But as science gets a better understanding of how addiction works in the brain, suddenly a whole lot of our everyday habits make more sense. Things like ...

Addiction is a funny thing in our culture -- people who are actually addicted to a substance actively deny it ("I just like to smoke!"), while other people claim addiction for every random thing they happen to enjoy ("I'm addicted to these delicious candy bars!").

5 Listening to Pop Music

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Pop music is something that tends to divide people in ways normally reserved for large military conflicts. Its advocates idolize the artists and their music, while its opponents brand anyone interested in pop as mindless drones who don't know "real" music. But while one can hate Lady Gaga all he wants, there's no changing the fact that she has sold over 64 million records, and the sales of her last album actually caused Amazon.com's servers to crash. Whatever indie-shoegazer-electro-orchestral-Celtic tunes a pop hater prefers are unlikely to ever attain such levels of popularity.

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It's pretty strange, when you really stop and think about it. In most expressive arts we tend to value ability -- so why do the teeming masses prefer simple pop instead of, say, complex progressive music or speed metal, which, according to fans, require a lot more technical prowess from the artists? Why aren't little girls going to school with Yngwie Malmsteen backpacks (besides, you know, the very idea being creepy as hell)?

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Maybe it's a marketing thing. Maybe the music has a wide generational appeal. Or, hell, maybe everyone is just flat out stupid. Or maybe it's because your brain is so hooked on pop music that it doesn't matter what you think.

The Addiction:

Yes, pop music is basically cranial crack, to the point that scientists have actually been able to predict which songs would become big sellers by hooking kids up to an MRI scanner and playing previously unheard pop tunes for them. When a future hit came on, the pleasure center of the brain lit up like a Christmas tree.