According to scientific research, some popular music is inherently bad, yet if a song has been recommended to you by a friend or maybe you saw it was rated highly in the music charts, you will continue to like it without subjecting it to close scrutiny.
Two researchers-Matthew J. Salganik, of Princeton University, and Duncan J. Watts, of Columbia University, have revealed that the mere suggestion that a song might be popular, can make it so whether or not the music is truly worth it. The study called “Leading the Herd Astray,” showed that “popular” music, no matter how bad it is, is a self-fulfilling prophecy.
In the study, carried out by these two scholars, they recruited via email 12,207 participants, instructing them to visit a website that told them they were about to take part in a study of musical tastes. After clicking through, each was presented with 48 songs by relatively unknown musicians. And after listening, they were asked to rank each song from 1 star (I hate it) to 5 stars (I love it).
Listeners were split into four groups: independent, social influence and two inverse social influence sets. In the independent group, the 48 songs were ordered randomly. In the social influence group, they were listed from most to least popular. In the inverse social influence groups, the songs were still listed by descending popularity, only this time participants were told that the unpopular songs from the social influence group were actually the most popular.
At the end of the study, it was revealed that “Participants who were aware of the behavior of others were more likely to listen to songs that they believed were more popular.”
Participants’ false perceptions of popularity dictated what songs they listened to, as well as how they ranked those songs. The study called the results a “self-fulfilling prophecy.” When participants were told what other people liked, they liked it even more.
The researchers therefore concluded that popular music triumphs even when it is bad. Since the study was made public, there have been arguments for and against the intention of its research. But those who are supporting the study, are supporting their argument with the Clear Channel radio program, called ‘On The Verge’, which selects popular songs that have the highest chance of success and mandates that all 840 stations in the Clear Channel network play that song at least 150 times. Again and again, the program creates hits, whether or not the artists behind them are good or not.
Previous studies on music have proved that the more we hear a song, the more we like it. Our brain’s reward center is more active while listening to songs we are already familiar with. Therefore, let it not surprise you, that you are being bombarded with lots of preselected songs on the radio and other platforms. The strategy is to make you regularly hear these songs, so you have a higher chance of liking them. The music industry knows this and they are using it to their advantage.
At least, we can use “the Shazam Effect” as an example. When music identifying service-Shazam launched in 2002, it was intended to help the everyday music listener discover new music. But by 2014, the application had become more than just an identification tool. It was the music industry’s newest weapon to discover up-and-coming artists. It collected data from listeners in order to determine what songs are catching on; providing the music industry with a useful set of metrics to help them decide where to put more resources.
So, from today, make your own independent observation about music. Never go with the crowd or be manipulated by the radio stations and TV channels. Avoid the Bandwagon Syndrome.
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This cannot happen to me, since most bands I like are Rock, Punk, Metal and Indibands from China and Japan, most people have not even heared of.
I haven’t listened (or owned) a radio for over 3 years, before that, I hardly listened to it, since I do not like pop usw.
However, it is quite interesting to see how manipulative people are.
This is so true.