Can Hit Songs Really Be Reduced To Science? I Mean, Really?

In the news right now: :

People pick favorites largely on what others have deemed popular, a new study finds.

The study itself may be new but the principle isn’t. , in an academic setting, created the 6 principles of ethical many years ago. One of them is the principle of consensus or .

It makes complete sense having the truth about something tested and agreed upon by your peers. In fact, it’s the . And if consensus in the field of chemistry comes from a group of chemistry experts. Where does the consensus for a come from?

Who are the hit song experts?

It had to start with just one person. One listen. Who was that first person and what happened to spread the virus to the next person, and the next and so on? Stay tuned for upcoming tips and tricks on how to create and .

For now, I’m going to scale the question down a bit because a hit song feels a bit out of my reach right now. Maybe after some experience as a hit I’ll be able to answer that question. ๐Ÿ™‚ For now, I’ll reverse engineer–something I love to do–a different and more concrete goal.

What do I want to be able to do? Maybe I’ll create a popular .

Hmmm. New question: where does the consensus for a come from?

Since I believe is the most important thing every should be doing right now–and my own has been irregular at best–my objective is to be one of the most in a specific category of a specific . As research, I’ll determine the podcast directory and category. I’ll also research what are already popular and see if there are any footprints to follow.

In the mean time, I’ll record a weekly . Next action: Mix my current podcast.

Of course, I will share any and all duplicatable patterns that I find along the way. Are you podcasting yet? Do you have any advice or any questions about how to create a popular podcast?

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4 Responses to Can Hit Songs Really Be Reduced To Science? I Mean, Really?

  1. MrD June 2, 2007 at 11:35 am #

    Please take some time to think about music and colour. What do you think, and do you use any keys and scales based on their different sounds?
    Would you be interested in finding out more with the theory that we listen to colours in music?
    Thanks
    MrD

  2. Graham English June 3, 2007 at 11:53 am #

    Using scales based on their different sounds is pretty obvious. If I want minor, I use minor. If I want major, I use major. Keys can be more subtle. But I don’t have any coherent theory. And I’ll transpose things around just see how it sounds different. But I try to play what I hear in my imagination first.

    When you say “colours,” are you referring to actual colors like blue and red or are you using the word as a metaphor?

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  1. The Graham English Blog » links for 2006-02-16 - February 16, 2006

    […] The Graham English Blog ร‚ยป Can hit songs really be reduced to science? I mean, really? If consensus in the field of chemistry comes from a group of chemistry experts. Where does the consensus for a hit song come from? (tags: hitsong podcasting podcast) If you found “links for 2006-02-16” helpful, please leave a donation for the author, or share it with others by bookmarking it at the following sites:                                     […]

  2. The Graham English Blog » New MusicHacks Series - February 21, 2006

    […] You gain much more insight when you view your information with tags. Why? Because it gives you a value-based visual representation of all your information plus it shows how many people have bookmarked the same information. It’s like getting a second opinion. Social proof. Because now you know what bookmarks are most popular and generally agreed upon. And when you know what tags you’ve used the most, you start to see trends in your very own values. Currently my number 1 tag is music and my second is eartraining < == that’s how you tag keyword phrases–mash the words together without spaces. […]