Does recorded music need hooks to allure your ear?

[phat daddy]

I've always found that 99.9% of the time, if a song catches my ear, it's because of a good hook either in the chorus, bridge, verse or throughout the entire tune. Contemporary music seems particularly based on hooks, and it's easy for me to see why.

Do hooks allure your ear or can you listen to music that seems to have no particular direction or arrangement?

[Basshole]

Dude; I'm a bass player...which means a sizzling groove will get my attention far faster than a catchy hook.

YMMV

[Matt Till]

Ha, not at all. Most of the music I listen to is not catchy... I'm not sure why, but catchy music rarely seems to appeal to me. It does... but if I were to list my favorite bands, they wouldn't be "catchy."

[Traver]

While a hook may make my attention easier to grab, it's the overall mood and atmosphere of a song that makes me go back to it over and over again.

[mothmonsterman]

Catchy hooks just dig themselves into my head, where they like to sit there and chew on my sanity.

[Phalex]

I do dig the hook, but my wife laughs at me when I hum along to a tune because I always seem to be humming the bassline.

[baba]

I don't need a hook. I listen to and enjoy tons of hookless music.

However, your last sentence seems to imply that without hooks, direction/arrangement doesn't exist. If this is the case, I disagree. Keep in mind, even a nice bop Coltrane number with 10 minutes of improv will start with and typically wind up with a head. There is definite direction/arrangement.

I see a hook as more of a catchy riff.

[Barkless Dog]

Groove first, hook second

[Traver]

Originally Posted by baba

I don't need a hook. I listen to and enjoy tons of hookless music.

However, your last sentence seems to imply that without hooks, direction/arrangement doesn't exist. If this is the case, I disagree. Keep in mind, even a nice bop Coltrane number with 10 minutes of improv will start with and typically wind up with a head. There is definite direction/arrangement.

I see a hook as more of a catchy riff.

Yeah, I agree with that. In fact, I find it to be the other way around most of the time: Music without hooks is generally more well-thought out and actually has a natural development and a multi-layered orchestration, whereas songs with hooks usually only have the hook and a beat, and those are repeated over and over again for a long time.

[BassChuck]

Originally Posted by baba

I don't need a hook. I listen to and enjoy tons of hookless music.

I always thought that the 'hook' was a main attention getting part of the music. What are you talking about with 'hookless music'? Could you give some examples?

[baba]

Originally Posted by BassChuck

I always thought that the 'hook' was a main attention getting part of the music. What are you talking about with 'hookless music'? Could you give some examples?

To me, a hook equals a signature riff.

There are endless examples of music without hooks. For example, consider two songs I heard this morning...

Dead Flowers by the Stones is a bunch of verses and choruses. No notable hook that sticks in your head.

Now think of Keep Em Separated by Offspring. That damn surf lick hook will get in your head and not get out.

[Traver]

Although I suppose there are different perceptions on what a hook is, to me, genres like classical, ambient, drone, and post-rock are filled with bands that rarely employ hooks (not to say that they're never there).

For an example on music with no hooks, you could try the free tracks here:
http://www.last.fm/music/Nest

[kcwm]

There was a band I listened to as a kid that didn't necessarily have catchy songs, but the song itself was enjoyable. I could sing every word of every song, but could never picture them on the radio. I think the person that said the mood of the song is what draws them in hit the nail on the head for me.