Does simplicity in a song make it more enjoyable?

[Rapture]

If a song is accessible for beginning musicians, does that help the song reach a larger audience? If the song can easily be played by beginner guitars/bassists/drummers/keyboardists, does that make the song somehow more enjoyable?

One of Metallica's most popular songs is Enter Sandman. Now I have met numerous Metallica fans who say that songs like Master of Puppets, One, etc are their favorites. Yet how many people have you met or heard, say "I can play the intro to Enter Sandman!" ? I also noticed that most of Metallica's most popular songs are their songs with enjoyable, memorable, yet still easy to play, songs. Is it just me, or is one of the reasons Metallica is so popular, is that their songs are usually fairly easy to play, and that helped them gain an audience of aspiring musicians?

The same goes with bands like Nirvana, Black Sabbath, etc. I'm not saying that playability is the only thing that helped these bands gain popularity, I'm saying that perhaps that's something that contributed to their popularity.

So now I ask, is easy playability a factor in helping a song gain recognition?

and no, I'm not saying popularity in music is important, I'm just wondering if this is one of the things that would help a band gain an audience.

[Trey]

If a song is accessible for beginning musicians, does that help the song reach a larger audience? If the song can easily be played by beginner guitars/bassists/drummers/keyboardists, does that make the song somehow more enjoyable?

One of Metallica's most popular songs is Enter Sandman. Now I have met numerous Metallica fans who say that songs like Master of Puppets, One, etc are their favorites. Yet how many people have you met or heard, say "I can play the intro to Enter Sandman!" ? I also noticed that most of Metallica's most popular songs are their songs with enjoyable, memorable, yet still easy to play, songs. Is it just me, or is one of the reasons Metallica is so popular, is that their songs are usually fairly easy to play, and that helped them gain an audience of aspiring musicians?

The same goes with bands like Nirvana, Black Sabbath, etc. I'm not saying that playability is the only thing that helped these bands gain popularity, I'm saying that perhaps that's something that contributed to their popularity.

So now I ask, is easy playability a factor in helping a song gain recognition?

and no, I'm not saying popularity in music is important, I'm just wondering if this is one of the things that would help a band gain an audience.


The majority of people aren't musicans, so I doubt the playability of a song bears any relation to the songs popularity. But you are on the right track, just looking at it in the wrong way.

The songs you mention are simple, both mechanically and, more importantly, musically. Most people don't want to listen to songs with complex lyrics and musical statements, which is why most people listen to Pop music instead of Jazz and Classical, they simply want to be entertained by a catchy melody and simple rhyme scheme. The degree of musical complexity and the popularity of a genere or song are usually inversely related, it doesn't matter if the complex song is ridiculusly easy to play or not, it really has not effect. Thus, Britney Spears, who has little to no musical talnet save for her gifted voice, is much more poular than Larry Carlton, who knows more about theroy and how and why music works than most normal humans. Carlton's music is complex, and Britneys is not, you have to be somewhat aware of the interworkings of music to truly understand Carlton's songs, whereas no thought is needed for Britney's songs because everything is spelled out for you(literally).

That's why I think simplistic music is more popular with the masses, I could very well be wrong, but it seems logical to me.

[WahLikeMe]

Yep, as treyjo43 said basically.

Well, there are other reasons why Britney's popular... but yeah. Not so much playability, listenability

Catchy melody - indeed. Often over chords I IV V in pop, rock (and blues). Jazz and Classical - adding to what treyjo43 said - classical often modulates or long solos with little repetition. And jazz - many interesting chords and chromatic complex solos. Other types like Eastern music is often not repetitive,

In fact forget melodies, sometimes all you need is a repetitive drums and bass line. (Dance, Hiphop and Drum 'n Bass spring to mind)

So all I'm gonna add is repetition - whether that be chords, melodies, lyrics or drums, it helps towards being popular.


Oh yeah, and danceability has ben key, since at least 1930s popular big band style.