Sunday, 26 June 2016

Love at first sight

Love at first sight is a personal experience and a common trope in literature in which a person, character, or speaker feels an instant, extreme, and ultimately long-lasting romantic attraction for a stranger on the first sight of them. Described by poets and critics from the Greek world on, it has become one of the most powerful tropes in Western fiction.

Research has shown two bases for love at first sight. The first is that the attractiveness of a person can be very quickly determined, with the average time in one study being 0.13 seconds. The second is that the first few minutes, but not the first moment, of a relationship have shown to be predictive of the relationship's future success, more so than what two people have in common or whether they like each other ("like attracts like").

Infatuation, not to be confused with love at first sight, is the state of being carried away by an unreasoned passion or assumed love. Hillman and Phillips describe it as a desire to express the libidinal attraction of addictive love, inspired with an intense but short-lived passion or admiration for someone.

"With a Little Help From My Friends" by The Beatles, has the lyric: "Would you believe in a love at first sight? Yes, I'm certain that it happens all the time."
"Love at First Sight" by Dr. Dieter Massion (composer), feat. Dania König (v) and Ro Gebhardt (g). Diego Imbert (b), Sergio Parra (sax,fl), Thomas Schmidt (g,p), Jochen Krämer (dr,perc). On album with the same titel; 1999, genre jazz. CD release 1999, printed version 2012 by Dima Media.
"Love at First Sight" by Kylie Minogue describes this phenomenon.
The first hit instrumental cover of Serge Gainsbourg's 1969 song Je t'aime... moi non plus (commonly banned due to its sexual lyrical content) used the title "Love at first sight." This instrumental cover was a Top 20 hit and the recording artist was a British group named Sounds Nice (the group's name actually represents the two words Paul McCartney said when he heard this instrumental cover of the song.)
"Love at First Sight" by Styx.
"Get Together" by Madonna, has a line asking "Do you believe in love at first sight?" and then she answers "It's an illusion/I don't care", since the subject of the song falls in love at the first sight, and she doesn't care if her lover believes it or not.
"Heart Song" by Automatic Loveletter says "Love at first ain't messing around!"
"As She's Walking Away" by the Zac Brown Band describes a man who fell in love with a woman at first sight.
"Good Directions" by Billy Currington describes love at first sight.
In the chart-topping music video for Maroon 5's "She Will Be Loved", the young man (lead singer Adam Levine) falls in love with the socialite mother (Kelly Preston) of his girlfriend at first sight; lyrically, the verse describes his seeing the woman for the first time, "Beauty queen of only eighteen/she had some trouble with her self".
"I Never Planned on You" from the Broadway musical Newsies has the lyric "Love at first sight's for suckers, at least it used to be," sung by the protagonist, Jack Kelly, about his love interest Katherine Plummer.
"Some Enchanted Evening"

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