Nothing philosophical or scientific, just something interesting I noticed recently. Any song I have on my computer and therefore have listened to many times, I can almost instantly recognize the song as soon as it’s played — within the first second. Whether it’s the unique sound of the snare drum or the sudden pluck of a string, I can distinguish it from the rest and correctly point out the song.
What’s even more weird is that when I’m not listening to anything, I can never remember the middle part of a song. If I want to hum the melody of a song, I’d have to start from the begnning, not in fast forward cause I’d mess up. Then eventually I’d get to the main melody. That’s the only way I can remember part of a song without listening to it. It’s like a CD player without fast forward, start from the beginning of a song and keep playing to where I want it.
I think that’s a direct result of computers and the way we listen to music anymore. I say that because I wasn’t like that three or four years ago before I started using my computer as my primary music playing device and had thousands of songs at my fingertips while they constantly play. It’s kind of funny though, there’s a song on the radio now, I always forget what song it is, but it starts out with just a simple drum beat and I always think it’s an old Weezer song and I get excited, but then it’s just some new song and I get sad.
I’ve also noticed that if I hear a song that I’m used to listening to in sequence in an album somewhere else in a different context I instantly start going into the next song once it’s over, so it all just kinda mashes in my mind.
Music appeals to a sense, just as graphic design does. Some of the most successfully designed websites share a common characteristic in that they are instantly recognisable within a second’s glance.
Yeah Joshua I get that feeling too. I have to listen to them in the album song order. But Winamp and XMMS sort songs alphabetically :(
Steve, that makes sense, but I’ve never gotten what exactly design appeals to, since the visuals can appeal to many things.
Well design, at least graphic, appeals to your visual senses. However how your brain interprets what it sees (ie: good or bad) depends on the viewer’s personal tastes.
I know this phenomenon. I own a a lot of songs and i recognize each of them within one or two seconds. Nevertheless i have to point out that some songs are very similar at the beginning, especially Hard-Rock-Music. Maybe it´s easier for our brain to recognize a song at the beginning than in the middle.