What makes a song famous?
This thread is just to go a bit deeper in what actually makes a song famous. Answers such as "Songs get famous because they are good" are way too simple answers.

Do songs get famous because of their originality or simply because a famous artist made them? I guess it's a bit of both.

Q1: Would an extremely well made and original song get famous if it was created by an unkown artist?

Q2: Can kind of bad songs get famous if the artist just is good on spreading them?




What makes a song good?
First of all. What is the definition of the word "good"?
If you search for "define: good" on google something like this will be the result:

Q1: What makes music good?
One thing that makes music good is the switch between different notes. Some notes doesn't fit after other notes etc. So there comes another question.

Q2: What makes some notes fit after others?
Is this something that is in our brain when we get born, or do we get so used to common music so we think that the notes after each other used in them are the ones that sound good?

Q3: How much is music taste affected by family and friends?
My opinion is that it is totally affected by family and friends in most cases.

Personally, I do not really have a special music taste. I like most kinds of music as long as they are well done.

Most people believe that it isn't about how well they sing;it is about how good they look.

I am not one of those people, I believe that the voice of the vocalist/singer whatever you would like to call him/her makes a song good, but not only that, the music in the background should also be considered to make a song sound well performed and melodious, but some people do not like songs that are melodious, sometimes they like loud music, an example is rock, also, it depends on what kind of genre the song is.

I think band's get famous because they have a good vocalist, great melody, and chorus. If the person is already famous then that helps too. Bad song's cannot spread on even if the artist is good at promoting them. If the music doesn't make you feel something, its not worth listening to.

This goes in Music Chat. How could you have not noticed that?

I think it is about how it appeals to the listener's taste for music. Then, it usually becomes famous because a large group of people feel it's appealing and start to buy it.

For example: Say 15 of 20 likes Hip-Hop
Then about 15 million of 20 million likes hip-hop.
Then there is a hip-hop song that came out.
Which means probably an estimate of 10-15million + will buy that song because it appeals to their music tastes.

@tarektarek Oh yeah, I forgot the point of appearance. Music videos can be very appealing for some people. I usually don't judge on appearance/music video but I have to say that if someone looks really ugly and you got a bad first impression of them, it seems as they sound worse than they do.

In some cases people that look like they just came out of the trash can can sing extremely good though. When that happens, it sounds like they sing awesome though.

You made me get a new question with the last thing you wrote.
*What makes music with no melody sound good?

@52x32x52x1 I want you to avoid answers like this because you actually didn't answer the question. What is "good"? Explain more.

@RedDevil Totally forgot about music chat. Probably because I never lurk there. My bad.

@TehCaek Try to explain more about what gives people their music tastes.

Q1: Would an extremely well made and original song get famous if it was created by an unkown artist?

What do you consider "well made" and "original" to be? Give me an example. Because there is no such thing as "well made" art. Taste is subjective, and art is ALL about taste.

Q2: Can kind of bad songs get famous if the artist just is good on spreading them?

"Bad" songs? Again, personal taste is subjective.

Q1: What makes music good?

As any type of art, its ability to make you feel anything, to communicate with you. Art in general focuses on establishing a link with the people who sense it. Then again, this question is poorly made, you could be a bit more specific.

Q2: What makes some notes fit after others?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melody

+

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harmony

=

Musical composition.
Like everything we created, our musical system is a convention.
Again, in my opinion, a poorly asked question.

Q3: How much is music taste affected by family and friends?

Depends on whether you're easily influenced or not.

P.S.: The point I'm getting at is as follows: THIS IS ALL DUE TO PERSONAL APPRECIATION OF AN ARTISTIC PIECE (TASTE), AND YOU CAN'T GET PROPER ANSWERS TO THESE QUESTIONS WITHOUT SPECULATING LIKE A MANIAC. THE ANSWERS ARE TOO GENERAL TO BE CONSIDERED WORTHY.

@RedDevil You are totally right in one way and I felt that you kind of owned me there. However, with Q1 I mean more like: "Would people think that a song would be much better if it was made by a famous artist than if it was made by an unknown artist."

I will take a look at the wikipedia links you posted.

Answer to your "P.S": There are many questions that need to be answered by personal opinions. That makes discussion, right?

Theres a huge misunderstanding of what makes a song famous here. People are essentially herd animals are extremely impressionable.

Songs become famous because they are marketed, and it has nothing to do with the quality of the song.

I cant answer what makes music good, as it's a personal thing. I can tell you how good music affects me. Generally there is some form of development or repetition.

What makes notes fit after others?
Convention, particularly regarding their relativity to the tonal centre of the piece/section. If a note is within a chord, or a mode that applies to a chord it generally fits quite well. Generally speaking, leading tones (7ths) resolve to the one, and subdominants (4ths) resolve to dominants (5th) if suspended, otherwise they can also resolve to the tonic (1)

Typical progressions for melody (in terms of resolution) are embellishments on 2-1, 3-2-1, 4-5-1, 5-1 (from above or below), 6-5-1 (from below), 7-1 (from below).

When you venture into jazz you get some things in reverse since its around the cycle of 4ths rather than fifths, so 2-5-1 etc. 7-1, etc still apply of course.

A lot of it had to do with what we are conditioned to hear and basic concepts of euphony. In the baroque period, interrupted cadences were rarely used by Bach and were considered cacophonic, however they became very popular and were considered euphonic in the romantic eta. I'd rather not get into the physics about why some things are euphonic and are not. A simple not way of looking at it is that perfect fifths etc are more present in nature (apparently) and seem more "natural".

Q3: How much is music taste affected by family and friends?
Varies from person to person. My music taste is generally influenced by my own curiosity, ear and my education. Other people just listen to stuff because their friends do. That's fine


etc.

m0o's right here. It's all marketing. A little bit of personal taste gets factored in, but on a large scale, people eat what they are fed.