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Subscribe to RSSThe adolescent brain might not be such a teenage wasteland after all.
Recent research suggests that the activity in teen brains may have some Nostradamus-like qualities when it comes to predicting the hits or misses of popular music.
In a small study, scientists recruited 27 adolescents, ages 12 to 17. They asked each kid to listen to 60 15-second clips of songs from largely unknown artists found on MySpace. The clip included either the hook or chorus of each song, and volunteers only listened to tunes from their three favorite musical categories, which ranged from country, rock and indie to hip-hop, blues and metal.
Researchers recorded the teens' reactions to each song using brain-imaging scans, and they also asked participants to rate how much they liked the music on a scale of one to five stars. By using unfamiliar musicians and vocals, scientists hoped to get a raw response, as if teens were hearing the track for the first time.
For three years after the scanning took place, the scientists gathered data on each song's sales figures to see which ones were fan faves or flops.
Although the teens' tastes in music from their likability ratings showed no link to a song's commercial success, their brain scans told another story: Activity in the ventral striatum -- the brain's reward region -- was predictive of future sales figures and popularity.
"We found that when an area of the brain associated with reward and anticipation was active while listening to the song, chances were greater that the song would eventually go on to sell more than 20,000 units," says Gregory Berns, MD, PhD, a neuroeconomist and director of Emory University's Center for Neuropolicy.
While the teens brains displayed a modest knack for picking out songs that would sell at least 20,000 units -- about one-third of the brain images could predict this -- they were even more accurate at identifying failures: Nearly 90 percent of the songs that showed a weak response in the brain's reward region had tepid sales.
Most of the study songs were duds with dismal sales, but three were industry hits (500,000 units sold) including "Apologize" by OneRepublic and two country cuts, "Don't Laugh at Me" by Mark Wills and "Drink, Swear, Steal, and Lie" by Michael Peterson. But none of these tunes were in the teens' top 10 in eliciting brain activation so they weren't exactly hit-predicting machines.
"The fact that there was any predictive power at all was surprising," says Berns, the study's lead author. "There are so many songs released each year and so few hits, that the odds were stacked against us."
The study appears in the Journal of Consumer Psychology.
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Dick Clark had it right on "American Bandstand"." I give it a 65. I can't dance to it!"
Holy Cow. Besides suing everybody and their mothers for 1,500,000,000 billion dollars for one swiped Bieber song, soon record companies will have artists submit their songs through batches of teens wired to machines to see if their wares will sell and we'll only listen any crap that's cool with them.
Yep your right the majority of these "Pop Tarts" have baby brains. Nothing works between their ears, everything between other things work.
Ah...I love it when people who don't know the difference between "your" and "you're" post to call someone else stupid.
It's a natural human reaction to favor certain beats per minute (harmonic body frequencies). It's not their ability to predict, it's their predetermined reaction to the music itself. This is what makes a hit song a "hit". Most pop songs rely on the same tempo simply because they already know this, this is how they make hit songs. It's natural rhythm. Think about it. Do you a favor a song that has perfect rhythm that you can move to or do you prefer the more abstract, less "structured" music? Again, natural human reaction.
Umm, exactly! This story is dumb. They didnt predict anything, except that others would like the same songs that they're brain likes. Hense the phrase "pop-music" or popular music.
I agree. It is like saying seals like fish, rats like peanut butter etc. Nothing new here.
RealityX7, they did a study that shows that if you can compress a song well using a loss-less codec, it will most likely be a hit too. I'd choose the codec over the teenager any day, teenagers are too angsty.
that's not insulting at all..."adolescent brains may not be such a waste land after all" ...thanks for the credit.
It's no prediction if the control group is comprised out of the same group making said criteria of being a "pop" hit.
too bad they can't use their brains for school
My thoughts exactly!
Is it really better to let adults decide? Back in 1964 adults were saying that my favorite band just made noise and all four of them were in desparate need of a haircut.
I believe the term in play here would be "self-fulfilling prophesy." Who buys the music? Teens. Despite all the scientific controls to account for individual taste, etc., you're basically testing the population who will be buying these tracks onto the charts.
