The next song to kick Katy Perry off the top?
Ryan has this theory that humans are conditioned to like Top 40 hits because new songs build off of previous songs that were successful and played repeatedly. While I argue that "good music" follows a certain set of correlations and formulas proven by music theory (just as "good design" is proportionally correct — abiding by the golden ratio, rule of thirds), Ryan may be more correct:
"The question is whether the rules are hard-wired into the auditory system or learned through experience of listening to music and recording, unconsciously, which notes tend to follow others," Pearce says of the goal behind the study, AlphaGalileo reports. The team used two computer models to test their ideas. One of them was based on hardwired rules, whereas the other was based on statistical predictions. The former therefore relied on the assumption that the knowledge was hardwired into the human brain, whereas the second was testing to see whether experience in various types of music played the most important part in hinting at a natural succession of notes.
The statistical model was discovered to predict the responses of 40 test participants better than the hardwired model, which would seem to indicate that people base their reactions on previous musical experiences, the team says. "It is thought that composers deliberately confirm and violate listeners' expectations in order to communicate emotion and aesthetic meaning," Pearce says. (source)
It makes sense then, why "California Gurls" and "Tik Tok" are pretty much the same song and both Top 10 hits. (Both were also produced by Dr. Luke and Benny Blanco.)
The next new song to hit the charts? "Just The Way You Are" by Bruno Mars:
Why? Because Ryan thinks it sounds like a mash-up between "Billionaire" and "Cooler Than Me" while I think the the part that goes 'cuz you're amazing, 'mazing... sounds just like Bieber's baby, baby...
So do I think this song is SO FREAKING GOOD because it recalls past songs or it's simply "mathematically correct"? If both, we are pretty much manipulated to like what we like...
Addendum
Thanks, Chris, for sending this to me:
and this is why you can pretty much accompany almost any song with only a few chords :P
