A study conducted by the University of London has determined that "Smells Like Teen Spirit" by Nirvana is the most popular song in music. The pioneering track that ultimately defined the grunge movement of the 90s made it to the head of a list of the top 50 songs compiled by a team of researchers from Goldsmiths at the University of London, headed by computer scientist Dr. Mick Grierson, who is also a musician.
According to SPIN, to find the most popular song known in music Dr. Grierson analyzed tracks that had appeared in several "all-time best-of" lists from popular magazines such as NME and Rolling Stone. Being an astute computer scientist, he ran tests through software in order to analyze their difference variables for popularity comparison.
Dr. Grierson told the Daily Mail, "We looked at a range of measures for each song and compared them to see if there were similarities in these recordings which occur less in other songs. We found the most significant thing these songs have in common is that most of them use sound in a very varied, dynamic way when compared to other records. This makes the sound of the record exciting, holding the listeners attention. By the same token, the songs these songs use and the way they are combined is highly unique in each case."
He further said on the matter, "Ultimately, there is no 'formula' for this, other than to make your song sound as different, diverse and exciting as possible," a scientific way of saying that there is no one formula for the charisma of an artist, which fallen musical hero Kurt Cobain had in spades.
"One" by U2, "Billie Jean" by Michael Jackson and "Bohemian Rhapsody" by Queen all made the top five and ironically enough "Imagine" by John Lennon took second place to "Smells Like Teen Spirit." It is widely known that Lennon and The Beatles were one of the Nirvana founder's original inspirations.
Of course, being so popular puts you in the crosshairs for parody as well. Weird Al Yankovich created "Smells Like Nirvana" in parody of Cobain's singing style. However, Cobain was far from upset, he was cool with the idea that Yankovich wanted to use his music.
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