MOSI Survey reveals Top 10 Instantly Recognizable Songs in British Music History - Why Jamaica needs similar study on Reggae and Dancehall as Streaming is the Future

“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 1^st 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 16^th 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:

Hooked on Music