- Stephen Merritt
I heard about Hit Song Science on 102.1 The Edge. Their use of technology to analyze a song for "hit song" potential is interesting yet disturbing. The following excerpt from the Hit Song Science web site describes how their technology works:
"We use artificial intelligence applications as well as other methods to analyze the underlying mathematical patterns in music. Our technology does something called spectral deconvolution which is a fancy way of saying that we can isolate and separate many musical events that occur in a song. Some of these event are patterns in melody, harmony, chord progression, brilliance, fullness of sound, beat, tempo, rhythm, octave, and pitch. We then compare the patterns in new music (yours for example) to patterns in recent chart hits. By doing this combined with other mathematical calculations we've been able to develop a highly accurate and scientific tool..."
102.1 The Edge had said that the Hit Song Science service has been utilized by several record companies to analyze new songs for "hit" potential. This whole thing reminds me of that scene in the movie Josie and The Pussycats when a covert operation is revealed to have geared and shaped the tastes of popular youth culture. After reading some things on the Hit Song Science web site, I'm still undecided whether I should be offended or intrigued with the technology. But at the moment, I'm hoping musicians/songwriters continue to write from the heart without having to resort to a computer to tell them that it's a good song.
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other news and links
- The Shins appear on Late Show With David Letterman on January 13, 2004.
- Click here for a couple of live Shins' concerts in mp3 format. [good luck with the download speed]
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