Derek Thompson

"An Atlantic senior editor presents an investigation into the lucrative quality of popularity in the 21st century to share economic insights into what makes ideas, productions and products successful, "--NoveList.

The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

Hit Makers

Bouke van der Bijl

Enjoyable exploration into the sometimes unexpected ways in which things become popular. Good debunking of why 'viral' is really not viral by investigating the actual mechanics of how a thing reaches popularity.

Read it as an audiobook which is narrated by the author, which was good.

Erwin Lemuel Oliva

The book talks about theories and the science behind what makes a "hit." But this was accompanied by anecdotes that were very interesting, as it was able to clearly explain what the science meant.

A well-curated title, this was an eye-opener (made a lot of notes on the book itself), as I took my time to read it because I wanted to digest every chapter. 

A must-read for people who want to understand the social psychology of hits in the age of social.

Nelson Zagalo

Thompson writes very well, and is able to engage us in stories and facts. He's a journalist and uses this book to go much further than he could with just simple articles. You'll be surprised and gain a lot of insight into contemporary culture, which will make you think about what you like and dislike and why.

This is not the dry academic book, it uses very good storytelling and lots of techniques to maintain the reader interested. On the other side it encompasses too many perspectives, approaches and cultural production that makes it impossible to deliver the promise made by the title. There's really no science in these pages, but only lots of stories, causalities and correlations. Even if Thompson starts with determination and convincing us, bit by bit he acknowledges the impossibility of the task he purposed to achieve. Therefore it's up to you, the reader, to extract the best from it, and build your theories on how successes are made.

A more in depth review was made for my blog: https://virtual-illusion.blogspot.pt/...

Martin Lukanov

The book is written in a very interesting although quite formulaic way. As almost any type of popular non-fiction, it abounds with interesting and grabbing examples followed by their explanation backed by science, something which is the backbone of any such book, as the author himself admits a few times. Rather than on laziness or lack of imagination, his decision to follow the already established method of writing a nonfiction book is grounded in the book’s main argument, namely that people inartistically prefer products which are both very familiar and relatable, yet introduce something new. 
This view isn’t something new, according to the book. It was first introduced by the French-American designer Raymond Loewy, the man who revolutionised design and showed the great importance of how things look and feel. He called philosophy MAYA - Most Advanced Yet Acceptable. According to it, a good creation, in his case a design of a car or a train, should be evolved and ground-breaking but within a certain limit acceptable by the majority of the consumers. According to MAYA, most people are both neophilic, very curious to find new things, but also neophobic - averse to completely new things. Present them with something astonishingly new and no-one will know what to make of it, create something without any new features, and everyone will be bored. In both cases, the product will not get people’s interest and they will not engage with it. 
The same idea, according to Derek Thompson, the writer of Hit Makers, is applicable to any cultural product - from novels to pins and hit songs. Each of the famous pieces of art he examines possesses the two qualities of following the expectations of the genre it belongs to, but also playing with them in a very subtle, yet recognisable way. 
Although I largely agree with him, the rebel in me wants to say that his idea is wrong. For example, Thompson does not speak of the numerous people who are genuinely interested in art which aims to subvert the established genres or norms, myself included. I suppose he does it because none of the cultural products they enjoy can be considered major hits. Still, a brief discussion of transgressive yet famous pieces of art might have been very interesting.
According to Thompson, creating a good product is only half of the story, even probably less, there are probably hundreds or even thousands of great pieces of art which have failed to get a following or win money. More important part is how the product is delivered to the audience. What I found particularly intriguing in his examination of how cultural products become famous is the way he shows the fallacy of the idea of “viral hits.” According to the popular understand of becoming “viral,” a product starts getting shared between people in the same way a virus does. However, according to him, this is very wrong. Rather than being shared this way, most “viral” hits get the endorsement of a single very famous individual or a group of famous people, for example by sharing it on their Twitter feed. This way a very large audience is exposed to the product. Then by re-sharing it, the original followers of the famous individual give the product a little more exposure, but this is only secondary to famous person’s endorsement of the product. Another way for a product to become a “viral hit” is if its author is already established and has a following. He calls such products “dark hits.” Their authors are not famous people in the accepted sense of the word but people who have connections or some kind of fame. A good example for this is the writer of the Fifty Shades trilogy who was a famous woman in the fan fiction community and had thousands of followers. Moreover, her first book, Fifty Shades of Grey, had already been chosen as one of the finalists in the Goodreads’ Choice Awards, before becoming a “viral hit” and a sensation. 
A third, and very important, ingredient for something becoming a hit is sheer luck. Without it, many of the most well-known pieces of art would have been forgotten very quickly. 
I found the book to be very entertaining and well-written. It was very easy to read and I finished it in about a day or so. I think one of its main cons is the aforementioned fact that it is pretty formulaic. However, I assume that one of the main reasons for that is because it follows the MAYA philosophy. For it to be truly a MAYA work, the author needs to introduce something new, something advanced - in this case is a set of quasi-chapters, which the author calls Interludes. However, I am not exactly sure if they are actually needed…
I found this book through Goodreads’ Annual Choice Awards and I think its one of the most fitting places to discover a book about the power of promotion and on how products become famous and grab people’s attention.

