McD&#x27;s and Coke are popular because people really want what they sell. It&#x27;s not just a psychological thing, like everyone is a mindless zombie brainwashed by Ronald McDonald. They don&#x27;t like it because they&#x27;ve been told to like it (if anything, it&#x27;s the opposite these days), they like it because it&#x27;s convenient and it has a ton of sugar and other addictive additives in it. People like both convenience and sugar; that&#x27;s not a secret.<p>It&#x27;s the same thing musically (though admittedly there is a bit more, not a huge amount more, of cultural influence here); there is a formula for music that most people find really satisfying. The record companies have software that analyzes songs and scores against the common patterns that produce hits. Of course, the business of music is about more than just the music, it&#x27;s about the whole package.