Who even thinks up this crap?
Miker, this is just amazing. You are spot on.
So let me see here---a teen can tell what a teen is going to like. Do I have this figured out or am I way off the mark on this one?
lol i was hoping someone would flame this stupid article. it doesnt take nostradamus to realize that pop songs that teenagers like to listen to will probably be hits.
Crappy minds like crappy music.
Wait a minute, wait a minute. This study is just ridiculous.
Teen brains don't predict crap. They 'want' en masse, thus they drive the popularity and price and demand up of crap. Teens, as a group, are the number one purchasing power behind music and video products.
That's why the songs become pop hits. The more the songs are bought, the more popular they become.
Like this is something needing to be studied. Duh...!
I'm with you, the article has it wrong. Just because more people like a certain song since they think alike, it shouldn't mean the song is any good
Amen to this comment. This study was a total waste of time and money. Wonder who paid for it???
@what_the_81 - while it's true that different people have different tastes.. marketing alone does not drive sales. Where there's smoke, there's fire and whether you like it or not, consensus says song titles that get the most purchases or that are enjoyed by the most people are considered "good" pop music.
How is this even a question?
@ step up: most likely the government. no partisan implied, just that govt. likes to waste money on studies in general.
So they hear part of a song and like it, so they say it will be popular. How is that a prediction? That song is being released to the teen audience, so naturally if a few teens liked it, many others will. A prediction would be if you told them the title and they were able to tell you which would be a hit.
Please tell me this article was supposed to be released on April 1st...it's the only way it makes sense...and even then...
Rebecca Black's "Friday" peaked at around 36 on iTunes. Does that make it good? Heck no, just unjustifiably popular. All too often, "popular" ≠ "good," and it's just too bad that so few people - 'tweens, teens AND adults - can't seen to understand that these two words don't meant the same thing.
Sure, there's music that I loved in high school (mid-80's) that makes me cringe now, but the introduction of "tween" music" has helped more god-awful pop music become popular than the 80's EVER heard!
ugh I HATE that song! Rebecca Black should be at the bottom of the $.99 cent bin where she belongs! But if tweens and teens like it, then it rises to a "chart topper", of course.
I don't know if this is a problem with the study or with this article's interpretation of it, but this is completely backwards.
Their brains don't have the ability to predict a song's success; the fact that the songs' targeted demographic enjoys the music is an indicator that the music could be successful if shared with a larger number of people... Who agrees to publish this crap?
was wondering the same thing. pop music is for teens and adolescents, obviously if teens and adolescents like it, then teens and adolescents would like it. Probably some PhD student mailing in his thesis after he realizes hes wasted half his life.
Not news.
In the mid-70's I heard "It's Magic" by Pilot. I knew it would climb the charts the minute I heard it. That was their only hit.
I still think it's a great song, even if no one else does today.
I can't believe good money was spent to do a study on this subject! Who the Hell cares? I didn't even read the article - just had to comment!
Tween Wave all sounds like s**t to me.
When are we goig to get out of Afghanistan and Iraq?
Oh yeah, I forgot, nobody cares.
This is much more important.
Teen brains PICK ... pop hit songs for eff's sake. Talk about a confounding variable.
waste of an article..
of course ANYONE can tell you if a song is a hit.. in other words.. anyone can tell you if the song is good or not.. especially if you're sampling from unknowns on myspace.. it's not hard to cherrypick the good from the horrid
I'm so glad to see a concensus of opinion over how useless this study was. Sounds like someone just wants to promote teens as the know-all, be-all in the selection of the music the study wants bought.
Sooo songs that are enjoyable to listen to become hits more often that songs that aren't as enjoyable... what a breakthrough.
The fact that most teens go through life in a comatose state, that their parents never expect anything of them, or that they are perpetually hooked into the machine, and therefore tune something in that is just as dumb as they are is no surprise to me.
Maybe when they have to live a life, pay bills, and raise their own dumb children, they will come to understand that life isn't all about rockin' out, partying, and only doing what they want to do, without throwing a tantrum.
yeah sure but can they do math or clean their rooms?