But in our heart of hearts, we know that's a lie. We know Arcade Fire's "Afterlife" isn't much different from Adele's "Rolling in the Deep." So why pretend? Why hold biases? What are we trying to prove? There's this fear, rooted in the high-school quest of fitting in, that liking music for its catchiness isn't righteous and we need to have a better reason.
There are plenty of other reasons to like music, and those inspirations and projections are all totally valid and meaningful. But that doesn't change the fact that when we return to the source we're not consumed by any of those extraneous thoughts, we just want to hear what we like, loud and clear. The question of "why" we like something is always secondary to the raw physical response; catchiness can never be successfully articulated because frankly, that sort of biology doesn't translate well to paper. It's a fact that scares us. That music, something we've all spent a lot of time investing in, generally manifests itself in our synapses. We need a justification, and catchiness feels too shallow.
But that's not true. Acknowledging your fundamental enjoyment doesn't make you stupid; it makes you human.
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