Stuck on repeat: why we love repetition in music

Music of every genre, every culture and every period employs repeated phrases for effect. Why do we love to listen to the same things again and again? “It is a principle of music to repeat the theme. Repeat and repeat again as the pace mounts.” William Carlos Williams had it right, in words later set by one of music’s most repetition-obsessed composers, Steve Reich in his The Desert Music. But it’s not just the minimalists, the likes of Reich or Philip Glass. Repetition...

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