To Repeat or Not to Repeat?

NPR asks: Is there a difference between song obsession and eternal love?

I think anyone who loves songs would agree that, yes, there's a difference in how we appreciate songs — that some inspire intense infatuation, while others stick with us for our whole lives. The thornier question is why, and the answers will vary from person to person.

The most tempting answer is to suggest that the lighter and sugarier the song is — the more it flashes onto our radar with a ubiquity that can't be maintained for more than a few months — the more likely we are to burn out and move on to the next shiny object. I'm on the record as a proponent of Carly Rae Jepsen's "Call Me Maybe," for example, but I never questioned the notion that I'd burn out on it. I doubt many people heard "Call Me Maybe" and thought, "This song will echo through the ages."

If this is just a pop song, I could agree with an example later in the blog about Rihanna's "We Found Love" being a song to repeat. And of the more pop-songs I've liked, maybe some vintage Janet Jackson like "Love Will Never Do" is a song that I could listen to over and over. And sure, there are songs that I won't turn the radio off.

But eternal favorite songs...U2's Mysterious Ways,  maybe Journey's "Don't Stop Believin'," OMD's "If You Leave," New Order's "Regret," well, not so much pop. But decades later, I could still listen to them on repeat.