This goes pretty far in explaining why we hated that controversial Robin Thicke/T.I./Pharrell Williams song "Blurred Lines" but then caught ourselves humming and dancing to it.
Familiarity breeds favoritism, as stated in a 2017 Curiosity.com story recently promoted in its e-newsletter.
In "Sorry -- Pop Music Sounds the Same Because You Want It That Way," writer Ashley Hamer points out that "the large majority of radio hits are written and produced by a handful of the same people" (great, the music world is pretty much like banking and Pay TV!).
"When the variety of choices we have as consumers seems to be at an all-time high, why is pop music so monotonous? ... It's because your brain loves the familiar -- whether you like it or not," Hamer goes on to reveal. She tells of the mere-exposure effect, which makes us believe that more familiar things are more pleasant, and which is why music producers are one-trick-pony purveyors. Yep, that's why Ariana Grande sounds like Rihanna and Taylor Swift; Drake sounds like, well, Thicke and Williams and Justin Timberlake; that's why the Backstreet Boys sound like NSync and One Direction.
Supposedly, according to the story, the way the music meisters make us think a song sounds new and innovative is to turn the knob a bit. Simply throw in a little something different with the familiar: A different instrument. A bit of tweaking to the song structure. And, I would add, lyrics that shock and refresh by referencing popular culture, introducing a new catchy phrase into popular culture, touching on things traditionally seen as taboo. And, bam! We have Bruno! And Beyonce! And well, Ariana again. To the left! Leave your Versace on the floor! Thank you, next!
I'm suddenly getting a feeling that some bad songs worm their way into hearts by bringing line dances along with them. They ensure their familiarity-bred popularity by being songs to which unaccompanied ladies at parties can get up and dance -- questionable, racy and sexist lyrics be danged. Wobble, anybody?
Hamer cites older as well as more recent studies that prove that we love the familiar, no matter how much we may hate or "disremember" it, including a 2011 study that "found that the emotion and reward centers of the brain were more active when subjects heard familiar music than when they heard unfamiliar music, and a 2013 study found that subjects' emotional arousal was higher after hearing a familiar song, even if the subjects didn't remember hearing it before.
"You might think you're an adventurous music fan, but your brain just loves the songs it knows," Hamer concludes.
This explains not only why the same cabal of people is behind all the popular songs and why we went from hating "Gangnam Style" to digging the doggone video. It's also why we start to sing along to "Never Getting Back Together" in the grocery store, then furtively look around to see if anybody heard us doing so. We've heard the song juuuuuuuuuust often enough.
I'd always prided myself on the fact that I enjoy a wide variety of music genres; if it ain't gangsta rap or heavy metal, I can pretty much get into it. But hmmm, the music within each genre, not just pop, sounds, well, similar. Especially classical music, most of which was created by ... the same relatively small group of dead guys!
"So," you may be muttering to yourself as you sip your coffee and think of that old familiar hymn you sing in church every Sunday. "Is this just another way in which my brain has made me a part of the big, Matrix-movie-theme world of manipulation we live in? Am I just one of the sheeple following the herd?"
I'm happy to announce that there's a way to prove you're not. Er, visit WatchMojo.com's "Top 10 Most Hated Songs" and "Another Top 10 Most Hated Songs" on Youtube. You'll encounter some songs so foul that, I guarantee, you'll still not be able to stand them after hearing them 1,000 times. Merely hearing the rest of the song "Who Let the Dogs Out" should ensure that familiarity can, still, breed contempt.
Thank you, email:
Style on 01/13/2019