# Does your receptiveness to music change?



## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Does your receptiveness to music change? Mine does. Sometimes it seem like I just can't get into a particular piece, and then later I suddenly 'get' it and it all clicks.

It seems that the closer in touch with my 'true being' I am, the more centered, then the better I can receive music. If I'm angry or stressed-out, then nothing is any good.

Sometimes there is 'destructive' music that I use to 'break through the walls' of my obstinate will; loud rock will do it, or grating, noisy industrial music. Sometimes I think its better to make your own music, or just sit in silence.

Sometimes, listening to one genre, like classical, will kind of 'shut me off' to other kinds of music, like rock. Rock can easily seem to become trivial after listening to classical, but then suddenly I can hear some good rock and I can once again appreciate it for what it is.

Sometimes I make CDs that I call "paradigm shift mixes," where I put a Jimi Hendrix cut, followed by a John Harbison piano movement, then some Gregorian chant, Dylan, country, etc.

It seems to keep the attention, and I've found that other people as well like to hear these discs and have their 'paradigms shifted.'

How does your perception of different kinds of music change, or does it?


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## Ukko (Jun 4, 2010)

I have checked thoroughly, and I have no paradigms that I can find. However, my perception/reception of music within the various genres of classical does fluctuate.


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## Dustin (Mar 30, 2012)

I do notice that listening to classical music is like eating with me. I have an appetite and while it takes a whole lot to fill me up, there are times when I'm "hungrier" than others. Sometimes after a few hours of listening, my receptiveness will drop and I'll need a break. On the other hand, if I haven't been able to listen for a few days, everything I hear sounds golden.


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## millionrainbows (Jun 23, 2012)

Just think of the days before recorded music, when the only time you would hear music was when somebody played it. I bet it really sounded golden back then.

We could go on 'music fasts' periodically.

Ukko: If I can find your paradigm, I will shift it, so please remain still and don't be startled.


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## Tristan (Jan 5, 2013)

Yes, this happens to me. There are pieces (and songs) that do nothing for me the first time around, but later on I may appreciate them. In fact, one of my most favorite songs of all time I heard several times before and thought "it's interesting" and kind of forgot about it. It took a while for me to really appreciate it. (And yes, I have also done this with entire genres and sub-genres). 

I also agree about the switching moods. Sometimes popular music does seem to trivial to me after listening to classical, but it is possible for me to "get back in the mood" for it. 

Additionally, already being in a certain mood can make me more or less receptive to certain types of music. When I am angry, for example, dubstep and Shostakovich seem to be the only music that will do it for me.


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## brianvds (May 1, 2013)

It has always been the case with me that repeated listening would help me to "get" a piece that I disliked at first. But I find that as I get older, my tolerance for the avant garde is getting ever lower. Apparently it is normal for us all to get more conservative with age.


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## cjvinthechair (Aug 6, 2012)

brianvds said:


> It has always been the case with me that repeated listening would help me to "get" a piece that I disliked at first. But I find that as I get older, my tolerance for the avant garde is getting ever lower. Apparently it is normal for us all to get more conservative with age.


Oh, Mr. Brianvds - don't let that 'excuse' stop you experimenting !
4/5 years ago I'd largely have agreed with you...now, at, well, 'over 21' (!) I've rather more time to search things out, & have never been happier, with so, so much to discover. Still not too good at saying 'Oh, didn't think much of that; will come back to it' - frankly, there's way too much to listen to that I'm sure I've a chance of connecting to.
Will also happily listen to jazz, wind/brass band music to relax; afraid I can't be persuaded to 'do' rock etc !

And sure, sometimes it's 'rousing' that does the trick, sometimes 'reflective' or 'inspiring'...ah, it's just a way of life now !


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## hpowders (Dec 23, 2013)

Sure. I'm "in and out" of pieces all the time.
I'm currently "out" of Beethoven and "into" Haydn over the last several months.

My problem is being so manically involved with a piece of music that I overplay it to death with as many performances of it as I can find. This is currently in process with the Haydn London Symphonies.


