A good greatness test for music?

[NuclearNed]

Take an old song, re-release it on the radio but give the artist a pseudonym*. If the song is a hit, then it is truly an all-time great.

Agree or disagree?

What songs would this confirm as all-time greats?

*The reason for they pseudonym is because there are people who think they hate old artists just because they are old and in spite of the fact that they haven't actually listened to any of their music.

 

[BeauJangles]

It wouldn't work. Most people know the all-time great songs already.

 

[Atomic Playboy]

I would hate to rely on popular opinion to determine the greatness of anything. Have you heard the shit that gets played on the radio these days? I mean, take a great piece of music like Bach's Air on a G String; it is absolutely not going to be popular if you played it on the radio today (and I know this because classical stations still play it and they don't have the huge listenership that Top 40 stations do). Does that make it any less great? Or does it mean that the audience for music has ever changing tastes that seem to be swinging in the direction of crap in recent years?

 

[BurnItDwn]

greatness and popularity are not mutually inclusive.

 

[aplefka]

Originally posted by: Atomic Playboy
I would hate to rely on popular opinion to determine the greatness of anything. Have you heard the shit that gets played on the radio these days? I mean, take a great piece of music like Bach's Air on a G String; it is absolutely not going to be popular if you played it on the radio today (and I know this because classical stations still play it and they don't have the huge listenership that Top 40 stations do). Does that make it any less great? Or does it mean that the audience for music has ever changing tastes that seem to be swinging in the direction of crap in recent years?

Air is such a great piece.

And it's also true that popular doesn't equal great. Just look at reality TV.

 

[homercles337]

Popularity on the radio is not dictated by listeners, its dictated by labels and big corporate radio working together.

 

[MiataNC]

Pretty much already been done with Queen's Bohemian Rhapsody though no pseudonym was used...

http://www.nytimes.com/2005/12...arts/music/27quee.html
On Nov. 21, 1975, "Bohemian Rhapsody" topped the British charts and stayed there for nine weeks, cementing the band's superstar status. "It got us out of debt!" Mr. May said. It became No. 1 again in 1991, when it was reissued as a charity single shortly after Mr. Mercury's death from complications of AIDS. When it was featured in the film "Wayne's World" in 1992, "Bohemian Rhapsody" re-entered the United States charts and peaked at No. 2, beating its 1976 chart position.