“I
work within a group that studies Music cognition in general - any way in which
the brain processes Music - and we were particularly interested in Music and
memory and why exactly it is that certain pieces of Music stay in your memory for
such a long time”
Computational Musicologist
from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, Dr. Ashley Burgoyne, who along
with fellow Musicologists designed the Hooked on Music Online game
Most
Musicians and Artiste wonder if the way they enjoy Music remains the same.
Based on the results of a 12,000 strong survey, Wannabe by Spice Girls is
still Top of the Pops, at least in our long-term memory based Top 10 Instantly
Recognizable songs in British Music History. Queue the song Wannabe by Spice Girls!
As
the trend towards Streaming accelerates worldwide thanks to the expansion of 4G
LTE (Long Term Evolution) Networks and cheaper Cloud Storage, both personal
Cloud and Cloud Streaming Service Providers as argued in my blog article
entitled “Nielsen
Stats record continued decline in Music Downloads - Developed World Streaming
will catch on in Developed World once we get 4G LTE”, it’s good to know
that some Music, no matter the Platform, is still instantly recognizable.
This
conclusion is based on an online Survey done by MOSI (Museum of Science and Industry)
with some 12,000 people whose survey results helped to create a list of the Top
10 Instantly Recognizable songs in British Music History thanks to their interactive
game Hooked on Music as reported
in the article “What
is the most instantly recognisable song?” published 01 Nov 2014 By Claire
Duffin9:10AM GMT, The UK Telegraph
and “Mosi
study finds out the catchiest tunes”, published 1 November 2014 at 7:00am, ITV News.
The
participants played a game in which they had to listen to a random clip from a
list of 1,000 best-selling songs on the UK Pop Charts from the 1940's to the
present day. Then these 12,000 guinea pigs then had to clink on a button to
indicate that they recognized the song as soon as began playing, with the time being
recorded and points awarded for quickly recognizing a song.
MOSI Survey reveals Top
10 Instantly Recognizable songs in British Music History
Given
the human tendency to click on things, it probably explains the large survey
size, which helps to eliminate any such tendencies among stray participants i.e.
outliers.
 |
Based
on the survey, they garnered the following results are the Top 10 Instantly Recognizable
songs in British Music History:
1.
Spice Girls - Wannabe
2.
Lou Bega - Mambo No 5
3.
Survivor - Eye Of The Tiger
4.
Lady Gaga - Just Dance
5.
ABBA - SOS
6.
Roy Orbison - Pretty Woman
7.
Michael Jackson - Beat It
8.
Whitney Houston - I Will Always Love You
9.
The Human League - Don't You Want Me
10.
Aerosmith - I Don't Want To Miss A Thing
Even
more interesting is the average times it took for persons to recognize a
randomly played song:
1.
Spice Girls – Wannabe - 2.29 s
2.
Lou Bega's Mambo No 5 - 2.48 s
3.
Survivor - Eye Of The Tiger - 2.62 s
4.
Rest of the songs in the list - 5 s
So,
basically, a song is seen as instantly recognizable and popular if you can
recognize it in less than 5 seconds, at least based on the average response
times of the 12,000 participants in this ground-breaking MOSI Survey!
Analysis of the MOSI
Survey – Difficult to pinpoint who was British but suggests Streaming is the
future
Not
sure what the demographic or age range of the participants were, or even if
they answered honestly about being British. Those 1,000 songs may have been
biased towards British Music, as opposed to a sampling of popular Music around
the world.
The
full results will be revealed at the Manchester Science Festival on Saturday
November 1st 2014 according to the article “Spice Girls'
Wannabe 'is catchiest hit single'”, published 1 November 2014 By Mark
Kinver, BBC News.
It
can be argued that the results may be different if they were Jamaican Reggae or
Dancehall Music songs, as persons could easily claim to be Jamaican but not
know Jamaican songs and just be randomly clicking at the instant they heard a
song. Also not sure how the random clips
were played i.e. played from the start of the song, the middle or the back.
Not
sure if they used the studio recording, live audience recording, acapella versions
or remix or even if was Audio or Video. Fidelity of the Music may also make a
difference, as if it’s HD Audio, it’ll sound a lot clearer and thus
recognizable, depending of course on the participant’s speakers and
headphones….if they used headphones that is!
Having
such a large sample size helps to eliminate such outliers albeit there is no
way to make sure any of the 12,000 participants are really who they say they
are.
Still
the main thing was that the Music was streamed to them, effectively making this
the first direct study of Music and how long a song remains popular or is even remembered
long after it has exited the Top Charts based on the comments of Computational Musicologist
from the University of Amsterdam, Netherlands, Dr. Ashley Burgoyne, quote: “You
may only hear something a couple of times yet 10 years later you immediately realize
that you have heard it before”.
This
study may not be of any interest to Music Executives for major labels, as the only
time the Music is of concern to Music Executives is when it poppin’ on the Charts
and thus making money and actively promoting their artiste.
