The fact that electronic devices like autotuners are used so frequently in the music industry implies that someone, somewhere is applying some sort of scientific engineering to the creative process. So my question is, how far does it go?
Is there some engineer in a lab determining that the addition of Lil’ Jon screaming “WHAT!!” in the background increases bootyshakitude by 10-20%?
Have researchers at MIT figured out exactly how much Timberlandification is required to turn Nelly Furtado from obscure alt-rock singer/songwriter into pop sensation?
Did some entrepreneur in his garage figure out how to apply car alarm technology to create chart-topping hits by the likes of Lady Gaga, Ke$ha and Shakira?
Is there something special about the frequency of Snoop Doggs voice that you can’t fake it, just break it, and when you take it he specializes in making all the girls get naked?
There are programs that evaluate the hit-capability of a song based on certain combinations of notes and intervals. I hear about them once a year or so on NPR. I believe the same types of analytical programs are used to establish commonalities on music-mapping sites like Pandora…
…but given how screwed up the music industry is right now, while it would be interesting to imagine some sort of Big Brother feeding us Heroin Music™ that we must get addicted to, I am inclined not to give them that much credit…
There is a book that was a hit in the UK called Kill Your Friends. It portrays the UK music industry as a bunch of coked-out, power-mad clueless twits who are far too focused on their next hit of coke to actually know what to do about the music…hilarious in a black humor way and held up as being quite accurate by some friends of mine…
I remember reading some article somewhere that said the music industry super computer predicted Gnarls Barkey’s Crazy as being the hit of the summer a few years ago… and it was!
I can’t find the article now. My Google-Fu has failed me.
I don’t think such a thing is even possible. Too many different tastes across too many generations. The Frasier Cranes of the world are never going to a Toby Keith concert. Country fans ain’t going to the opera. Rock-n-Rollers don’t do rap. Rappers don’t play Free Bird.
Hell, I don’t recognize any of the acts named in the OP except maybe Snoop Dog–but I couldn’t name one of his songs if my life depended on it. If somebody is laying the sciencey-mojo on music, middle-aged white guys must be immune.
Pandora uses trained people to rate a given song for a large number of characteristics; their algorithm then gives people songs with similar ratings to those of music that they’ve liked before. The ‘establishing commonalities’ part is done by people, as described here.
Oh gee, thanks a lot. I come off sounding like an idiot, and everybody who posted had already heard the song, and several weren’t impressed. That was an OP I regret. I still love the song though.
Heh. Don’t be so hard on yourself. I still love “Crazy” too - it’s one of those rare earworms that just gets better the more often you hear it. You know, the anti-“Poker Face.”
Thanks. I haven’t heard “Poker Face” (or any Lady Gaga, in fact, I only know it’s by her due to cultural osmosis) so I’m not sure what you’re referring to.
And jeez, I just realized/remembered that I didn’t even get the name of the group right in the Subject Line! It was a typo though, not ignorance.
Aerosmith and Run DMC?
Anthrax and Public Enemy?
The whole Nu Metal rage of the late 90s?
Quiet! Kid Rock will hear you!
Also I believe the Nevada Chamber of Commerce has signed an agreement with the Black Eyed Peas that their music will constantly be playing somewhere in Vegas 24/7.
A song can obviously be a national chart topper without certain groups of fans. If a song appeals to the masses, then the minority isn’t a concern.
And to the OP, yes I believe dance/pop hits can be created specifically to be hits. The brain acknowledges certain types of music differently but predictably. Jazz for example isn’t popular amongst the masses, but that is because the brain gets more emotional when listening to jazz whereas with dance/pop stuff the brain is more appealingly catered to.
How what? That I know the song is by Lady Gaga? Because she’s everywhere. I see her face 10 times a day without even trying, and believe me, I don’t try. Some point along the way I saw the words “Poker Face” and Lady Gaga together so many times without even reading articles that I just knew it was. Unwilling cultural osmosis. Like how I know that two people named “Jon and Kate Gosselin” have a bunch of kids and are divorced now and are even more famous because of it, even though I’ve never seen them on TV or read an article about them. Do they do anything worthwhile besides pop out kids and fight? If I were Emperor Of The Universe those two would disappear and never be seen again, except by the animals that live on the desert island I’d plop them on. At least Lady Gaga tries to entertain people. Or so I’ve heard.
If it’s how I’ve never heard her, that’s easier. I don’t listen to the radio, I don’t watch any shows where her music might have been played or she might have been on, and I’ve never been interested in going to YouTube to check out her videos. It’s possible I might quite like her if I heard her. Since I’ve never heard her voice or music, I have no idea, so it’s nothing against her or her fame, it’s just that it’s always seemed like it’s not the kind of music I’d be into. I could be wrong. One of these days I might try and find out, but it’s not a priority.