Most hits you hear on the radio are manufactured, I'm afraid. Carefully and methodically. By your own example: The music videos are always made in advance, to coincide with the album's release, and the hits will get the high-budget treatment for the video. It's a giant marketing machine, and the videos are the TV commercials for the album.

Okay, sadly I agree with you in the majority. I was forgetting that I don't listen to "popular" music anymore. I definitely think that groups like the backdoor boys and and all the rest are complete marketing and record company tools, and don't have any control over what they do. Then again, do I feel sorry for them? Can't say I do. And in these cases I'm astonished that these groups can have singles before the album comes out. It boggles my mind.

There are lots of exceptions, of course. There are plenty of artists who make committed albums rather than manufactured hit/filler packages. But even those artists know which songs will "make it" and which ones won't. All artists know what their "A" material is.

This is true, usually, but sometimes...just sometimes...in a blue moon...artists actually wait for input on which songs their listening public will like and enjoy.

DiGNAN