On Repeat

Looking at the Snatch Tapes Spotify Artists page the other day I noticed that a couple of songs had had in one 24 hour period quite a few plays – oh but hang on this wasn’t the seeds of a viral spread that would rival Kate Bush (only jesting) these were all attributed to one listener.  For a moment I wondered what madness might cause one person to want to listen to any track let alone one of mine over and over again before recalling that that was exactly what I used and millions of other people did and still do in their youth.     

Playing a song on repeat is in inherent feature of pop music. In days of yore it meant buying a 7-inch single and literally playing it till it began to wear out now one can just set the digital stream to loop. Whether analogue or digital the option for repeated playback of the same track is technologically determined. Before the record there were of course popular songs that musicians would repast on request. The family or wider social group might gather round the piano and go through favourites old and new. The number of times a song might be repeated was however limited by the musician’s willingness or physical ability to play a tune over and over. Technology changed all of that one could play a song 30 or even more times a day if one so choose and often as a teenager when a new release by say T.Rex was released one would do just that and no doubt contemporary youth might play Adel’s latest in just the same way.

 

But what happens during the process of repeated plays?  There are various stages – firstly there is getting acquainted – learning the ins and outs of the song its melody verse chorus and lyrics. These underlying musical fundamentals are filtered through the delivery and production of the track, the grain of the voice, the particular twang of the guitar or the drum break before the final chorus, etc. 

 

Most pop music is itself quite repetitive sticking whatever the genre to a verse/chorus/middle eight formula and so one is repeating something that is already quite repetitive. Getting to know the song and the nuances and inflections of every groove might only take five to ten plays and then what? 

 

The pleasure derived from the playback – and one wouldn’t be listening in the first place if the record wasn’t in some way intoxicating becomes mildly additive. No sooner is the track over than one wants to repeat it again and again though the rush can quickly diminish into a dull fix that barely maintains the high. 

 

Eventually the hit is dulled and one moves on to the next song. The groundwork has been laid however and with a little space and time hearing that same song again indeed even the opening bars many years later can re-trigger many of the same emotions. It is a form of self-indoctrination and guarantees some artists an income stream from plays of a song decades after they have been recorded as we want to hear that son just one or two or three more times. Noddy Holder has mentioned in interviews that the Slade hit Merry Christmas Everybody he helped pen is in effect his pension scheme as every year it provides a surprisingly large income. 

Playing old hits live can also be highly lucrative though one can see in the faces of some artists the pain in having to play that tune just one more time as they become a physical embodiment of a looped playback. “Please let me play something different, heh look I have a new album out” all falls on deaf ears as the crowd wait for the songs they know and played on repeat way back when. And lets not think this is just limited to the likes of Paul McCartney I recall a Faust gig where we nodded appreciatively through new material until almost reluctantly the band broke into It's a Rainy Day...