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## Celloman (Sep 30, 2006)

Does my "receptiveness" change? Certainly. I tried to listen to Mahler symphonies for years before they finally "clicked". My ears respond differently to a twelve-tone piece than they did ten years ago.

And as for rock music...I feel absolutely no obligation to listen to that stuff. I get my daily dose of it when I walk through a grocery store. I don't need any more, thank you very much.


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## SottoVoce (Jul 29, 2011)

Of course. You fall in and out of love with your music, poems, paintings, etc. It's not much different from falling in and out of love with friends and lovers, at least in kind.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

There's usually always some kind of classical music that will work for me, given the huge variety of styles from period to period and composer to composer, but there are times when I can play a disc over and over and it seems to go in one ear and out the other. Some pieces require a few tries before I 'get' them. Oftentimes, this is a cue for me to give listening a break for a while  I don't associate any period or composer or musical genre with a particular mood: I like to hear what I want to hear and sometimes that's nothing at all.

I find that I am sufficiently suphonsified by classical almost all of the time, so much so that I have little need for music of other genres, but some "grating, noisy industrial" rock (which I don't usually find all that grating, actually  ) does go down nicely from time to time. Mostly, though, these are nostalgia trips for me, as rock (and other genres) do seem "trivial" to me nowadays. Much of it seems to be youth music: I am not the intended target audience. I don't especially like the current trends in popular music and I am bored with the popular music of my youth: I have little residual interest in further exploring those musical styles. I think that it is a function of getting more mature, not just in years, but also as a listener. My appetite for classical, from the tamest to the wildest, however, remains insatiable.

I have enjoyed musical contrasts since my youth. I used to make mix tapes of rock, jazz, ethnic art music, common practice and modern classical. I regularly use the random function on my mp3 player, but there is only classical on it now. I really enjoy listening to, for example, violin sonatas, followed by electroacoustic music, followed by baroque or whatever. I enjoy these jarring shifts.


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## violadude (May 2, 2011)

I'm considerably less receptive to the music I'm listening to when I'm distracted by Talk Classical threads.


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## mmsbls (Mar 6, 2011)

I have not found my affection for music I liked or loved to lessen with time or listening, but I have found an enormous increase in receptiveness over time. I find this happens in 2 ways.

First, I have listened to certain works repeatedly and after listening several (or more) times I find some works "open up" (i.e. I go from disliking to enjoying them). Examples are: Berg's Violin Concerto, Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, and Schoenberg's 3rd quartet. All three seemed not necessarily ugly but certainly not enjoyable. After listening for awhile they almost suddenly (but maybe over a few listenings) sounded enjoyable to beautiful. 

Probably more importantly for me, listening to new music over a period of years has gradually allowed me to hear music that I found incomprehensible/ugly/unpleasant as accessible/enjoyable/beautiful. I used to dislike most of Debussy, Ravel, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, and others. Now it's hard to "hear" what I disliked. Boulez and Stockhausen were simply noise (and unpleasant noise at that). Now I like some of their works and can listen to other works to hear interesting parts. The change is so vast that in some sense it seems miraculous. I fully expect that further listening will continue the trend towards greater receptiveness and a love of works I previously just shook my head at.


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## ptr (Jan 22, 2013)

Sure it does, there are hundreds of parameters that steer my receptiveness each day, the kind of general mood I'm in, how bad my Tinnitus are, if and what I have eaten, how well my HiFi sounds, how well I have slept, how smelly the cat is, what kind of weather is gaining on me, if I have not listened to music for a long time, my receptiveness can be nudged by choosing the wrong disc to start to listen to and the whole day is down the drain, etc, etc...

/ptr


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## Mister Man (Feb 3, 2014)

No doubt 

The reason I listen to "classical" is because of a video-game that used "classical" music as a soundtrack. At the time I was a fan of Heavy Metal. Now, I rarely ever listen to it. My receptiveness to music changed.

EDIT: edited for clarity, it originally read as if my interest in "classical" comes from my interest in a video-game. That is false, the music in the game brought down barriers and exposed me to classical. The game per se has no bearing on my interest.


