don't be boring

this is pretty much the prime directive of all art, isn't it? people will keep watching/listening/following as long as you keep their brains interested. the problem is, our brains are smarter than we think they are, and they can see patterns coming a mile away. so a writer needs to make sure everything is interesting -- lyrics, chord changes, each instrumental line, the song subject matter, the orchestration, everything. but, there must be SOME pattern to follow -- so much of our joy in listening to music involves our brains learning pleasing patterns that are built into the structure of the music. we like for our expectations to be fulfilled along the way, but we also want our expectations to be subverted. (Daniel Levitin, who wrote This Is Your Brain On Music, expands on this idea in his excellent book, but i must have read it elsewhere before i read the Levitin, since i've been boring my friends with this fulfilling/subverting talk for goddamn years.)