You can tell if you like the song by listening for ``5 seconds'', and experiments show that people respond to the ``atmosphere'' rather than the ``sound'' of the song
A study by psychologists has shown that people can judge whether they like a song in its entirety after just a few seconds of listening to it. This research, which shows that the perception of a part of music is representative of the music as a whole, has been evaluated as bringing new knowledge about human cognitive processing.
The Whole is Not Different From its Parts | Music Perception | University of California Press
Knowing We Like a Song Takes Only Seconds of Listening, New Psychology Research Finds
https://www.nyu.edu/about/news-publications/news/2023/january/knowing-we-like-a-song-takes-only-seconds-of-listening--new-psych.html
Music distribution platforms often provide sample excerpts of songs. However, until now it was unclear whether it was really possible for listeners to judge a song just by listening to an excerpt. It has also not been determined whether listeners' reactions to excerpts match their ratings of the song as a whole.
Therefore, a research team at the New York University Department of Psychology gathered a total of 643 university students and local residents to conduct an experiment. First, the research team selected a total of 260 songs so that the music that Americans often listen to is evenly included. Specifically, a total of 152 songs, randomly selected from two songs on Billboard's popular music charts from 1940 to 2015, were evaluated as 'unknown songs' by an external panel of experts. 52 songs were used, 56 of which were also judged by experts to represent eight broad genres from classical to rock.
The research team then created excerpts of 5 seconds, 10 seconds, and 15 seconds extracted from the intro, outro, chorus (chorus), and verse (introductory part before the chorus) of these 260 songs. In other words, 12 clip excerpts were made from one song.
Then, each participant was asked to listen to 12 'whole songs' and 180 clips of 'excerpts' and complete a questionnaire asking if they had heard them and if they liked them. In addition, although there are many excerpts of a few seconds, the participants will listen to a total of 192 songs, so the experiment was conducted while changing the mood.
When we analyzed the results of the questionnaire on music preferences obtained in this way, it was found that the participants' preferences were the same regardless of whether they were ``whole songs'' or ``excerpts''. It was confirmed that it can be predicted.
Also, since there was no difference due to the length of the clip, co-author Pascal Wallisch said, ``We found that people can decide within 5 seconds whether they like the song.'' I was.
In addition, although it is possible that whether or not you have heard the song may have affected the evaluation, the number of songs that the participants knew was only about one-fifth of the total. Also, if the excerpt was from a song that had never been heard before, and then listened to the entire song and evaluated it, there was a tendency for the discrepancy between the excerpt and the overall evaluation of the song to increase. But it was far more predictive than random chance.'
Regarding the research, Wallisch said, ``Our findings give us broad implications for what characteristics of a song evoke emotions in listeners. So it shows that we're responding to the mood the song brings, rather than the musical score itself.'
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