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## arpeggio (Oct 4, 2012)

brianvds said:


> It has always been the case with me that repeated listening would help me to "get" a piece that I disliked at first. But I find that as I get older, my tolerance for the avant garde is getting ever lower. Apparently it is normal for us all to get more conservative with age.


I am the opposite. The older I get the more adventurous my musical tastes become. One of these days I may actually get Cage. As a result of people grousing about Cage, I have actually discovered a few works of his that I now enjoy.


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## Weston (Jul 11, 2008)

I have never fallen out of love with any music (or friends for that matter - especially not friends!) once it clicks, it's just that some sometimes I need my space. 

I think the mixing up of genres is a great idea and may indeed help to inexplicably gel a piece. Today I was listening to my iPod on random play and I came across this wonderful majestic baroque or rococo sounding work, something I wasn't familiar with. It made me feel - I don't know -- hopeful or even a bit proud of the human race for a change. I played "name that tune" for a while. Was this Telemann? No, too majestic. Handel? Not really. Someone more obscure like van Wassenaer? Giving up, I turned the iPod over to look at the screen. 

"Mozart: Symphony No. 19 in E flat major, K. 132, movement 3" 

What?! How can this be? I hate that teasing predictable Mozart rubbish. But this was incredible! Now I have to admit I like earlier Mozart as well as late Mozart. Could it be that not knowing who it was made it more appealing?

Sometimes multiple listens and a concerted effort also pay off.


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## brotagonist (Jul 11, 2013)

^ My interests and habits have changed since high school and early adulthood and I have found it better not to stay mired in unhealthy and limiting relationships and behaviours... and so with music, too  Rock was my primary go-to sound until I found classical music. Both have lead to a healthier direction onward.


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## senza sordino (Oct 20, 2013)

I have become so much more receptive to baroque music recently. I had always listened to a few pieces by Bach but that was about it. So yes, my receptiveness does change. I now listen to more composers with two more non Bach CDs on the way. 

I've recently bought some choral music, and I've enjoyed listening to this. Perhaps I'll become obsessed with Requiems in the near future.


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## Pysmythe (May 11, 2014)

My receptiveness to Wagner changed, radically, for a long time. He was my first "classical" love, starting at age 15. For probably the first few years of listening to him, I wasn't really aware of a certain side of his nature, since you weren't likely to find out very much, if anything, about that on the back of an album jacket. At some point, though, I did find out more, and I even eventually read "the essay," and was thereafter very much turned off by him, didn't really listen to him at all for years and years. But this wasn't the ONLY reason, I have to admit. As my tastes broadened, I just started to find myself generally more drawn to composers who worked in older forms, sonata-form, fugues, concertos, etc. As of only the last six months or so, though, I've found myself trying to reconcile with him, somehow, and I'm still not sure how it's going to turn out. I recently watched an excellent documentary by Stephen Fry about his lifelong struggles with Wagner, and just a couple of weeks ago I downloaded the book 'Richard Wagner and the Jews,' in a further effort to make some sense out of a man who's emotional life and responses seem to have been some kind of Mobius strip. I'm not sure how it's going to turn out, but, for some reason I'm not really able to appreciate, lately I've felt it's important to give him another chance. I suppose it's possible that, deep down, I simply feel like Fry says he did, that he simply couldn't believe that the man who wrote 'Tristan und Isolde' could actually be BAD. And yet... it's difficult for some to just put aside the man and revel in the music. And I also know this is an old, old story, trying to come to terms with "the monster," and I'm not trying to hijack the thread or start a Wagner flame-war, or anything... I just thought I'd contribute about something its been my turn to go through lately.


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## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

The busier your mind is with your own personal 'mental chatter,' preconceived notions, conditioned expectations, etc. the less open it is to anything outside of that mind-set.

The stiller the mind, the more open the mind, whether it is to re-hearing already familiar pieces, pieces new to you, or outside of your normal listening habits -- and it is relatively impossible to not have a busy mind and expectations from conditioned listening habits


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## Svelte Silhouette (Nov 7, 2013)

Yes. As you get older you relax more and are happy to let something wash over you but in youth immediacy is needed.


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