luis martins

Interesting insights but never brings it together to anything tangible.

Nico J

Rarely is a non-fiction book written in a poetic way, about a subject that doesn't lend itself necessarily to that cadence. It's a fantastic blend of pop culture, social sciences, data, and facets of online communities. It's well-researched and incredibly in-depth, the theories are sound, but at many junctions the author continues to remind you about luck and the nice part about being in the "right place at the right time." Everything has context. Working in social, media, social sciences and often being at the intersections of all of these things, exploring the idea of, well, ideas spreading, as mentioned in the book, mimics the spread of viruses and biological phenomenon. Fantastic, well-written, pulling seemingly disparate topics into puzzle pieces that fit together.

Adam

The concept behind "virality" has always seemed vague. In the early internet days before Twitter and big stars with their own internet followings, very few things achieved this. In retrospect it makes sense - the systems weren't there to support the fast flow of ideas. Now though, a single celebrity Tweet can lead to something going viral. 

The concept that stuck out to me most was the idea that most people want something new, but they don't want it to be TOO new. They usually want a better version than something they need to be a beginner again. This quote hits on that idea: "Most consumers are simultaneously neophilic – curious to discover new things – and deeply neophobic – afraid of anything that’s too new.”

Lavinia

Marco Troccoli

D VA

Abhimat Gautam

Matthew Royal

Jimmy Cerone

Rohan Uddin

"[The author] uncovers the hidden psychology of why we like what we like and reveals the economics of cultural markets that invisibly shape our lives ... [and] takes readers on a tour through the last century of pop culture blockbusters and investigates the most valuable currency of the twenty-first, people's attention"--

Charles McNeilll

Nick Copelin

Matteo Cellini

Tiffany

Amir Azimi

Tomáš Baránek

Ryan B Harvey

Christian Beck

What makes a hit a hit? In Hit Makers, Atlantic Senior Editor Derek Thompson puts pop culture under the lens of science to answer the question that every business, every producer, every person looking to promote themselves and their work has asked. Drawing on ancient history and modern headlines - from vampire lore and Brahms's Lullaby to Instagram - Thompson explores the economics and psychology of why certain things become extraordinarily popular. With incisive analysis and captivating storytelling, he reveals that, though blockbuster films, Internet memes and number-one songs seem to have come out of nowhere, hits actually have a story and operate by certain rules. People gravitate towards familiar surprises: products that are bold and innovative, yet instantly comprehensible. Whether he is uncovering the secrets of JFK and Barack Obama's speechwriters or analysing the unexpected reasons for the success of Fifty Shades of Grey, Thompson goes beyond the cultural phenomena that make the news by revealing the desires that make us all human. While technology might change, he shows, our innate preferences do not, and throughout history hits have held up a mirror to ourselves. From the dawn of Impressionist art to the future of Snapchat, from small-scale Etsy entrepreneurs to the origin of Star Wars, Derek Thompson tells the fascinating story of how culture happens - and where genius lives.

Hit Makers The Science of Popularity in an Age of Distraction

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