TedTest

From the Ted Talk by Elizabeth Hellmuth Margulis: Why we love repetition in music

Unscramble the Blue Letters

How many times does the cohrus repeat in your favorite song? And, take a moment to think, how many times have you listened to it? canhecs are you've heard that chorus rteepead dozens, if not hundreds, of times, and it's not just paplour songs in the West that repeat a lot. Repetition is a feature that music from cultures around the world tends to share. So, why does music rely so heavily on repetition? One part of the answer come from what psohogiysclts call the mere-exposure effect. In short, people tend to prefer things they've been exposed to before. For example, a song comes on the radio that we don't particularly like, but then we hear the song at the grocery store, at the movie theater and again on the setert corner. Soon, we are tppniag to the beat, singing the wrdos, even downloading the tacrk. This mere-exposure effect doesn't just work for songs. It also works for everything from shapes to Super Bowl ads. So, what makes riieotetpn so uniquely prevalent in music? To investigate, psychologists asked people to listen to musical compositions that avoided exact repetition. They hared excerpts from these pieces in either their oirnigal form, or in a version that had been dgtliaily altered to include repetition. Although the original versions had been composed by some of the most respected 20th century composers, and the repetitive versions had been alesmbsed by burte force audio editing, people rated the rtvepitiee vesrnois as more enjoyable, more interesting and more likely to have been cesmpood by a human artist. Musical repetition is deeply compelling. Think about the Muppets classic, "Mahna Mahna." If you've heard it before, it's almost impossible after I sing, "Mahna mhana," not to respond, "Do doo do do do." Repetition connects each bit of music iesbistlriry to the next bit of music that follows it. So when you hear a few notes, you're already imagining what's coming next. Your mind is unconsciously singing along, and without ncintiog, you might start humming out loud. Recent sudiets have shown that when people hear a segemnt of music repeated, they are more likely to move or tap along to it. Repetition invites us into misuc as iinegmad pitaanirctps, rather than as passive listeners. Research has also shown that listeners shift their attention across musical repetitions, focusing on different aspects of the sound on each new listen. You might notice the melody of a phrase the first time, but when it's repeated, your antettoin shifts to how the guitarist bends a pitch. This also occurs in language, with something called satmeinc siitaaton. Repeating a word like atlas ad nauseam can make you stop thinking about what the word means, and instead focus on the sounds: the odd way the "L" follows the "T." In this way, repetition can open up new worlds of sound not accessible on first hearing. The "L" following the "T" might not be aesthetically relevant to "atlas," but the guitarist ptich bending might be of critical expressive importance. The seecph to song illusion ceuaptrs how simply repeating a sentence a number of times shifts lnriteses attention to the pitch and temporal aspects of the sound, so that the repeated spoken lugaange actually begins to suond like it is being sung. A similar eecfft happens with rdoanm sequences of sound. People will rate random sequences they've heard on repeated loop as more musical than a random sequence they've only heard once. Repetition gives rise to a kind of oontareiitn to sound that we think of as distinctively musical, where we're listening along with the sound, engaging imaginatively with the note about to happen. This mode of listening ties in with our susceptibility to musical ear worms, where segments of music burrow into our head, and play again and again, as if stcuk on repeat. Critics are often embarrassed by music's repetitiveness, finding it childish or rgseesivre, but repetition, far from an embarrassment, is actually a key feature that gives rise to the kind of eepercxine we think about as musical.

Open Cloze

How many times does the ______ repeat in your favorite song? And, take a moment to think, how many times have you listened to it? _______ are you've heard that chorus ________ dozens, if not hundreds, of times, and it's not just _______ songs in the West that repeat a lot. Repetition is a feature that music from cultures around the world tends to share. So, why does music rely so heavily on repetition? One part of the answer come from what _____________ call the mere-exposure effect. In short, people tend to prefer things they've been exposed to before. For example, a song comes on the radio that we don't particularly like, but then we hear the song at the grocery store, at the movie theater and again on the ______ corner. Soon, we are _______ to the beat, singing the _____, even downloading the _____. This mere-exposure effect doesn't just work for songs. It also works for everything from shapes to Super Bowl ads. So, what makes __________ so uniquely prevalent in music? To investigate, psychologists asked people to listen to musical compositions that avoided exact repetition. They _____ excerpts from these pieces in either their ________ form, or in a version that had been _________ altered to include repetition. Although the original versions had been composed by some of the most respected 20th century composers, and the repetitive versions had been _________ by _____ force audio editing, people rated the __________ ________ as more enjoyable, more interesting and more likely to have been ________ by a human artist. Musical repetition is deeply compelling. Think about the Muppets classic, "Mahna Mahna." If you've heard it before, it's almost impossible after I sing, "Mahna _____," not to respond, "Do doo do do do." Repetition connects each bit of music ____________ to the next bit of music that follows it. So when you hear a few notes, you're already imagining what's coming next. Your mind is unconsciously singing along, and without ________, you might start humming out loud. Recent _______ have shown that when people hear a _______ of music repeated, they are more likely to move or tap along to it. Repetition invites us into _____ as ________ ____________, rather than as passive listeners. Research has also shown that listeners shift their attention across musical repetitions, focusing on different aspects of the sound on each new listen. You might notice the melody of a phrase the first time, but when it's repeated, your _________ shifts to how the guitarist bends a pitch. This also occurs in language, with something called ________ _________. Repeating a word like atlas ad nauseam can make you stop thinking about what the word means, and instead focus on the sounds: the odd way the "L" follows the "T." In this way, repetition can open up new worlds of sound not accessible on first hearing. The "L" following the "T" might not be aesthetically relevant to "atlas," but the guitarist _____ bending might be of critical expressive importance. The ______ to song illusion ________ how simply repeating a sentence a number of times shifts _________ attention to the pitch and temporal aspects of the sound, so that the repeated spoken ________ actually begins to _____ like it is being sung. A similar ______ happens with ______ sequences of sound. People will rate random sequences they've heard on repeated loop as more musical than a random sequence they've only heard once. Repetition gives rise to a kind of ___________ to sound that we think of as distinctively musical, where we're listening along with the sound, engaging imaginatively with the note about to happen. This mode of listening ties in with our susceptibility to musical ear worms, where segments of music burrow into our head, and play again and again, as if _____ on repeat. Critics are often embarrassed by music's repetitiveness, finding it childish or __________, but repetition, far from an embarrassment, is actually a key feature that gives rise to the kind of __________ we think about as musical.

