Lyric repetition

Research into the effects of repetition in song lyrics provided the basis for three studies by Nunes, Ordanini and Valesia in their paper:

"The power of repetition: repetitive lyrics in a song increase processing fluency and drive market success."(Download full article here)

The overarching hypothesis is that when we hear song lyrics repeated, it aides auditory processing and will be adopted more broadly into the marketplace.

The paper is broken down into 3 separate studies held under different conditions to ensure a thorough investigation into this hypothesis.

Repetition is prevalent in a musical sense across all genres of music. Whether this is melodic repetition, structural repetition, rhythmic repetition or harmonic repetition. Repetition provides us with a sense of comfort and grounding in our listening. The key, however, is deciding when and how to disrupt this repetition to provide continued interest and engagement with the listener.

Through the introduction, the paper points out that repetition shifts attention away from what is said to how it is said, thus increasing processing fluency.

The three studies examined different areas. The first looked at snippets of songs and gave the participants six different exerpts to listen to. These were carefully chosen as to avoid familiarity, and the songs were cropped in order that the listeners heard the chorus in some of the songs twice and only once in others. The conclusion being that the songs where they heard two choruses increased processing fluency.

The second study looked at two specially written songs for the project. In both cases, one version of each song had repeated phrases and the other version did not. Again, through analysis, the conclusion drawn being that lexical repetition, independent of the music content, facilitates processing.

The final study, looked at real world situations with analysis of the Billboard top 100 since its inception in 1958. The study looked not only at the songs that had reached the number 1 spot, but also looked at songs that made the top 100 but never made it above the 90 spot, providing a vehicle for comparison.

The conclusion drawn was that increasing both chorus repetition and word repetition increased the likelihood of ascension towards the top of the charts.

The study proposes that these findings may have 'strategic implications,' for those involved in advertising and marketing.

An interesting study with a solid data set. It would be interesting to look at the results of a study where the lyrics were repeated, but the melody wasn't. I wonder if the correlation would be the same?

It is always interesting working with young people on their own composing and songwriting. The perception that to write 3 minutes of music involves writing 3 minutes of unique music. As opposed to themes which are repeated and developed. There is also the sense that in songwriting, finding lyrical structures that scan well through repetition is in important to grasp. Even at a fundamental level, until confidence grows and structures can be stretched.

EndFragment