And, take a moment to think, how many times have you listened to it?

花點時間想想副歌這部分，你聽過幾次?

Chances are you've heard that chorus repeated dozens, if not, hundreds of times, and it's not just popular songs in the West that repeat a lot.

沒準有幾十次，甚至幾百次，而且不只西洋流行歌的副歌會重複很多次。

Repetition is a feature that music from cultures around the world tends to share.

「重複性」是全球文化音樂的一項共通點。

So, why does music rely so heavily on repetition?

為什麼音樂如此重視重複性？

One part of the answer comes from what psychologists call "the mere-exposure effect".

一部分原因來自心理學家所謂的「單純曝光效應」。

In short, people tend to prefer things they've been exposed to before.

簡而言之，人們傾向選擇他們接觸過的東西。

For example, a song comes on the radio that we don't particularly like, but then we hear the song at the grocery store, at the movie theater and again on the street corner.

例如，收音機播放著我們不怎麼喜愛的歌，但後來在雜貨店、電影院，還有街角都不斷聽到這首歌。

Soon, we are tapping to the beat, singing the words, even downloading the track.

很快地，我們會隨著音樂打節拍、跟著唱，甚至下載這首歌。

This mere-exposure effect doesn't just work for songs.

而單純曝光效應不僅僅只是出現在歌曲裡。

It also works for everything from shapes to Super Bowl ads.

它也適用於所有事物， 從形狀到超級盃廣告。

So, what makes repetition so uniquely prevalent in music?

那麼，為何重複性會在音樂中特別普遍？

To investigate, psychologists asked people to listen to musical compositions that avoided exact repetition.

為了研究，心理學家給一群人聽一段無重複性的音樂創作。

They heard excerpts from these pieces in either their original form, or in a version that had been digitally altered to include repetition.

受試者聽到的音樂片段不是原版，就是有後製重複段落的版本。

Although the original versions had been composed by some of the most respected 20th century composers, and the repetitive versions had been assembled by brute force audio editing, people rated the repetitive versions as more enjoyable, more interesting and more likely to have been composed by a human artist.

雖然原版的音樂來自一些 20 世紀的知名作曲家，而重複的版本是由音頻編輯拼湊而成的，受試者認為重複版本比較好聽、有趣，也更有可能是真人作曲家所作。

Musical repetition is deeply compelling.

重複性音樂十分引人入勝。

Think about the Muppets classic, "Mahna Mahna."

想想經典「大青蛙劇場」中的《Mahna Mahna》。

If you've heard it before, it's almost impossible after I sing, "Mahna mahna," not to respond, "Do doo do do do."

你如果聽過，在我唱了「Mahna Mahna」 幾乎一定會以「Do doo do do do」回應。

Repetition connects each bit of music irresistibly to the next bit of music that follows it.

重複性讓一段音樂順暢地連接到下一段。

So when you hear a few notes, you're already imagining what's coming next.

所以當你聽到幾個音符，你已經能想像接下來的旋律。

Your mind is unconsciously singing along, and without noticing, you might start humming out loud.

你會在心裡不經意的唱著，然後不知不覺中還可能開始哼出聲。

Recent studies have shown that when people hear a segment of music repeated, they are more likely to move or tap along to it.

近期研究顯示， 當人們重複聽到一段音樂，他們的身體更有可能會開始律動或敲打節拍。

Repetition invites us into music as imagined participants, rather than as passive listeners.

重複性邀請我們進入音樂，成為虛想的參與者，而不是被動的聽眾。

Research has also shown that listeners shift their attention across musical repetitions, focusing on different aspects of the sound on each new listen.

研究也顯示在每次的重複中，聽者會轉移注意力， 專注在聲音的不同面向。

You might notice the melody of a phrase the first time, but when it's repeated, your attention shifts to how the guitarist bends a pitch.

第一次聽，你可能只注意到一句旋律，但當旋律重複時，你會將注意力轉移到吉他手如何推弦。

This also occurs in language, with something called semantic satiation.

這相當於語言中的 「語義飽和」。

Repeating a word like atlas ad nauseam can make you stop thinking about what the word means, and instead focus on the sounds: the odd way the "L" follows the "T."

不斷地重複一個詞，比如 atlas，會讓你停止思考這個字的意思，轉而專注於 T 如何奇怪地連接 L。

In this way, repetition can open up new worlds of sound not accessible on first hearing.

如此一來，重複性能開啟一個新的聲音世界，一個在初次聆聽時，無法觸及的世界。

The "L" following the "T" might not be aesthetically relevant to "atlas," but the guitarist pitch bending might be of critical expressive importance.

T 連接著 L 對於 atlas 可能沒有審美上的關聯，但吉他手的推弦可能在表達上有關鍵的重要性。

"The speech to song illusion" captures how simply repeating a sentence a number of times shifts listeners attention to the pitch and temporal aspects of the sound, so that the repeated spoken language actually begins to sound like it is being sung.

「說話到歌曲的錯覺」就是在說我們如何多次重複一個句子，將聽眾的注意力轉移到聲音的音調和順序，讓重複的口語聽起來就會像是被唱出來的。

A similar effect happens with random sequences of sound.

隨機排列的聲音也有類似的效果。

People will rate random sequences they've heard on repeated loop as more musical than a random sequence they've only heard once.

兩者都是隨機排列的聲音，人們會認為不停重複播放的歌曲比只聽過一次的更具有音樂性。

Repetition gives rise to a kind of orientation to sound that we think of as distinctively musical, where we're listening along with the sound, engaging imaginatively with the note about to happen.

重複性提升了某種對聲音的傾向，讓我們認為聽到的聲音更有音樂性；當我們聽到聲音時，用想像力想像即將出現的音符。

This mode of listening ties in with our susceptibility to musical ear worms, where segments of music burrow into our head, and play again and again, as if stuck on repeat.

這種聆聽模式與我們容易產生音樂耳蟲有關，音樂耳蟲就像有音樂鑽入我們的腦海中，不停地在播放鍵上徘徊，一遍又一遍的播放。

Critics are often embarrassed by music's repetitiveness, finding it childish or regressive, but repetition, far from an embarrassment, is actually a key feature that gives rise to the kind of experience we think about as musical.

評論家常對音樂中的重複性感到介意，覺得這幼稚或具退步性的，但重複性，其實正好相反，因為他是一個重要的特色，讓聆聽經驗變得更有「音樂性」。