Why don't we tire of music?


So, there’s a lot of smart folk’s on this site, and I’ve been wondering why people never grow tired of listening to music. For example, we don’t read the same book over and over, nor do we watch the same TV show or movie over and over.  But, we never get tired of listening to the same music.  Why is this?  What is it in our mentally that allows this to happen?  Just curious...  Thanks!

 

quincy

Music offers the right combination of providing structure while granting enough freedom to form our own interpretations of meaning. These interpretations resonate at a very base emotional level - something modern society tells us to "keep a lid on", in almost every other context. And our interpretations can change from day-to-day, or over time. That prevents boredom. Good music also hits the right centers of our brain to release dopamine so we feel then need to come back for more.

Watching a movies, you’re too passive of an observer. Once you reach the end, 99% of movies lose all rewatch value. Once I know what happened, I don’t need to watch it again. I can count on my hands (out of thousands) the shows / movies that have any rewatch value, and even then the rewatches have to be spaced out (at least a year).

Most movies I only watch once. I watched Brazil twice. I watched A Clockwork Orange 3 or 4 times.

I do get tired of the same music.  There are bands that I won't even play anymore and even change the radio station when anything from them comes on.  There are also songs that I won't listen to for years at a time and then suddenly get a craving for to relieve some old memory.  In my experience, the longer it takes me to like a song the longer it takes me to get tired of it. This goes for all genres.