Teach me to appreciate music..........again.

March 6, 2008 7:50 AM

How can I get "reverse earworm"? I have a song that I really like, but I've listened to it so many times, I seem to have lost the ability to hear it.

The song is Feels Like Home, by Chantal Kreviazuk. Youtube video. When I first got a copy of this song, I had it on repeat pretty much constantly. Now, when I put it on, I tend to zone out, and not pay attention to it. It's almost like I've sickened myself of it, but I still really like it, and I'd like to be able to appreciate it again. I listen to the first few bars, and then drift off to something else, where before I'd have to listen to it again.

I know tastes change, but I know if I could really hear this song again, I'd love it. I still really love the first few bars, but I just can't seem to pay attention to the rest of it.

Please tell me I'm not alone in this happening.

How can I learn to listen to the song again, and enjoy it as much as I originally did?

posted by Rabulah to media & arts (16 comments total)

You're not alone; zealous repeating of a song or album always wears the sparkle of intentness off for me after a while.

If you want to get some of that back, the only thing I can think to suggest is that you stop listening to it for a while. Lock and key, take it off your playlist for a few months, a year, whatever. Let it get good and properly out of your head, so the next time you listen to it it'll be like an old friend coming home, not your neighbor stopping by for milk.
posted by cortex at 7:54 AM on March 6, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Headphones and a few puffs on the Mary Jane.
posted by bondcliff at 7:57 AM on March 6, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

You are not alone in this happening. The obvious answer is to stop listening for awhile, right? I assume you've tried that.

Try listening to it on different speakers---headphones, in the car---somewhere you don't usually listen to it. That's usually when I hear something new to appreciate about a song I've played to death. Listen to the entire album and focus on why it comes on when it does, or what it has in common (or lacks when compared) with the other tracks.
posted by juliplease at 7:57 AM on March 6, 2008

For me listening to podcasts and other spoken word tracks for a few days quickly restores my ability to enjoy a song or an album. With spoken word you're not just listening to something other than your favorite song, you're listening to something entirely different from music.

cortex is right. The longer you go without the song, the sweeter it will be when you play it again. I just listened to Death Cab for Cutie's "Plans" after ignoring it for at least a year, and it was incredible. I was actually excited at the beginning of each track, even the ones that used to consider filler between my favorites.
posted by Science! at 8:03 AM on March 6, 2008

Either put it away for a while, or listen to it "out of context" - for instance, if you're used to listening to it when you do a certain thing, listen to something else during that thing and listen to your favorite song when you're doing something else.

I got in a rut of always listening to a certain album when I did the dishes, to the point where I was like you; I stopped listening to that album during dish-doing time, and started listening to it in the morning when i check email prior to work, and it really made me appreciate it all over again.
posted by pdb at 8:15 AM on March 6, 2008

Listen to an entire Johnny Cash album -- it's best if it's actually on vinyl, but any format will work. It's the antidote to earworms.
posted by theredpen at 8:25 AM on March 6, 2008

Listen to whatever you consider to be the compositional inverse of this tune, and lots of it. It's like semantic satiation, but with rythm, tone, lyrics, etc.
posted by prostyle at 8:31 AM on March 6, 2008

Find a cover of it and listen to that. Compare and contrast.

Or try learning to play it yourself.
posted by alikins at 8:46 AM on March 6, 2008

Find a live version - listen to that - that'll break it up in your head and you'll be able to listen to it (the album version) again. It's a little disconcerting at first, because you've learned the patterns.
posted by cashman at 8:48 AM on March 6, 2008

Or you could listen to the original by Randy Newman to get another take on it.
posted by schroedinger at 8:52 AM on March 6, 2008

2nding schroedinger ... try the Linda Ronstadt version too, which is lovely.

Sing along with it, unselfconsciously & with passion. You'll feel it again.

But I agree with everyone else who has said stop listening to it. Familiarity breeds, if not contempt, at least boredom.
posted by headnsouth at 9:21 AM on March 6, 2008

Your limbic system has decided that this song is irrelevant to you. Since it is your limbic system that causes you to enjoy the song in the first place, you're going to have to take its word for it.

Give this song a rest and try a new one. Come back and listen to the other song in a few weeks.
posted by ikkyu2 at 10:54 AM on March 6, 2008 [2 favorites has favorites]

Play it for someone who has never heard it before and don't do anything else while you're both listening. This works for me every time, for some reason. They don't even have to be in the same room with me; I just have to know that they're listening to it while I am.
posted by hototogisu at 2:59 PM on March 6, 2008

Find a cover of it and listen to that

Exactly. I can't count the number of times that I've rediscovered a song based on hearing a good cover of it. Other things that will work are remixes and instrumentals. Basically, anything that give you the spirit of the songs in a slightly different way, that way when you come back to it, you are hearing it anew because you are looking for differences.

I also like the suggestion about trying different speakers/ headphones. I've had songs that I've listened to for years that come across completely differently when I suddenly plugged in a better pair of cans.
posted by quin at 3:51 PM on March 6, 2008

A DJ friend of mine had a bunch of songs that he had just heard too much. He would actually put headphones on, put the song on repeat at low volume, and sleep through the night. He said that the next time he heard the song while awake, he would hear instruments/phrasing/sounds that he never previously noticed were there.

I tried this once, but couldn't get to sleep because the headphones were too uncomfortable against my pillow. But that's just me.
posted by hammurderer at 8:50 PM on March 6, 2008

nthing the "listen to another cover", except that the Chantal version was my favorite...until i heard the amazing Raul Malo do it.

Feels Like Home by Raul Malo (for free via Rhapsody, which i have no connection to)
posted by softlord at 5:32 AM on March 7, 2008