How Many Times Do You Have To Listen To Understand A Piece Of Music?


Speaking solely about popular music, broadly speaking, it takes 2 to 3 listens to figure out if I like something.  Roughly meaning do I want to hear it again.  To get to the point where I think I understand the piece can take dozens of listens.  A big factor in how digestible a piece is whether it's a genre, artist or song I'm already familiar with.  At least for me truly new music is harder to get into.

Just curious as to how others experience new music.

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To quote Beefheart, "When It Blows - It Stacks."

That is all ye know, and all ye need to know.

It varies by song obviously some are more accessible than others. Countless times I've decided a song was the best on an album only to later consider a different song I didn't care for originally best on an album.

Classical music and good jazz—if it’s music that grabs me: hundreds and hundreds of times. In my case, Ralph Vaughan Williams, Charles Ives, Charles Lloyd and Charlie Mingus. If I listened to these in vinyl I would have worn them out by now. In fact I did wear out Three or Four Shades of Blue back in my turntable days.

it is not meant to be understood by you. It has meaning to the artist. Not necessarily to you