What makes you listen to songs again and again? Options

[*mipadi*]

My question is loosely inspired by the "what song can you listen to over and over, and never get tired of it?" thread, which raised an interesting point: What makes you listen to a song again and again? What draws you into a song and makes it one of your favorites?

For me, it's hard to tell. Some songs have a really good melody, or rhythm perhaps. I'm a seasoned bassist for a number of bands, so I'm especially attracted to songs with an engaging bass rhythm.

But I don't think any of these things make a song my favorite. A quick analysis of my favorite music (made easy by my "Most Played" smart list in iTunes--very cool feature, by the way) shows that almost all of the songs I listen to a lot have some sort of connection to an event in my life, a person close to me, or some aspect of my personality.

For example, my favorite song is "Tyler" by the Toadies. The song has a great vocal track, awesome guitar melody and harmony, and a sweet bass line. But I think what sucks me in is the fact that I first heard it around the time I started playing bass (way back in The Day about seven years ago or so) and it was the first song I learned to play well on the bass. It has an emotional attachment to my life, because it reminds me of my early forays into the music scene.

There's a song by Jonathan Coulton called "Code Monkey" that is rapidly becoming one of my favorites. The song is about a guy that reminds me of, well, me, and my life, and it's fun to listen to because on some level, it makes me feel more comfortable to be me (as cheesy as that sounds). Likewise, the song "So Much Drama in the Ph.D." is cool because it's funny, and it's written by a comp sci student using a lot of comp sci terminoloy, which serves greatly to remind me of my place in this world.

I also like the song "Fett's 'Vette" by MC Chris, because it is about my favorite Star Wars character, Boba Fett. Boba Fett pretty much made me want to become a galaxy-trotting bounty hunter when I was a kid.

And although it's not one of my favorite songs, I used to listen to the song "1985" by Bowling For Soup a lot because, at the time, I was dating a girl who was in love with the 80s, and it reminded me of her.

So I guess overall, my favorite music serves to remind me of me, my life, and those around me. It keeps me grounded; it reminds me of who I am and who I was. Doesn't all this make sense? Music is meant to evoke an emotional response, so shouldn't the music you like the most be the music that evokes the most powerful emotional response? And how can a song evoke a powerful response if it doesn't have some sort of significance to your life?

[*stephinika*]

1) Lyrics and what they mean to me.
2) The beat.
3) Generally, how catchy they are.