The Science of a hit record

[WolverineSyr]

I wish they did this study a few years ago and included some of us!

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology ... songs.html

I'm sure having only teenagers particpate doesn't give an honest reflection of what makes a hit.

I recall most of my new wave & punk purchases as a teen were based solely on the cover of an album or the name of a band or song, simply because I didn't have access to a radio station that played our stuff.

Imagine how we would have skewed the study!

[coop41]

"So what drives participants to choose low-quality songs over high-quality ones?"......

......Payola?[:)]

[DayGloJo]

[quote]Originally posted by WolverineSyr
[br]I wish they did this study a few years ago and included some of us!


Imagine how we would have skewed the study!


[/quote]

HA! We'd still skew everything!

DayGoJo

[Spectre General]

[quote][i]Originally posted by the article[/i]
<br>The upshot for markerters: social influence affects decision-making in a market.[/quote]

I KNEW IT!! I KNEW THIS WAS TRUE.

A friend and I are always getting into arguments about which things are "popular" and why, and I've always said it's because people don't want to think for themselves, but he's always said that if something is deemed "good" by a large amount of people, it's because it's truly deserving of that much acclaim.

I've thought for years that some marketing people somewhere have devised the mathematical equation for how much money must be spent on advertising to ensure that your product will be commercially successful. Although this number is probably extremely high, unfortunately some marketers have enough money to do this. And this would go a long way toward explaining why talentless hacks become millionaires overnight. I blame MTV.

For more on this subject I suggest that you watch the movie "Josie and the Pussycats." I know it sounds ridiculous, but this "influece over pop culture through marketing" was the underlying theme of that movie and it was sheer genius (although it was also a free and easy way for many marketers to flaunt their products, despite the negative image the movie portrayed them in.)

I'm sorry, but the fact that so many people go through each day without THINKING really irritates me, and this study partly proves it's true. Thanks for posting this Wolverine.

[geoffolehane]

So constant airplay on the radio is still a good thing (or a bad thing depending on your outlook).

But a lot still depends on what Program and Music Directors pick to get that constant airplay on the radio.

I would have listened to the 48 songs anyway if I had participated in that study and picked the ones I liked for myself.

I wonder how the researchers defined their selection of "unknown songs by unknown bands."