Does Anyone Else Think They "Hear" Music Differently From Most Other People?

Cafe Society
1

I have been thinking about this for awhile. Years, in fact, and I am not sure how to vocalize what I mean.

I hear intricacies in music that I believe others do not, like the extra vocal harmony part, doubling of vocals, layering of guitars, little effects here and there…it’s weird.

I suppose that I am really in tune to music in some strange way. Like at work, for instance. I work at a Kroger store and they pipe in music. It’s not elevator music, it’s actual pop and rock songs.

A lot of it is repetitive. I will hear Adele’s “Someone Like You” every day. And there’s a cover version of it that pops up occasionally that I think is by John Legend.

There are weird gems in there too. I’ve heard Van Halen’s “Panama” a couple times. I also catch Billy Idol’s “Eyes Without A Face” sometimes.

It isn’t so much the song selection though (which is mostly garbage, throwaway pop anyway)…it’s that I can hear it. You have to understand, a Kroger Marketplace is a HUGE store, and the music volume varies depending on where you are. In some aisles you can’t hear it at all, but a song will pop into my head, and as I go to a different part of the store, yup, that’s the song that’s playing. But I didn’t really hear it!

I love to whistle, and I am actually quite good at it. I can whistle the entire guitar solo to either “Comfortably Numb” or “Another Brick In The Wall (Part II)”. Sometimes I find myself whistling, and then yup, the song I am whistling is playing on the audio system.

I can’t seem to tune music out, rather, I tend to gravitate towards it, even when it is elevator music. I can’t help it. My teeth are a bit squared off because I use them to play drums inside my head by either clacking or grinding them together.

Is there anyone else out there that understands what I mean? I interact with people in the store all the time that seem reasonably intelligent, but they are blocking out the music somehow and don’t recognize something unless I point it out and they intentionally concentrate and listen, or perhaps they catch a wisp of a tune in an area of the store where the speakers are louder.

What is this condition of mine? I don’t mind it, I love it actually. Whistle While You Work actually does help to pass the time.

2

Oh, also, I find myself whistling this song a lot. I had it on a K-Tel record as a kid. Anyone else remember this?

3

[quote=“FoieGrasIsEvil, post:2, topic:802025”]

Oh, also, I find myself whistling this song a lot. I had it on a K-Tel record as a kid. Anyone else remember this?

[/QUOTE]

Of course I remember. This actually made it to #20 on the Billboard charts in 1967, which either says a lot about the eclectic nature of the times… or…

4

I’ll do you one better: for a while, there, when I would go grocery shopping, I would be able to tell you what the next song would be. Surprisingly accurate. I must have subconsciously heard the same group of songs and it was imprinted in my brain. Sad, really.

But yeah, sometimes parts of a musical piece will jump out and other people won’t know what I’m talking about when I say, Don’t those bongo drums in the ST:TOS theme drive you nuts?

5

I am not sure that my experience is the same as yours, but as a trained musician I tend to ‘see’ chords or fingerings or places wherd the vocalist could or should take a breath in my mind when I hear any type of music. Bass lines always stand out clearly to me as I play the bass. I refer to it as an enhanced listening experience. I do think you are referring to something different, but I do understand the concept you are trying to convey.

6

Well, yes, but it’s because I miss so much, not that I hear anything extra.

7

I was gonna say what TriPolar just said. I know I’m missing a whole lot.

Also, I usually have to listen to a work three times before I really “hear” it at all properly.

8

I am so glad I am not alone in remembering that song!

This is exactly what I mean. What’s amazing is that you and I may hear different things within the same song, depending on its prior imprint on our brains. It’s nuts.

I also see this, depending on the song, as tablature for guitar as I play it (badly). It’s sad that I can whistle better than I can play. I have always wanted to be good at guitar and recognized as such. “That boy could really play…he was good”

9

I hear color and see music.

10

I need more shrooms and acid.

11

IMO, some people hear more details than others; it’s a skill that can be developed. If you immerse yourself in the study of a piece of music, after a while, you can sometimes review it in your head in surprisingly clear detail.

