We Were Young

As an individual who's life revolves around having music in my ears at all times, I come across songs that are terrible and songs that I fall completely in love with. One such song, which could be considered the "title track" for this blog post, wasn't love at first sight. At first it was just another song in my podcast...then, given the correct setting, a nice sunset in the woods during a summer get away with friends, this song became my favourite.

Now just for clarification, I have a kind of scale for songs..each one can be categorized into a class (just like the top 40 countdown with Ryan Seacrest, number 1 is the best){Each link is a personal example of the categories}.

1- Songs that play a large part in your life; could come from the lyrics really hitting home with you, or it's a song that was playing at a special time in your life..like in the woods with friends, or at a wedding (you never get tired of these songs, and could have hundreds of plays in your iTunes library).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxNnnR4XCyk

2- Songs you play 50 times in a week and stop...but then jam out to a month or two later when you hear it played and then begins another week of 50 plays.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YmaFPvdyUYo&index=8&list=WL

3- Songs that you enjoy whenever they play, but you don't go out of your way to put them on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9bZkp7q19f0

4- Songs that you find annoying, but will put up with them, and catch yourself tapping your foot while they're on.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WA4iX5D9Z64

5- Songs that you find absolutely terrible, and make a point to change the radio station, or leave the room if it's on. (no song preview here because it would involve me listening to a category 5 song)

Now that I've broken down these categories, I can move towards the point. Each song I listen to is immediately placed into category 2-5 (it takes some work for a song to be in my number 1). Although, about a month after my first listen, if it was not placed in 5, the songs are probably not in the original category. This is mainly because I've have some time to listen more, and like fine wine, I find music gets better with age. For example some of the tunes I'll listen to all the time come from bands like The Rolling Stones, or Steve Miller Band.

The song I'll talk about now was categorized as a 3. It was nothing special at the first listen. If someone played it, I probably wouldn't recognize it, but would listen to it all the same. However, given the correct place it really got me hooked, thus advancing it to a category 2 song. After a week though, and probably about 75 plays later (most in the company of some of my best friends, doing splendid summer activities) I found myself categorizing this song as a 1.

Although I really like house music, I grew up on more rock and metal music. After I became hooked with this song, We Were Young by DVBBS, it wasn't the classic huge drop that involves all the bass that had me hooked, it was actually the breakdown in the middle of the song. I found it took me back to all of my old favourites that involved a lot more rhythm and not just pounding into the speakers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8rRO3uOzvY#t=01m38s

Let's get down to the important stuff now. How does my love for music, and all the subtle music promotion, relate to consumer behaviour? Well, when it comes down to it, music is a sensation. You listen to it, and for some people it's just a huge experience. As I discussed with the DVBBS song my initial sensation was that it was not going to be a very special song. But once I had taken the time to think about it, my perception of the song was much different. I was able to put it into the category I thought was appropriate after about 75 plays.

Overall, staying with the music theory, it's an interesting "phenomenon" that occurs when you first hear a song and that sensation makes you react like this:

But then you hear it in a more suitable environment, and you're perception changes, causing you to react more like this:

And at the end of the entire thing, in my experience, and you've ended up falling in love with the song..you end up getting very excited every time the song plays.

Overall, there are many different possible situations that we can go through that change our opinions on certain things. This is important for marketers and businesses to keep in mind because they have to make sure their customers are being put in the correct situation to allow for the individual to be satisfied with their experience, and in turn this results in the company being more successful.