What Makes Music Popular?
After listening to Chappell Roan’s “Hot to Go!” at my High School robotics team’s first fall offseason event in Falmouth, MA, I simply thought, “What is this song?”. I ended up reading the song’s Wikipedia article saying it was similar to “Y.M.C.A.” by Village People. That made me think, “Is ‘Hot to Go!’ the new ‘Y.M.C.A.’ since people dance to it in a very similar fashion?” Then I heard it again at a second fall offseason event in Billerica (which the team won), which really got me thinking. After looking into it further, I felt it was more justified to ask the broader question of, “What makes music popular?”.
To investigate this properly, research must be conducted first. According to the Vox article “The scientific mystery of why humans love music” by Brian Resnick, “Typically, our brains release dopamine during behavior that’s essential to survival” (Resnick, 2016). Resnick states in his article, “Music is a pattern. As we listen, we’re constantly anticipating what melodies, harmonies, and rhythms may come next” (Resnick, 2016). People like patterns, and when we like something, our brains release dopamine, which is a way to reward ourselves.
That may explain it from a psychological perspective, but why music specifically, and why to so many? Well, according to Shahram Heshmat’s article “5 Reasons Why We Listen to Music” written for Psychology Today, he also lists mood regulation stating, “Music provides a means of escape. Music distracts our minds from the outside world” (Heshmat, 2021). Lawrence Jones states in his article of Medium “People’s Desire to Escape Reality” that, “The impulse to avoid reality is a natural and understandable inclination” (Jones, 2023). In short, music is so popular since it is escapism and a way to feel pleasure.
