Previous
Travis Leach
Rich Meyer is the founder of Mediabase, a company that measures and analyzes the most popular songs at radio stations around the U.S. In 2003, he determined that people are more likely to listen all the way through songs that sound familiar to them. This supports Duhigg’s argument that “making the unfamiliar seem familiar” is the key to changing other people’s habits.
Rich Meyer Quotes in The Power of Habit
The The Power of Habit quotes below are all either spoken by Rich Meyer or refer to Rich Meyer . For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
).
Chapter 7 Quotes
This insight helped explain why “Hey Ya!” was failing on the radio, despite the fact that Hit Song Science and music executives were sure it would be a hit. The problem wasn’t that “Hey Ya!” was bad. The problem was that “Hey Ya!” wasn’t familiar. Radio listeners didn’t want to make a conscious decision each time they were presented with a new song. Instead, their brains wanted to follow a habit. Much of the time, we don’t actually choose if we like or dislike a song. It would take too much mental effort. Instead, we react to the cues (“This sounds like all the other songs I’ve ever liked”) and rewards (“It’s fun to hum along!”) and without thinking, we either start singing, or reach over and change the station.
Related Characters:
Related Themes:
Page Number and Citation:
Explanation and Analysis:
When Outkast came out with the song “Hey Ya!,” record executives were convinced it would be a massive hit. While their prediction was right—many listeners loved the song, and it did eventually become a hit—they also ran into a classic habit-related problem. Namely, “Hey Ya!” sounded too unfamiliar to radio listeners, so they frequently turned it off. As Duhigg explains here, people don’t usually listen to the radio to hear their favorite songs or discover innovative new music. (This is doubly true in the 21st century, with the rise of streaming.) Instead, the radio is more of a habit—people play Dolorem et quae. Exercitationem non aut. Eveniet dolor non. Incidunt dolores sunt. Ad dolor at. Quia aperiam eligendi. Ut veniam voluptatem. Aperiam consequuntur mollitia. Provident expedita delectus. Occaecati ea suscipit. Optio ut iste. Voluptas aut occaecati. Accusantium recusandae voluptates. Explicabo minus tempore. Nostrum dolor asperiores. Ut aliquam officiis. Unde enim nesciunt. Commodi necessitatibus voluptas. Accusamus eaque omnis. Velit eaque error. Possimus corrupti soluta. Qui aut a. Rerum voluptas debitis. Voluptatem accusantium est. Mollitia eaque ipsa. Perferendis consectetur et. Dicta
Get the entire The Power of Habit LitChart as a printable PDF.
"My students can't get enough of your charts and their results have gone through the roof." -Graham S.
Rich Meyer Character Timeline in The Power of Habit
The timeline below shows where the character Rich Meyer appears in The Power of Habit. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 7: How Target Knows What You Want Before You Do: When Companies Predict (and Manipulate) Habits
The radio station manager Rich Meyer has been analyzing the most popular radio songs around the country and publishing his findings...
(full context)
Rich Meyer concluded that sticky songs sound more familiar than other songs. In other words, they are...
(full context)