But
long term outlook suggests that the longer an artiste song remains in the
psyche of Britons, the more it would affect future royalties and tour bookings.
This study might pave the way for explaining why some artiste do so well on
Tours and tour frequently and have more sold out gigs while other Artiste can
barely pack a house.
Surprisingly,
despite the difficulty in making sure you're really capturing British people
liking British Music because they like it and not because they claim to be
British on their online survey, it is a groundbreaking moment based on the
claim of Dr. Ashley Burgoyne, as very little research actually exists on the
long term retention of popular Music within the society, quote: “When we went
to look at this, you would have thought that it would have been studied to
death yet, in fact, it has not - there is very little scientific literature. There
are lots of ideas [about] why this is the case but very, very little empirical
research”.
R&B
Artiste Beyonce has such concerns, which is probably why she released her
self-titled album in December 2013 without any prior promotion and completely
on Apple iTunes as noted in my blog article
entitled “Beyonce's
latest album released entirely on Apple iTunes - Queen Bee's Cornucopia
Breaking Bad iTunes records via an efficient Music Delivery monetizing Music
Videos eye-Candy”, trying to ride out the last wave of downloading trend
before it evaporated.
Evaporate
it has, with the last download service, Apple iTunes, basically packing it in
by their parent company Apple, purchasing Beats Electronics because Streaming
is now the way to go, based on the Nielsen Stats for January to March 2014 as
noted in my blog
article entitled “Nielsen
Stats record continued decline in Music Downloads - Developed World Streaming
will catch on in Developed World once we get 4G LTE”.
For
me personally, a catchy song that I’ll remember is one that’s got words I can
listen to and reflects a mood I might be in. I hum it under my breath as I
walk, being as I’m a Generation X (ages 29 to 45) that likes to know Song
Lyrics as noted in my blog article
entitled “YouTube
and the Lyrics Videos Trend - How Lyrics Videos ride the Streaming Trend as
Musicians Cash in on Sing-Along Craze”.
For
me personally, knowing the lyrics of a song makes it stick in my memory longer!
Music Industry and
Streaming – Jamaica needs similar study on Top 10 Instantly Recognizable songs
Streaming
is essentially cherry-picking songs from an a
la carte basket worth some US$8.99 on average. I’m reflecting on this, as
I’ve begun to notice I can hardly find fresh new Music for downloading anymore
on torrenting sites meanwhile Streaming Platforms are popping up like Tulips in
the Summer.
Even
at the MICO College University,
they’ve has begun broadcasting on a Streaming Platform accessible via their
website Radio 1 Mico.
Slowly,
we too in Jamaica are marching towards Streaming, both Audio and Video, via our
smartphone, Tablets and other internet connected Devices by 2015 when 4G LTE is
expected to go live as noted in my blog article
entitled “CWC
invests US$250 million in LIME Jamaica - Mobile 4G LTE, Broadband, LIME TV and
FTTH Expansion will make LIME the Google of Jamaica” and “Digicel
completes Caribbean-wide Submarine Fiber Optic Acquisitions - 4G LTE launch of
Caribbean Streaming TV”.
Already
the largest Radio/Television Content Provider RJR
Communications Group has plans for their Streaming Platform TVJ Everywhere,
which hasn’t launched and already missing an October 2014 launch date as
predicted in my blog
article entitled “RJR
Communications Group Launching TVJ Everywhere - How Streaming TVJ Everywhere
will boost Advertising Revenue as Digicel and LIME TV coming”.
Telecom
Provider Digicel is already ahead
of the pack and may soon launch their Cloud-Based Cable TV services powered by
4G LTE and their Caribbean-wide submarine Cable Network next year in 2015 as
predicted in my blog
article entitled “Digicel
purchases SportsMax – Why No Games, Just Sports on Digicel's Streaming Cable TV
over Bigger, Better Network 4G LTE and FTTH”.
Already
our American friends have already made the plunge, with Cable Network Content
Provider CBS on Thursday October 16th 2014 becoming the first to
launch CBS All Access, a Streaming
Cable Service without a Cable subscription costing only US$5.99 per month as
announced in my blog
article entitled “CBS
All Access Live in US of A - How HBO Streaming by 2015 will beat Netflix as
Jamaican Local TV and Radio Stations unprepared for Digicel and LIME TV”.
Based
on these preliminary ground-breaking results from the MOSI study, Streaming Music
doesn’t change the way we enjoy or remember Music. It also suggests that a song
is seen as instantly recognizable and popular if you can recognize it in less
than 5 seconds.
I‘d
recommend that MOSI do a larger global study with some 1 million participants over
a year long period to gauge the Top 10 Instantly Recognizable songs in
different parts of the World as well as Globally, possibly with a sample size
of 1 million or higher!
A
similar study needs to be done here in Jamaica to determine our own set of Top
10 Instantly Recognizable songs in Jamaican Music History!
Here’s
the link:
No comments:
Post a Comment