#781112 - 01/11/04 09:57 AM
Hit Song Science Making a hit in the 21st Century
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Beatnik
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Hit Song Science
When Norah Jones released her first album, she was a long shot at best. "Come Away With Me" was filled with mellow, sultry tunes -- precisely the opposite of the histrionic diva pop crowding the charts. Virtually no one expected Jones to score a major hit.
No one, that is, except for a piece of artificial intelligence called Hit Song Science, a program that tries to determine, with mathematical precision, whether a song is going to be a Top 40 hit. When the scientists fed Jones's album into that computer, alarm bells went off: the program predicted that eight tracks would hit the charts. "We were like, whoa, that's funky," says Mike McCready, the C.E.O. of Polyphonic HMI, the Barcelona-based company that developed the software application. A few months later, Jones's album went multiplatinum -- and Hit Song Science had proved it could pick a hit as well as Clive Davis.
But how? At the heart of the program is a "clustering" algorithm that locates acoustic similarities between songs, like common bits of rhythm, harmonies, or keys. The software takes a new tune and compares it with the mathematical signatures of the last 30 years of Top 40 hits. The closer a song is to a "hit cluster", the more likely -- in theory -- that the kids won't be able to resist it. Yet the weird thing is, songs that are mathematically similar don't neccessarily sound the same. The scientists found that U2 is similar to Beethhoven, and that Van Halen shares qualities with the piano rock of Vanessa Carlton. Even more bizarrely, 50 Cent's throbbing rap tune "If I Can't" correlates with "(There's) No Gettin' Over Me", a twangy country ditty by Ronnie Milsap.
This year, several record companies began using Hit Song Science to help pick which songs on an album to promote. Others are now using it in the studio, taking a rough mix of a new song, checking to see how hit-worthy it is, then tweaking it until it has "good mathematics", as McCready puts it. He can forsee a day when most major hits will have been vetted by algorithms.
Which is, depending on how you look at it, either a wonderful breakthrough for science or an incredibly bleak statement about the music industry. Critics for years have complained that record labels produce only bland albums that mimic what's already popular. But Hit Song Science takes that trend to its logical absurdity: it does not merely aim at the middle of the road -- it calculates it, with scientific precision.
-- Clive Thompson, nytimes magazine
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#781113 - 01/12/04 03:13 PM
Re: Hit Song Science Making a hit in the 21st Century
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Doc Taz
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Registered: 04/02/02
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Hey, anyone got the source code and/or hardware details for this? I'd like to permanently destroy all the units, except one, which would be sent to the Smithsonian, just to show folks what this is all about. 
I bet the guys at Hit Song Science have signed non disclosure agreements (NDA's) with the RIAA and Clear Channel... :rolleyes:
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#781115 - 01/15/04 12:27 PM
Re: Hit Song Science Making a hit in the 21st Century
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Ouizel
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Registered: 07/22/03
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Hmmm. That's frightening. But, I suppose I can see where it would be possible. Everything is mathematical.
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Ya gotta watch da Ouizel, as he often posts complete and utter BS. In this case however, He just might be right. -Clay (Chillybug)
Eagles may soar, but Ouizels don't get sucked into jet engines.
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#781116 - 01/18/04 02:31 PM
Re: Hit Song Science Making a hit in the 21st Century
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RockUFOrever
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Registered: 01/18/04
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Loc: Arlington,Tx
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Using a machine or software to decide if a tune is a hit is outrageos.Write the song,record the song and hopefully you and some others can promote it and you may get it one the radio.
Not that the radio people really care about too many bands anyway unless you pay them to play your tunes in some form or another.
Checkout the New Y&T CD "UnEarthed Vol 1" cd at http://www.meniketti.com.This CD is getting no airplay and is selling pretty good since the band has no Label behind them.Which is sad in itself.
Dave Meniketti is one of the Most Primier Guitar players and vocalist in the business.Don't take my word for it,go get the CD abd it will prove it to you.Let the Music do the Talking!!!
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#781117 - 01/24/04 04:57 AM
Re: Hit Song Science Making a hit in the 21st Century
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Mike Dawson
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That's just plain silly.
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