Repetition
Related: boredom - formulaic - genre - reproduction - trance - trope
Contrast: difference - new - original - variety
In the age of the phonograph, repeatability became a criterion for evaluating music; it was frequently remarked that the best works rewarded numerous hearings while lesser pieces palled upon repetition. [Feb 2007]
Difference and Repetition (1968) - Gilles Deleuze [Amazon.com] [FR] [DE] [UK]
Difference and Repetition (French title: Différence et répétition) is a 1969 philosophical book by Gilles Deleuze which concerns the study of difference and repetition. It was Gilles Deleuze's doctoral thesis. It is an exposition of the critique of identity and one of Deleuze's most important works. The text follows the development of two central concepts, those of pure difference and complex repetition. It shows how the two concepts are related, difference implying divergence and decentring, repetition being associated with displacement and disguising. The work moves deftly between Hegel, Kierkegaard, Freud, Althusser and Nietzsche to establish a fundamental critique of Western metaphysics, and has been a central text in initiating the shift in French thought - away from Hegel and Marx, towards Nietzsche and Freud. --http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Difference_and_Repetition [Sept 2005]
In the age of the phonograph
In the age of the phonograph, repeatability became a criterion for evaluating music; it was frequently remarked that the best works rewarded numerous hearings while lesser pieces palled upon repetition. Predictably, popular music was said to wear poorly, while "good music" continually paid aural dividends. As one writer claimed of popular music in 1931, "Repeated listening makes it recognizable for what it is and turns liking into loathing."(17) Psychologists even tested the idea. Two sets of experimenters concluded in 1924 and 1927 that while young people immediately enjoyed listening to popular selections, their interest waned upon repeated hearings; on the other hand, the subjects found the classical discs more appealing after each playing.(18) One must wonder, however, what the results would have been had the Kismet Fox Trot or Sultan One Step been replaced with works by, say, Louis Armstrong or Duke Ellington. --text sourced here. [Sept 2005]
See also: popular music - phonograph
your Amazon recommendations