Pop Music and Shite
Occasionally, scientists will establish a fact or make an observation that most people - with half a brain in their head - have already considered as true. Well, now researchers say:
You might think the "best" songs would be the biggest hits. But the fickle tastes of music listeners continue to defy expert predictions--or objective measures of quality. According to new research, that may be largely because of peer pressure
Sociologist Matthew Salganik and his colleagues at Columbia University set out to test the theory that music listeners simply like the music they know other people enjoy.
Wow. No shit, eh? Are you saying people exhibit a heard mentality? One only had to look at JJJ's Hottest 100 to see that. But I dare say this phenomena is not restricted to music tastes alone. Just look at the highest grossing films of all time. And people do the exact same thing with celebrities. I could never work out the 'Drew Barrymore' phenomena in the late 90's. She's orright but nothing special.
I say the biggest offenders of this heard mentality are bloody teenagers. And that, among other things, is why I hate 'em so.
You might think the "best" songs would be the biggest hits. But the fickle tastes of music listeners continue to defy expert predictions--or objective measures of quality. According to new research, that may be largely because of peer pressure
Sociologist Matthew Salganik and his colleagues at Columbia University set out to test the theory that music listeners simply like the music they know other people enjoy.
Wow. No shit, eh? Are you saying people exhibit a heard mentality? One only had to look at JJJ's Hottest 100 to see that. But I dare say this phenomena is not restricted to music tastes alone. Just look at the highest grossing films of all time. And people do the exact same thing with celebrities. I could never work out the 'Drew Barrymore' phenomena in the late 90's. She's orright but nothing special.
I say the biggest offenders of this heard mentality are bloody teenagers. And that, among other things, is why I hate 'em so.
posted by Engels at 8:11 pm
4 Comments:
Personally, I could never figure out the hype surrounding Leonardo DiCaprio post-Titanic...Maybe I'd have appreciated him more if I had a thing for scrawny boys with floppy dos.
Get on up, when you're down baby, take a look around...
Not just pop music or movies, mate, it's also religion, political ideologies (think of all the braindead teenagers who wear Che T-shirts) and much, much more.
Janbo: Nor did I.
Anonymous/Luke: I hate you. But that wasn't really peer pressure per se.
Aidan: There's only a few people I know who've actually read up on Che the pinko.
Post a Comment
<< Home