https://padlet.com/cameronmccarley/af0t6qq2z7mg Ben Ratliff's discussion of repetition in chapter 1 of "Every Song Ever" padlet. en-us 2018-02-25 20:39:17 UTC 2026-03-16 23:53:31 UTC hello@padlet.com cameronmccarley https://padlet.com/cameronmccarley/af0t6qq2z7mg/wish/235142868 Repetition, according to Ben Ratliff, is "a smart psychological operation--a way to make you focus on all that is in fact nonrepetitive" (Ratliff 14). In other words, repetition prepares you to face something that is not repetitive, but variation instead. An example he gives is Peter Griffin from Family Guy hurting his knee and repeating the same exclamation and sucking sound with his mouth, and after he does it three times, the audience expects nothing else to come from it. I agree with his view that repetition prepares people for variation. Many times while listening to music over and over again I've realized that when certain sounds, themes, rhythms, etc. are repeated, they aren't repeated a random amount of times, but in a way that is not just satisfying, but predictable. In common time signatures for music like 4/4, people listening to a part of a song that gets repeated can expect the repeated phrase to stop after four times more often than not. That prediction doesn't just mean they know when that phrasing will end, but also very importantly that something else is about to come after. Ratliff briefly mentions Kehsa's song "We R Who We R" as an example to support him saying that people "can be as free as they want, as elegant or debased as they want" (Ratliff 15). This song exemplifies this musical concept that Ratliff is talking about because the main chorus is made up of stuttered and repeated words that come in a predictable amount of times that make it easy to tell how the song is going to go, which helps make the song likable. A song outside his playlist that was made after Ratliff's book was published is a song that we had played out loud in class is "Gucci Gang" by Lil' Pump:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p7DPmYayxxE
Whether or not the song is actually good is debatable (but also very subject to opinion), but it does include repetition that makes it easy to tell when variation is coming. The amount of times Lil' Pump says the words "Gucci Gang" in repetition is consistent and allows it to fit into this kind of concept that Ratliff talks about in chapter 1. ]]> 2018-02-25 20:40:59 UTC https://padlet.com/cameronmccarley/af0t6qq2z7mg/wish/235142868