What Makes Some Songs Popular?
It can be difficult to tell precisely why some songs are more popular than others, particularly from a surface glance. However, when examined more closely we can begin to unravel the reasons why certain songs are indeed more popular than others. To understand this, there are a few critical points for us to observe.
Firstly, humans, by nature, seek patterns. We like patterns and breaking the world into pieces that make sense to us. We seek out these patterns just like we envision shapes in the randomness of clouds, so too do we gravitate toward sound patterns.
Another reason a song can grow in popularity is known as the mere exposure effect. The more we are exposed to something, the more we will like whatever it is we are exposed to. Advertisers know this well. If you see a commercial endorsing a product, and you see that product in the store you are more likely to pick that product up as opposed to other products like it.
Repetition is also a contributing factor to why songs may be popular. Sure the more we hear a song the more familiar we become with the song (and as a result we may like it more) however even within the song itself the repetition of lines, choruses, melodies, and beats, may offer musical cues, making the song more enticing and easier to interact with as a result. As Alex Ebert once said “Popular music usually has a chorus that needs to repeat, and people need to remember the song. That’s sort of the major guideline when you’re writing a song”.
Different people gravitate to their preferred type of music for a variety of reasons. If you are creating music, create something you like above trying to be popular. If you force your work into a box, you may stifle your creativity.