What makes a song become a popular hit? Do you think hit songs are popular because they are great songs? If so, you need to think again. Researchers say that hit songs become popular because listeners care about what other people think. For most listeners, the quality of the song is not as important. A recent online study looked at how we choose our music. It showed that a songs popularity influences our choices. In other words, we like to listen to the music that our peers enjoy. In the study, researchers gave a list of 48 unknown songs to 14000 teenagers. The students listened to some of the songs and rated them. Participants gave one star to the songs that they didnt like. They gave five stars to songs that they like very much. The researchers divided the participants into two groups. The first group saw only the song title and the name of the band. They rated songs because the name of the song or the name of the band looked interesting. After listening to the song, participants rated it with stars. The second group of teenagers received extra information. This group could also see the number of downloads for each song. The songs with many downloads looked like they were very popular. The teenagers thought that these songs were favorites with their peers. However, the researchers made up the number of downloads for each song. The songs showing the most downloads werent really popular. In fact, these songs werent very good, according to music experts.Participants in the second group usually gave the most stars to the songs with the most downloads. They thought these songs were popular with their peers. They were not interested in the quality of the song. They just wanted to listen to the songs that their peers liked. So why did participants give the most stars to the songs that seemed popular? of the authors of the study, Matthew Salganik, a researcher at Columbia University in New York, says People are faced with too many options, in this case 48 songs. Since you cant listen to all of them, a natural shortcut is to listen to what others are listening to. I think thats what happens in the real world. Salganik also says that people want to know what others are listening to. He says that people enjoy discussing and sharing music and books with their friends. So it isnt necessary for a popular book or song to be of good quality. It is only necessary that some people enjoy it. Then these people influence their friends. And soon, the popularity of a song or boo spreads. Perhaps it will even become a big hit. Today the Internet lets people share their opinions about movies, books, and music almost instantly. People write about music or on social networking sites, post comments on the Web, or read readers reviews. On the Internet, a person can easily see how many people bought a book or downloaded a song. Perhaps this information has more influence on our choices than we think. 1. Are all famous songs great? ............................................................................................................ 2. In the study, what did students do to rate the song they listened to? ............................................................................................................ 3. What kind of information was provided for the second group? ............................................................................................................ 4. What do we tend to do when we have too many options? ............................................................................................................ 5. According to Salganik, who is most likely to be influenced by us when choosing music to listen? ............................................................................................................