When Songs Keep Coming Back To You
- The reason we like the Christmas songs every year lies in the U-shaped curve of liking being a cycle.
- A person, after getting fed up from a song, starts to move away from it, but after a span of time, is again exposed to the same song, tends to like it as before (for a while). This is called the ‘Squirrel’ approach to listening.
- It is also the reason many CDs of old bands which we dumped, sound great when we hear them after a long time.
MORE IDEAS FROM THE ARTICLE
- White Christmas by Irving Berlin is the best selling single of all time and is studied on why it is popular for decades, and sold over 50 million copies. It seems to fall into the category of a likeable earworm.
- Most songs follow a U-shaped curve of liking. New music isn’t liked very much, but as it gets familiar and is heard repetitively (on the radio and in the mall), one tends to like it more.
- This repetition effect is U-shaped as too much exposure diminishes the fondness towards the song.
- The songs that get stuck in our heads, those catchy but often annoying earworms are common, especially the Christmas melodies during the holiday season.
- New research into these tunes stuck in the brain shows that they are conventional melodies (often instrumental) but have an unexpected repetition/loop, and can even impair our concentration.
- During the Christmas season, melodic holiday songs play in public places like bars and cafes and are often heard on the radio, leading to a more than usual exposure. These songs have a certain melody that is ‘scrunchy’ and forms a familiar chord known as the Christmas chord, making them prone to become earworms.
RELATED IDEAS
The first verse of the Christmas carol, The Twelve Days of Christmas, evolved as a festive memory game. The list of objects or animals builds with each verse and forfeits are imposed for forgetting anyone.
According to one interpretation, the carol was created in the 16th century. The list of bizarre gifts given by the 'true love' became a secret code for Catholics. The 'true love' became God himself, the 'partridge' Jesus Christ. The 'two turtle doves' are the old and new testaments, 'three French hens' the Trinity, 'four calling birds' are the four Gospels, the 'twelve drummers drumming' the twelve points of the apostles' creed.
… was originally, according to Billboard Magazine, Rhythm & Blues music. This was until Producer Sam Phillips (Sun Records), the ‘inventor’ of Rock & Roll, started promoting little known artists in the 1950s, who had an original, imperfect sound. He had an ear for great music, away from the commercial ‘smooth’ sound. He made artists believe in him, by making them believe in themselves. New talent used to walk-in into his office and some of them got lucky.
One of them was Elvis Presley, who walked into Sam Phillips office in 1953, as an eighteen year old wannabe singer.
Until recent times, community singing was thought to have decreased in popularity, suggesting less of a sense of tradition than there used to be.
But in recent years, there have been signs of a revival in community singing, suggesting people want to get involved again.
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