There’s something in Fleetwood Mac’s “Hold Me” that none of my friends could hear back in the day. I’ve just checked, and it’s still there, clear as day. It’s in the chorus, on beat 2, and it sounds like a whip crack and a yelp. First time it happens is between 0:48 and 0:49, on the third “hold,” (and it goes) something like this: “Hold me, hold me, ho- (here) -ld me…”

I think the average person can train their hearing in this sense, but some average people are better at it than others.

12

I’m not going to pretend I have some preternatural affinity toward music that allows me to hear it differently, but I’ve often wondered what differences in the instant-analyzation of music there are between people. Like the OP, I tend to pluck out pieces within a song; I notice that riff, or that bass-thump or the way that one triangle hit nestles in between the marimbas or whatever. I can’t get myself to not try to figure out the instrumentation of a song and I’m generally charting the form in my head as I listen. On the other hand, I’m pretty sure my dad - whose favorite musical genre is backwoods Maine hunting songs - just listens to music as one big amorphous blob of sound that permeates his ear drums as a vehicle to get at the really funny lyrics about moose shit and black flies.

13

Yes, I hear the crack/yelp clearly.

Yeah, people can develop their ears. I can’t be a guitarist for near 40 years and expect to hear music the same way as non players.

And then there’s the practical stuff. Learning to tune by the beating harmonics - it trains your ear whether you like it or not. I have also described here how you pick out different things that become important. Truly great PAF-style, low output hum biking pickups - E.g., the ones on Les Pauls from the 50’s - have a weird sizzle sound as you hold notes. Like a static-y Tesla sizzle - and if you focus on sustaining that sound, you control your overall tone. So the reason those pickups are so value that they give great feedback if you can pick it out of the signal.

14

See the fascinating book

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Dr Oliver Sacks

for some interesting examples and discussions about the very wide range of human experiences with music.

15

Humbucking. :smack:

16

Plus, I’m willing to bet your hearing is better than mine; and of course that will change as we get older. So we’re probably hearing things differently day to day.

17

I used to work a Kroger when there were ashtrays at the end of the aisles, and I had the same kind of thing happen. I couldn’t fathom how my co-worker didn’t know all of the lyrics to some of the songs that get piped in daily. Also, some of those songs from their muzak still work their way into my head’s never-ending playlist.

18

I must be, unless various Bob Dylan songs are a joke no one’s let me in on yet.

19

Yup! Here’s something from someone who definitely got the joke!

(I couldn’t find an link to the audio, which is a wonderful satire of Dylan’s “singing.”)

20

I don’t know if this is on-topic here or not, but what I do wonder is why someone’s taste can be so radically different from mine.

Just to throw out two examples:

Dead Can Dance-Opium

OK Computer-Karma Police

[chose them because they both share the broad theme of abandoning oneself, whichever way you wish to define that.]

The first cut there is my fave DCD cut-sublime and powerful from start to end. Brendan Perry’s voice grounds the entire proceedings. The repeating motif throughout the entire song (oom oom oom oom OOM OOM oom OOM oom oom) is especially intriguing. The professionalism here is striking.

Meanhoo the Radiohead cut just plods along, not helped by the mediocre whiny vocals. There’s no hooks, no power, no drive, nothing that grabs my ear, at all. And if anyone here knows how to play their instrument I dunno if I can tell if they can, or not.
So. Why do I greatly prefer the 1st cut, while you can in .2 seconds on Google find oodles of people who love the 2nd one? What, exactly, are they hearing that I am not, and vice-versa? Somewhere you can also find some highly critical reviews of OK Computer. So how can one person love it, to the extent they think it is the greatest album ever, while someone else can utterly abhor it?

[As you probably can tell, when I finally gave in and first listened to it awhile back, I was struck by how ordinary it all sounded. After all of the hype I was expecting something truly avant-garde and groundbreaking-and simply didn’t get that…]

Is it upbringing, what you heard when you were young and impressionable? Nonmusical factors at work (in-group conformity and all that)? A simple emphasis on radically different factors? How could two human beings have such wildly divergent views on a piece of music?