difference, though. My friend is clearly the sort of listener who considers the ‘surface’ lines of the music. He notices lyrics in a song’s chorus, and catchy melodies, moreso than anything else. I’m not bagging him out, by the way – this is just his approach to music. It made me stop and think, though, because I definitely notice music in a different way. I am pretty sure that I notice the progression of the instrumentation, more than anything, when I first hear a song. That’s why it sometimes takes me a few tries to listen to popular music and ‘get’ why it is popular. A lot of very ‘pop’ music out there at the moment sounds so uniform throughout the song (eg: Katy Perry’s songs). As I listen to the music, I often think “what’s so good about this? It just stays the same nearly the whole song through! Oh there’s the middle 8 – how predictable”. Then after a couple of listens, I will notice that the vocal melody line is insanely catchy, and understand why it’s popular. (Then it will mercilessly get stuck in my head…sigh). Sometimes I do notice the vocal melody over everything else, but only if it is very unique, or if the singer has a special voice.

It’s hard to find any one definitive ‘study’ of different kinds of music listeners/fans. I found a couple of interesting opinions I will outline here, though:

čitaj dalje

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 


 

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