Solution

original
tapping
listeners
language
semantic
imagined
noticing
effect
track
experience
studies
chances
speech
participants
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chorus
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mahna
assembled
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random
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brute
sound
regressive
digitally
captures
repetitive
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attention
satiation
pitch
repetition
popular

Original Text

How many times does the chorus repeat in your favorite song? And, take a moment to think, how many times have you listened to it? Chances are you've heard that chorus repeated dozens, if not hundreds, of times, and it's not just popular songs in the West that repeat a lot. Repetition is a feature that music from cultures around the world tends to share. So, why does music rely so heavily on repetition? One part of the answer come from what psychologists call the mere-exposure effect. In short, people tend to prefer things they've been exposed to before. For example, a song comes on the radio that we don't particularly like, but then we hear the song at the grocery store, at the movie theater and again on the street corner. Soon, we are tapping to the beat, singing the words, even downloading the track. This mere-exposure effect doesn't just work for songs. It also works for everything from shapes to Super Bowl ads. So, what makes repetition so uniquely prevalent in music? To investigate, psychologists asked people to listen to musical compositions that avoided exact repetition. They heard excerpts from these pieces in either their original form, or in a version that had been digitally altered to include repetition. Although the original versions had been composed by some of the most respected 20th century composers, and the repetitive versions had been assembled by brute force audio editing, people rated the repetitive versions as more enjoyable, more interesting and more likely to have been composed by a human artist. Musical repetition is deeply compelling. Think about the Muppets classic, "Mahna Mahna." If you've heard it before, it's almost impossible after I sing, "Mahna mahna," not to respond, "Do doo do do do." Repetition connects each bit of music irresistibly to the next bit of music that follows it. So when you hear a few notes, you're already imagining what's coming next. Your mind is unconsciously singing along, and without noticing, you might start humming out loud. Recent studies have shown that when people hear a segment of music repeated, they are more likely to move or tap along to it. Repetition invites us into music as imagined participants, rather than as passive listeners. Research has also shown that listeners shift their attention across musical repetitions, focusing on different aspects of the sound on each new listen. You might notice the melody of a phrase the first time, but when it's repeated, your attention shifts to how the guitarist bends a pitch. This also occurs in language, with something called semantic satiation. Repeating a word like atlas ad nauseam can make you stop thinking about what the word means, and instead focus on the sounds: the odd way the "L" follows the "T." In this way, repetition can open up new worlds of sound not accessible on first hearing. The "L" following the "T" might not be aesthetically relevant to "atlas," but the guitarist pitch bending might be of critical expressive importance. The speech to song illusion captures how simply repeating a sentence a number of times shifts listeners attention to the pitch and temporal aspects of the sound, so that the repeated spoken language actually begins to sound like it is being sung. A similar effect happens with random sequences of sound. People will rate random sequences they've heard on repeated loop as more musical than a random sequence they've only heard once. Repetition gives rise to a kind of orientation to sound that we think of as distinctively musical, where we're listening along with the sound, engaging imaginatively with the note about to happen. This mode of listening ties in with our susceptibility to musical ear worms, where segments of music burrow into our head, and play again and again, as if stuck on repeat. Critics are often embarrassed by music's repetitiveness, finding it childish or regressive, but repetition, far from an embarrassment, is actually a key feature that gives rise to the kind of experience we think about as musical.

Frequently Occurring Word Combinations

ngrams of length 2

collocation	frequency
repetitive versions	2
random sequences	2

Important Words

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