What Makes A Viral Video Go Viral? Music Industry Hints

When you take a look at all the videos out there, you notice a few "go viral." Why?
To answer this question, I notice that it looks quite a bit like a question I have been kicking around since I was 17. What does it take to write a hit song? Although predicting with certainty what's going to make it is difficult, I had the extraordinary good fortune of hearing what legends in the music industry had to say. Here's what I learned at the Northern California Songwriter's Convention:

1. Don't be distracted by the flukes. In both popular music and YouTube videos there are hits that show up "out of the blue" and while these are interesting to study after the fact, trying to do something similar doesn't necessarily result in a hit.
2. Don't be distracted by style. It turns out that often what makes a tune "Country" or "Urban Pop" is simply a matter of how the instruments are arranged and not the song itself. I was intrigued to learn that some Country tunes had started as Urban Pop tunes written on keyboard synthesizers.
3. Most hit songs have certain things in common. With few exceptions, the majority of hit tunes on the radio follow a formula: 13-second intro, Verse 1, Transition, Verse 2, Transition, Chorus, Verse 3, Transition, Chorus, Repeat and Fade. Why? Because it is a good combination of new with repetition in a structure people have learned to anticipate. In addition, most hit tunes have a few other characteristics such as "hooks" which make them memorable, and they are singable.

These Principles can be applied to YouTube videos as well. I will be examining how this applies on my Wordpress site: Viral Video Stars