WHY DO I LIKE THIS MUSIC?

 As both a musician and an avid music listener, I have found myself often wondering about the reasons I like certain songs. Some have gone into the psychology and anthropology of this question, but in this post I want to take a different angle, which focuses on why certain pieces of music/songs affect us so differently.

When talking to laypeople the most obvious place they go to is the lyrics. Whilst some musicians might unfortunately sneer at such a thought, lyrics as an element of music are hugely significant (in music that has lyrics). In lyrics we find narratives to identify with, political messages and love songs to projects our feelings onto. Yet if we strip away the instrumental parts, you are left with poetry, often poetry which seems rather juvenile and uninspired. Take the current chart topper, Heat Waves by Glass Animals is a solid song, but the lyrics are hardly something people would like to read in a pamphlet on the train. 

“Sometimes, all I think about is you\Late nights in the middle of June\Heat waves been fakin' me out\Can't make you happier now”

Hardly riveting stuff is it.

So, one may say, its not the lyrics that make us like a song, but it is the melodies. Many great music theorists have written many long textbooks speculating on what makes a great melody. What perfect mix of intervals is it? So lets have a look at a classic melody that many people enjoy, Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, Second Movement. Impossible to get out of your head, this masterfully crafted melody is the perfect blend of the … same note. So maybe it turns out a “great melody” is not what makes us like music. In the case of Beethoven 7:2, I would propose the reason people like it is the tonal quality and chord changes. If not that it is the form of the music that Beethoven has mastered that people like.

But to give my true opinion, music is truly the sum of its parts. Whilst you may be enjoying the melody, the chord progression supports it, or vice versa. Music after all, is fundamentally contextual. Rhythm, tone, melody, structure, form, and melody all play off each other. And music is not just internally contextual, it is culturally and experientially contextual. What we are taught by our culture, through parents, friends and media informs a lot of our musical preferences. In addition, we often associate certain pieces of music/songs with certain moments in history, or our lives, contributing towards our preferences. Ultimately what I want to say, is that it is naïve to say, “I just like the lyrics” or “It has a good beat” or even “wow that musician is skilled”, for it is much more complicated than that. Think, what is it about your favourite song that you love?