The Science of Hit Songs

 

            It is interesting to think about what makes a hit song. Is it that the song is inherently better than others or is it just luck? This is the question that the article “The Science of Hit Songs,” discusses. The researchers of the article used an online teen website to test this notion. They divided the subjects into two groups, one could see only the song names, the other could see the song preferences of others. The researchers found that as a particular songs’ popularity increased, participants selected it more often. They found it is both a combination of luck and quality. A really bad song is unlikely to reach the top of the charts, but it is partially luck which good song catches the attention of the people and makes it to the top.

            This seems like it is definitely what happens within the music industry. There are just too many songs to listen to. Itunes has millions of songs and a person cannot listen to all of them. As stated by one of the researchers, “people are faced with too many options. Since you can’t listen to all of them, a natural shortcut is to listen to what other people are listening to.” This can be thought about in a different way. Unless you live very close to where a new band plays, how would you ever hear their music? It is through the internet, tv shows, and friends that people hear about good new music. A new band plays on the radio and people go on the internet and listen to other music by them. This is probably why hit music is so much based on the feelings of others. As more and more people hear a good song they pass it on to others and it moves through the population like an epidemic.