Skip to main content ↑ ↓

Notice

Please note that most of the software linked on this forum is likely to be safe to use. If you are unsure, feel free to ask in the relevant topics, or send a private message to an administrator or moderator. To help curb the problems of false positives, or in the event that you do find actual malware, you can contribute through the article linked here.
Topic: Why Does Some Music Make It (Read 7769 times) previous topic - next topic
0 Members and 1 Guest are viewing this topic.

Why Does Some Music Make It

Does anyone have an idea or analysis as to why some music makes it, as in why does it have such an x - factor, while other songs/ genres just don't achieve such success. What makes it better/more popular/more successful?

Why Does Some Music Make It

Reply #1 –
You can Google "What makes a hit song", but nobody REALLY knows...  I the old days, the record companies lost money on about 9 out of every 10 artists they signed.  It might be worse today.  So, even the experts don't know.

There's been the opposite case where a "throw-away" song added to an album becomes a big hit.  Or, didn't someone (Decca records?) pass on the opportunity to sign The Beatles?    And when EMI signed them, they assigned George Martin (a comedy record producer) as their producer.

Of course, it usually takes AT LEAST, a good performance, and good recording, good promotion, a good song (whatever that means). An attractive/appealing performer helps a lot too.

Why Does Some Music Make It

Reply #4 –
Quote from: includemeout on
Quote from: DVDdoug on
nobody REALLY knows...

And if someone claims they do, they're damn liars!


Current scientific wisdom seems to be that listening pleasure comes from listening to something that is familiar. IOW listening pleasure comes from listening to old songs.  This begs the question of how do we come to enjoy hearing a new song. My best guess is that there is a preference for new songs that remind us of old songs. We prefer nwe songs that literally strike old chords.

Why Does Some Music Make It

Reply #5 –
That makes a lot of sense. I was writing a thesis on the subject but I have just been stumped by what makes it and what doesn't.
I feel like there is a lot of great music that goes nowhere, while a lot of shit, e.g pop, that makes it big and makes a lot of money.
There has to be something that sets it apart, and I agree wholly with the fact that people like familiar sounds.
Which leads me to believe that a lot of songs that are big now are copying a formula or using old samples of hit songs.

Why Does Some Music Make It

Reply #6 –
Quote from: Hollywood on
That makes a lot of sense. I was writing a thesis on the subject but I have just been stumped by what makes it and what doesn't.
I feel like there is a lot of great music that goes nowhere, while a lot of shit, e.g pop, that makes it big and makes a lot of money.
There has to be something that sets it apart, and I agree wholly with the fact that people like familiar sounds.


Right now I can't find the references, but there has actually been quite a bit of serious research. Seems the ideal combination is a lot of familiar stuff, but with an element of surprise.

Quote
Which leads me to believe that a lot of songs that are big now are copying a formula or using old samples of hit songs.


Read the book (or at least the wikipedia entry) I linked to earlier...

Why Does Some Music Make It

Reply #7 –
I'd say that a beat that people can remember easily, or lyrics, will help the song get popular (pop music) since a lot of people like huming songs and singing with them

Why Does Some Music Make It

Reply #8 –
A lot of the charts and markets can be and are manipulated by mass advertisements, strategic product placements, buyouts and biased reviews written by people who work for the same parent company as the record label.  So there can be a lot of people checking out what all the fuss is, but that doesn't mean they like the results.  So people buy a lot, but then they trade the CD's in quickly to used CD stores and don't really play them much.  If you go to used CD stores a lot, you might see 12 copies of the same "hit" record that nobody wants, but the stuff that's really in demand is often stuff that the major labels didn't promote much, even if it was in their catalog. 

So you kinda have to differentiate between songs that were financial hits from songs that were aesthetic hits.  Compare this to being like when a blockbuster movie comes out.  Tons of people will go the theatres to see if it's good.  That doesn't mean the movie was a hit, it just means a lot of people went to see it during the opening weekend.  It's after the movie's been out a long time that you get a better idea of if it's actually good or not, and post-theatre DVD sales a year later might also be a slightly better indicator of if the movie was actually popular for being actually good. 

Think about it.
Be a false negative of yourself!

Why Does Some Music Make It

Reply #9 –
Sometimes you see multiple second-hand copies of an album by a charting artist because, aside from that single everyone liked or heard in the hit movie, the rest is filler. And, when CD ousted vinyl, the available running time on CD almost doubled and everyone thought you had to fill the whole disc.

Then, sometimes, you get bad luck. A band records on an independent label that goes bust or gets bought out by a bigger organisation, and their album is deleted because it doesn't meet the commercial demands of the new owners. Thankfully, the reissue industry has brought many forgotten gems to light. I recently bought the reissued album by Honey Ltd and loved their multipart harmonies and breezy, slightly psychedelic pop, but they never recorded as a group again, for whatever reason.

Why Does Some Music Make It

Reply #10 –
Neil Sedaka -

He studied Billboard magazine, and says, "I looked at the #1 record in every country in the world and analyzed it. And that's how Howie and I wrote 'Oh! Carol.' I took the beat, I took the drum licks, I took the guitar licks, I took the harmony changes, and I went to school on them. Howie wrote the lyrics in twenty minutes but was embarrassed. He thought it was terrible. But it was exactly what I wanted."