this post was submitted on 25 Jun 2026
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Kind of a bourgeois question but whatever. People do actually listen to these radio stations. They will actively seek out radio stations that really do just play the same five or ten rock hits from the seventies, maybe mixed with some modern garbage. Why do they do this? What is going through their minds on the conscious and unconscious levels?

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[–] infuziSporg@hexbear.net 1 points 14 hours ago

Each of these well-known bands wrote more than their greatest hits. Any artist will make scores if not hundreds of songs, and they'll be lucky to have as much as 3 make it high on the charts. The other songs are rarely outclassed, they're just not picked. When you say "I've loved Lady Gaga for 16 years", I presume you aren't just talking about her 5 biggest hits.

What we have going on is a familiarity/conformity process shaping what gets played. It translates the subjectivity of what is good music into a positive feedback loop of popularity. Most people end up not listening to all that much besides what is selected for by these stations.

In my experience, if you hear a song frequently enough, you get bored of it and it diminishes how much you like it (the exception is if you're practicing singing/playing it as a musician).