Why do I like songs more when I hear them in stores?

I think maybe:

i) novelty (hearing something new)
ii) control (the people in the record store put the songs on)
iii) external stimuli (shops have lots of cool stuff to look at, which could enhance the song)

Or maybe record stores have sound systems that make records sound better, like clothes shops have mirrors that make the stuff you try on look better.

I'm sure this has been written about in marketing theory.

Also, a lot of songs sound can better when you aren't paying close attention to them.

.. because of the additonal, backward-masked soundtrack playing in the store - saying, "buy this shit! It's really good!"

ah not so, frequently when i hear songs i like in record shops i get quite annoyed because i like it LESS - mainly because i want it in the context *i* know it (ie songs next on teh album or mix tape) AND also cos i'm incredibly selfish with how i consume music. i hate clubs and am not big on live concerts either because music tends to affect me on a more personal level. somehow i hate sharing it...

having said that, i could always guage the tempers of the second hand section (hip hop = pissed off/ ryan adam's heartbreaker = wistful/ fan modine = relaxed) and vinyl section (zombies' odessy and oracle = almost all the time) of nottingham's selectadisc, and this became one of the great pleasures of shopping there. also i always relax more in a shop if it's playing jazz, as it's much more - well - me somehow and i feel less on edge or insecure

but then again i'm a rum old bird

I know I asked this once upon an age, but can't find the thread. I think, for me, a lot of it is the listening stations: they sound far better than any audio equipment that I own, and when I can't reproduce that sound at home I get disappointed, I think. I know this argument has the potential to devolve into one of hi fi, and that's not the point I want to make, but I think for me I mistake the immediacy of the sound for excitement and buy things recklessly.

I bought the Kompakt Pop Ambient '02 compilation recently, which sounded GREAT in the store, AMAZING, and then I took it home and it was just bland faux new age rubbish....

Consumer Guilt.

(which, further to Sean's point, probably has alot to do with my crap stereo.)

Desire makes stuff you don't own yet sound better. Once you take possession, it loses its shine.

plus the hunter/gatherer takes over and it's on to tha next...

I love how Paul and Curt just repeat what I said but using more words. ;-)

I want a cracker.

what i think is an oft-used trap :

(a) you can't hear the music on the 'phones in isolation

(b) there is _always_ something playing in the shop loud enough to get someone interested

so you experience extra frequencies which you equate with what you're hearing on the phones as you're trying to hear that, concentrating more, and maybe you want what you're listening to to be interesting or new or something

so the combo of music you hear both on the 'phones and the plus brain- percieved-as-interesting part of what you thought you hear on the phones, or perhaps just the feeling of being interested in the store/purchase "new sound" idea because of the cross frequency and cross rhythm link-up, in some form or other, makes you pre-buy the experience itself (as interesting) or maybe just raises expectations

when you hear it at home w/out intererence as you seek quiet to give your new purchse a "real" listen you're going to be surprised by what it really sounds like in isolation, and maybe less surprised still by the naked music -- finally seeing that music for what it is

You can never really see the music for what it is though because it's no one thing rather than another, and no matter what, you're listening to in some sort of context, with some sort of frame of mind that will affect your response to the record.

It makes you forget that yes, you HAVE just spent an entire hour looking like a lost soul whilst searching for the All Girl Summer Fun Band album in HMV...

You play that Teardrop Explodes, brother...

uh yeah B Clarke is right -- there is no absolutist right-most musical experience (of course) -- what was i thinking ? oh yeah, relative merits of unknown-quantity music +/- an averagely considerate record shop vs. one preferred listening environment with afore-mentioned music +/- "post-commerce-music culture"