Wonder where this could be????
Posted on 02/09/2006 12:23:22 PM PST by laney
People like a song more when they think other people like it too, a new study suggests. But the interactions between individual and group opinions are so complex that it is impossible to predict whether a good song will be a hit or a flop, according to researchers who asked people to rate the quality of music by unknown bands.
Sociologists Matthew Salganik and colleagues at Columbia University in New York, US, recruited more than 14,000 people to visit a website with 48 songs by relatively unknown bands. People could listen to songs, rate them, and then decide whether to download them.
One group of participants saw only the names of songs and musical groups. Other participants also saw how many times a particular song had been downloaded by others. Both groups broadly agreed about which songs were good and which were bad.
But participants who could see how often a song had been downloaded tended to give higher ratings to songs that had been downloaded often, and were more likely to download those songs themselves. That created a snowball effect, catapulting a few songs to the top of the charts and leaving others languishing.
Different worlds But a track with hit potential does not always become a hit, it seems. The researchers divided the socially influenced group (which could see the download information) into eight different "worlds", so that only the downloading decisions within that world were visible.
They found that the same songs did not always make it to the top of the charts. For example in one world, a Milwaukee pop punk band called 52Metro were stars, reaching number 1 in the download charts. In another world they were losers, ranked 40 out of 48.
"From outside of the industry, it seems like music executives can create stars at will. But we only see the ones that become successful. We don't see all the failures," Salganik says.
Locked in Final chart positions were not entirely random though. For example, all of the songs that were hits in the socially influenced groups were also rated as good by the group with no access to the download information. And the results did not reflect a simple "lock in" effect – i.e. a song that got an early lead did not necessarily maintain that lead. But beyond that, Salganik says, the dynamics are hard to understand.
"This is very exciting research,” says Michael Macy, a sociologist at Cornell University, Ithaca, US. "What they're addressing is a puzzle – why is it so difficult to predict what will be a hit movie or a hit song?"
For hopeful start-up bands, the results mean good news and bad news, Salganik says: "Even if you haven't made it yet, it doesn't necessarily mean it's low quality music – you could just be unlucky. But it also suggests that even if it's high quality music, you might not become successful
Saying is one thing. Doing is another.
Someone tries to harm me or mine and they won't be running anywhere.
Have I mentioned that Mohamed had sex with goats?
*Waves to Achmed*
Doubt it..Brittney's Musical career is over and she was marketed as a singer through the Mickey Mouse Club..A novelty act she was no matter who followed her..The Oriental Kid on American Idol that sang She bangs She bangs also had a following, any no talent can be famous if they are marketed correctly....
There will never be another Santana Beatles, Stones Zepplin Frampton, Bob Seeger the only talent you really see now is in Country Western Music or a Solo Singer.
LOL..I hear ya!
Me too, I am a jazz fan and I could care less what people think about jazz and certian songs I like, even fellow jazz fans.
Hmmm. I have been wanting to do a study for a long time on how songs effect people's moods. Does it only apply to certain people or could it effect a group? Can certain songs actually calm almost anyone? What about those songs that men only listen to because they get women in the mood. I have noticed those songs often have the same type of tempo. So is it really the lyrics or is it the music itself? I don't know where I would start, though.
Private High School (I attended one): Alternative rock, with a few kids into Acid Jazz and techno.
Public High School: Hip Hop, with the honors students typically into Alternative.
Rap and what I like to call the "Mexican Polka" that is often heard blasting from Mexican parties. It's the same constant beat. It's so tedious and just -- awful!
Wonder where this could be????
Not tur, now a days most artists are one hit wonders or bands should I say...Those other artists you mentioned lasted years and years...
Can you say that in todays music? No
Brittney and Jessica will be long forgotten and rap artists change like catepillars, the people I mentioned as well as yourself have lasted into the next generations..
Most of the 80's artist are long gone with the exception of Prince and Madonna...
The Busy Body shop is funny! LOL!
(wink) thought I would check in before I hit the rack...I will just say I am amazed daily by what I learn from people in cyberspace, I learn things about me from people who have never ever in thier entire life met me or spoke with me, telling me what I am like what I do, what I look like what I live like..WOW never knew I had met so many clairvoyants....
The gall is that my bud wants (let me re-phrase that) she's not my bud, I would never be friends with a chick like her, and let me tell ya I am the type that pretty much gets along with everyone. Anyways she would like to tell me what sites I should go on where I don't belong , the real agenda is that she is burning with anger that I am on FR and she isn't...Pays faxi to humble yourself to people learn how to be nice you get alot further in life with people, but you are so book smart I guess you lost you're ability to have an ounce of street smarts or common sense...
So phantom, as yourself I also have learned alot from a Internet Site that has scorned people of the worst kind pretending to be Godly, conservative and productive in life
when all they are is mad as hell they were banned from FR and that a site they DO NOT own won't operate to thier liking or standards.. Hope to see you tomorrow..
Goodnight!
you probably have a point. I haven't listend to "pop" music in a decade and a half. I'm more of a country fan.
For all the Internet Sites that are out there, FR IMO attracts conservatives and decent people all over the world that is why people keep coming back, because this site has something for everyone except Liberal Moonbats that want to tear the country apart.
IMO the dark side has scorned people, I will say that the ones that are trapped in ridiculing people on this site has to do with thier own hostility by not being on FR. I say this because I know some of them while they were posting on FR and the attitudes they have on CP was not the attitudes they had while on FR.... I guess it's like that *Mob* Mentality when every body is beating someone up you join right in and are now part of *The Crowd*.
I say if you really don't like someone or something you move the heck on let it go and live life, you don't keep hounding someone saying it's *Enjoyment* if that's the case then you have some serious issues on what *Fun* is...
If thier husband or wife left them would they hound them because they can't let go? In all honestly a few of them I think are decent no matter what they say about me or us, if they want to come back then humble themselves and return, I have no problem with that.
That site will never grow or EVER be what FR is because people like to talk about what is really happening in the world, they like to have fun and they like to banter with each other, it's called *SOCIALIZING* and if you are a human being it is as natural as breathing air....
Iam glad to be here and to talk with so many different types of people that have conservative values with great senses of humor!
I find that I enjoy songs more when they are no longer new and popular. When I don't hear it all the time, I can actually tell if I like it or not.
Laney, I know this may be reprinted on CP, so I will try to be as bland as possible. ;) LMAO
You made many interesting points including the following:
1. I guess [CP is] like that *Mob* Mentality when every body is beating someone up you join right in and are now part of *The Crowd*.
2. In all honestly a few of them I think are decent no matter what they say about me or us
3. [FR folks] like to have fun and they like to banter with each other, it's called *SOCIALIZING* and if you are a human being it is as natural as breathing air....
4. I am glad to be here and to talk with so many different types of people that have conservative values with great senses of humor!
I totally agree. Now how any of that! could be bashed on and ridiculed, I will never figure out. ;)
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