[zippy5]

I think it’s worth noting that popularity isn’t always deterministic or meritocratic.

I once read about an experiment where users would listen to music and and the platform counted the number of listens and showed users. When the experiment was rerun, a different set of songs from the first experiment were popular. I believe I read this in Invisible Influence by Jonah Berger.

The point is that most content platforms select for content that is sufficiently good (or clickable) but not necessarily the best.

[wmf]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Information_cascade

[ghaff]

>most content platforms select for content that is sufficiently good (or clickable) but not necessarily the best

Best is in the eye of the beholder anyway. But, truth be told, as long as an algorithm is reasonably dialed into my genre preferences... (There are some genres I just don't like even if you show me the very cream of the crop. And there are less popular ones that I'll probably enjoy even Tier 2 performers well enough.) I'll be pretty well satisfied with the overall most popular songs in those genres. Will it hit all my favorites. No. But it wouldn't be a bad cut.