Are Atypical Things More Popular?

Why do some cultural items become popular? Although some researchers have argued that success is random, we suggest that how similar items are to each other plays an important role. Using natural language processing of thousands of songs, we examined the relationship between lyrical differentiation...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Psychological science Vol. 29; no. 7; pp. 1178 - 1184
Main Authors:	Berger, Jonah, Packard, Grant
Format:	Journal Article
Language:	English
Published:	Los Angeles, CA SAGE Publications 01-07-2018 SAGE PUBLICATIONS, INC
Subjects:	Dance Differentiation Lyrics Popularity Songs psychological foundations of culture cultural success music natural language processing popularity
Online Access:	Get full text
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Summary:	Why do some cultural items become popular? Although some researchers have argued that success is random, we suggest that how similar items are to each other plays an important role. Using natural language processing of thousands of songs, we examined the relationship between lyrical differentiation (i.e., atypicality) and song popularity. Results indicated that the more different a song’s lyrics are from its genre, the more popular it becomes. This relationship is weaker in genres where lyrics matter less (e.g., dance) or where differentiation matters less (e.g., pop) and occurs for lyrical topics but not style. The results shed light on cultural dynamics, why things become popular, and the psychological foundations of culture more broadly.
Bibliography:	ObjectType-Article-1 SourceType-Scholarly Journals-1 ObjectType-Feature-2 content type line 23
ISSN:	0956-7976 1467-9280
DOI:	10.1177/0956797618759465