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Measuring the social effect of popularity

A Columbia University study which had 14,000 teenagers pick what songs would be popular showed that the "best" and "worst" songs aren't necessarily the "most" and "least" popular. Anyone who listens to pop music these days will not be surprised. The researchers concluded that there is a strong social effect on music (and other media) popularity. People talking about, writing about, or playing media will make it more popular. So we look to DJs, our friends, and critics for advice on what should be popular. Now we have confirmation that there are opinion leaders. Shall we measure the impact of those opinion leaders? And how one becomes one? I think those are important questions of how new ideas spread.

posted by Dana Bostrom @ 07:34