|
Your Taste In Music Is Shaped By The Crowd?
|
View this Thread in Original format
| girllovingtvibe |
SOURCE: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn8702
Your taste in music is shaped by the crowd
19:00 09 February 2006
NewScientist.com news service
Kurt Kleiner
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."
Journal reference: Science (vol 311, p 854)
Related Articles
Digital music-sharing stirs social tensions
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7383
16 May 2005
Senses-crossover makes for tasty music
http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7091
02 March 2005
Weblinks
Experiment website, Columbia University
http://musiclab.columbia.edu/
52Metro band website
http://www.52metro.com/
Science
http://www.sciencemag.org/ |
|
|
| Swamper |
| Nothing new here - just like producers that are known for releasing quality material get more credit than they should for their 'tier' productions - tracks that would never get the time of day otherwise. |
|
|
| Porky |
| quote: | Originally posted by Swamper
Nothing new here - just like producers that are known for releasing quality material get more credit than they should for their 'tier' productions - tracks that would never get the time of day otherwise. |
oh man del, do i agree with you on this one. so many dj's these days ride on the coattails of their past success that people blindly follow their new tracks like lemmings. can you say PAUL VAN DYK? FERRY CORSTEN? TIESTO? anyone?
imagine ferry releasing stuff like the good ol Moonman, Out of the Blue days
or how about Tiesto and his late 90s stuff? ... and how about Just be now <-- puke!
pvd pod2 ???? :nervous: |
|
|
| Porky |
another thing...
i was looking at this picture once, where it had a rough estimation of the different areas of the brain, and there was this one small section in the right side that was labeled 'musical appreciation'
i honestly thing people vary greatly in respect to this area. alot of people on the TA boards are enthusiastic about the music they listen to, it's great to see people voice their opinion in regards to trance, prog, house, techno. awesome.
but i also have a group of regular, normal friends who have no clue to the taste of music that they prefer. they just don't identify too much with any genre of music at all. which to me is shocking/disturbing because music is such an integral part of my life. |
|
|
| Jem_hadar |
| quote: | Originally posted by Porky
. they just don't identify too much with any genre of music at all. which to me is shocking/disturbing because music is such an integral part of my life. |
same here! |
|
|
| MarkT |
| quote: | Originally posted by Swamper
Nothing new here - just like producers that are known for releasing quality material get more credit than they should for their 'tier' productions - tracks that would never get the time of day otherwise. |
I agree with your statement...but I'd be an outlier in the study.
I could care less whether "the crowd" loves or hates a song and I buy most of my stuff without knowing the artist/DJ and just listening to samples by myself. I honestly have no idea whatsoever how "poplular" half of the records that I've bought would be considered.
Deko-ze dropped one such track in the Orange Room on NYE and I went nuts because I never thought I'd even hear the track out at a club. |
|
|
| mindspin |
| TOOON!!!! DUDE!!!! TOOON!! (as one points to the air as if the toon has physical properties) |
|
|
| Jem_hadar |
| quote: | Originally posted by mindspin
TOOON!!!! DUDE!!!! TOOON!! (as one points to the air as if the toon has physical properties) |
shuddup ryhi! |
|
|
| dc star |
I think sometimes ppl need to listen to tracks without knowing the artist or label and judging based on the POPULARITY of the artist or label. I listening to almost every type of muzik out there @ some point each week sometimes even each day and some of the best listening experiences. Then you can either feel like great you found some unknown artist who you really respect or you find out its an artist you already respect and would feel even more appreciative.
nice article you found P!
dc |
|
|
| Blue. |
| I know plenty of people who dislike songs just because they're popular too. |
|
|
| Truepioneer |
For me it seems like it's the exact opposite the less the majority like it and the more underground, cutting edge and maybe obscure it is the more I seem to like it:crazy:
I always will go against the grain:D |
|
|
| El Kay Dee |
| quote: | Originally posted by girllovingtvibe
People like a song more when they think other people like it too, |
i know i start hating a song when everyone starts telling me about it 5 months later and keep raving about it....cant hold it as something personal then |
|
|
|
|
