thomblake comments on Bizarre Illusions - Less Wrong

11 Post author: MrHen 27 January 2010 06:25PM

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Comment author: thomblake 28 January 2010 08:34:00PM 2 points [-]

To add to this with a similar example, consider that some people prefer listening to foreign language vocalists because it allows one to appreciate the sound of the vocal instrument without focusing on the words.

Comment author: [deleted] 29 January 2010 11:42:46PM 0 points [-]

To me, most music sounds like a foreign language (though one that sounds exactly like English), unless I'm familiar with the lyrics beforehand, in which case I can "hear" them just fine.

Comment author: Alicorn 29 January 2010 11:49:08PM 2 points [-]

Like this?

Comment author: [deleted] 31 January 2010 05:41:34AM 0 points [-]

Probably.

Comment author: SilasBarta 29 January 2010 11:54:02PM -1 points [-]

Yes, most people don't care much about the actual lyrics. Which explains the phenomenon thomblake was trying to use for tenuous support of another hypothesis, yet remains modded to 3 for some reason (7 if you include his parent comment).

Comment author: SilasBarta 28 January 2010 09:54:01PM 0 points [-]

Right, because the words (i.e. the lyrical semantics, as differentiated from the qualities of the sounds the words make) are a small, perhaps negligible component of what people like about many of these songs.

If you were trying to draw some other inference from this fact, you're going to have to be more specific about why that inference follows.