Metal Reviews

The Science of Hit Songs

http://www.livescience.com/humanbiology ... songs.html

Apparently people like music just because other people like it. They neglect to mention it, but marketing probably creates the perception seed.

However, this can backfire, too.. people can hate music just because too many other people like it. A lot of metalheads are probably like that by definition..

I could have written that. Haha. My ex-girlfriend has told me so many time "That sucks!" only to all of a sudden like it down the road! :evil: I'm always like, "I played that for you, you douchebag! You said it sucks!" and she's always like, "You didn't play that for me!" Fuck that, yes I did. She's been doing that for 15 years, I kid you not. If I say it's good, she doesn't listen, if the radio says it's good, she's all over it. :evil:

And, of course, I've mentioned before all of my friends who begin to hate bands that get popular.

Yeah, I think we all know that already, but it's always nice to be reaffirmed I guess.

I can appreciate some of the motivations they mention, like wanting to have something in common with other people. I mean, it gets rough sometimes basically knowing a couple of people who like the same stuff you do. I know for a fact it motivates me to buy the odd CD my friends like just so there is something that brings us closer. Considering the fact there is a lot of good music out there, I don't see the harm in it.

Yep, being able to scientifically prove that someone else's opinion is invalid is always nice.

Id say this is very true. i cant stand trivium anymore just because i read metal hammer, and they constantly pimp trivium in that magazine. theres certainly an appeal in listening to music that no one knows about. it feels more personal that way.

I would choose the more downloaded songs first because if a lot of people liked them theres a better chance of them being good... If you gave me a list of 5 bands I'd never heard of and told me how many people liked them I probably wouldn't go straight for the underground one v.v

The only person I know who likes the same kind of music I do is my girlfriend 8)

It is right, to an extent like you guys said. This forum is a good example. I usually don't read the reviews of a band in a genre I don't like, like power metal, but if there's a 10 page discussion about that album I start reading it from the beginning and usually end up getting the album. It's the other way around for black metal, if everyone's talking about it I approach with caution.

This is one of the things I like about metal. If there's a metalhead in the room among 20 people that you don't know somehow you find the other one and start talking and you never run out of things to talk about. Metal talk is endless and I like sharing with the other people what I know.

I kinda get this. I've made efforts with stuff I normally wouldn't (all Metal, mind you) when my friends are all keen on it. Mainly to see what the fuss is about.

For a while I've found myself naturally disinclined to like something that gets pimped out relentlessly by "taste-defining" media sources. For example, if I read Metal Hammer and it's telling me how Dragonforce are going to single handedly revive Power Metal this year, it makes me immediately feel like I want to dislike Dragonforce. I try to overcome that instinct in order to listen without prejudice though...

I've said it once, I'll say it again: anyone that reads Metal Hammer deserves to have their eardrums cut out with a rusty screwdriver, before getting ritually disembowelled. Ok, I might not have said exactly that, but you get the gist.

Yeah I'm with this (Zad, I don't buy MetalHammer, one of my friends does, despite hating it as much as me). I'm slightly disturbed at the minor dislike for DragonForce that's gnawing at my insides lately.

I guess I'm the archetypal elitist, I mean how dare they steal my band away and break into little bits so everyone can have a piece. Kvlt power metal. :evil:

It's an addiction. What complete bollocks will they enshrine as the next Metallica this week? What are the latest doings of Welsh prettyboy crapfest Bullet For My Valentine? Funeral For A Friend's new single! ALRIGHT! ALRIGHT! I GIVE IN!

I don't buy it... It's one of the many things I read off the shelves in Borders. That period of my life is over...

You still read it, even though you don't buy it. I can imagine you, stumbling around town, determined not to go near a WH Smith, and suddenly - out of the corner of your eye - you see a small newsagent. You knock a small child to the ground in your mad dash to get inside, pushing a group of OAPs buying lottery tickets out of the way, scan the shelves frantically for it. YOU SEE IT!! Grabbing feverishly, you open to the first page, a double spread HMV advert for the new Korn album. Your reverie is only broken by the cheerless voice of the newsagent saying "Hey! No browsing!" What do you do? Buy it? No, that would be giving in to its black ways, there must be some means of owning it - you run out of the shop, a mad grin on your face. All the way home you sprint, magazine clasped firmly to your chest, ignoring the amazed stares of passers-by. They don't know what it's like, do they, no they don't. They haven't drunk deep of the dark depths, they live behind bars. But you - are free! The blindfold has been lifted from your eyes, you are Saul on the road to Damascus, you have been touched by The Good Lord Himself. You Read Metal Hammer, however much you try and deny it.

Do you have a Borders in Newcastle? They're amazing... Comfy chairs and unlimited browsing time. Sometimes even a live piano player in the background. So if I'm waiting for someone in the city centre I can just get a whole pile of magazines/newspapers (including stuff you don't see in standard newsagents- Morning Star for example ) and read it all. So once a month that includes Metal Hammer. I'm not ashamed to admit it. Sometimes I even read Kerrap! if there's nothing else to look at.

Such soft southern pouffy things are unheard of oop north. Sounds fun, though.

rio
Einherjar


Joined: 17 Sep 2004
Posts: 1648
Location: Leeds

Smackdown!

To a Geordie, everywhere below Middlesbrough is south. It's like living in Alabama, only in England. Less lynchings here, suprisingly.