2y ago

Machine Learning Unlocks the Secret to Hit Songs

nexlumina.com Machine Learning Unlocks the Secret to Hit Songs

Researchers harness neurophysiology and machine learning for 97% accuracy in predicting future chart-toppers.

Why it matters: A recent study at Claremont Graduate University has applied machine learning to neurophysiological data, identifying hit songs with an astonishing 97% accuracy.

Read the Research article.

Discussion on Hacker News.

9 comments

the sweet summer machine learning child is 35 years behind... https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Manual

This is very preliminary. The samples were songs that were already hits at the time of the study, with no way to account for contamination. It's highly plausible that the subjects had heard the "hit" songs before the study, and they were just measuring recognition.
Full paper is here: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frai.2023.1154663/full
- Surveys After each song, participants were asked to rank how much they liked the song (1 to 10), if they would replay the song (0, 1), recommend the song to their friends (0, 1), if they had heard it previously to assess familiarity (0, 1), and if they found the song offensive (0, 1). We also showed participants lyrics from the song and lyrics created by the researchers and asked them to identify the song lyrics to measure their memory of the song (0, 1).
  I still think your concern is legitimate.
  
  Memory is funny. Stuff can play in the background and become familiar without you being consciously aware of it.
  It would be possible to do this study without contamination by using completely unknown and newly-released songs as a dataset, and checking against future chart data regarding the popularity, or by examining the reaction of an isolated group of people without constant musical bombardment.

This has been solved already.
4 chord song...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5pidokakU4I
- "Prisencolinensinainciusol", but with vocal pitch-shifting applied for a modern twist.
  
  undefined> Prisencolinensinainciusol
  i dont know what that means... but sounds fancy!

I'm increasingly convinced that the pop music of the future will consist entirely of mediocre or terrible songs written by real people -- that the flaws and fuck-ups of lousy artists will suddenly seem like magic when compared to an endless stream of algorithmically generated, pristine computer bullshit.
- It seems likely to me that 'pop' music won't be created by people. As a result, people won't be made famous through music anymore, the cult of celebrity will move on to be more era-appropriate.
  I mean, this only happened in the first place because it was extremely profitable to sell lots of records/concert tickets. That doesn't seem to be the case now.
  So, if pop music has been manufactured to sell an image to impressionable people, there's little incentive to do that these days. It's surely more lucrative to fund an influencer than a 'musician'.

9 comments