MANILA, Philippines – The science of having number one hits in the music charts is finally out. Singers better be ready to read this.
A study conducted by the University of Southern California found out that there is an association between the number of instruments used in a song and its potential for claiming the number one spot in the music charts. It was revealed on their study that songs that do not follow the usual instrumentation have the best chance of becoming number one.
According to Joseph Nunes, professor of marketing at the university's Marshall School of Business, "the average song has three to five instruments, but songs that feature a surprisingly low or high number of instruments—at specific points in time—tended to stand out."
The study involved analyzing 2,480 songs between 1958 and 2012 - 1,029 of which are number one songs on the Billboard’s Hot 100 and the remaining are songs that never went above number 90. The researchers compared the instruments and vocals used by those that claimed the number one spot and those that did not make it above 90.
The researchers found two combinations of core instruments and vocals most often present in number one hit songs:
• background vocals, synthesizer and clean guitar
• background vocals, synthesizer and distorted electric guitar
The core instruments that identified songs that were unable to move above number 90 fell into one of three combinations of core instruments:
• acoustic guitar, acoustic piano and no strings
• clean guitar and acoustic piano
• bass guitar, synthesizer and no electric piano
Moreover, it was also found that a common thread among all those which topped the chart is that all the songs featured back-up vocals, while those at the bottom of the charts did not.