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Message: <blockquote data-quote="EzekielRaiden" data-source="post: 8633651" data-attributes="member: 6790260">I mean, I think I can say pretty unequivocally that quality and popularity have no consistent correlation--neither positive nor negative. Because if popularity were applied to food, then the only restaurant would be McDonald's (or perhaps <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqGLb4Oxge8" target="_blank">Taco Bell?</a>), the only beer would be Budweiser, and the only cheese would be mozzarella. If only the most popular movie genres were made....well, actually, it wouldn't be that much different from what we get now. The poor response to things like the sequel trilogy for Star Wars or the glut of dubious-quality live action Disney remakes or the glut of dubious-quality superhero films....doesn't bode well for it. Or the never-ending problems with Windows as an operating system, despite its absolute dominance. Or...I could go on. Popularity, quite often, has literally nothing to do with having high standards of quality. It's often to do with things completely unrelated to quality, like consistency (Bud Lite tastes the same everywhere for a reason, Windows is the standardized business operating system), market penetration (McDonald's and Coke are some of the only things present in nearly every nation on Earth), nostalgia, extant time investment, conspicuous consumption, simplicity (McDonald's again, WalMart), or a host of other potential things.Sometimes things become popular because of their quality. I could beat the dead horse further, and I originally had a lot more said about it, but I think I've made my point. Sometimes quality directly leads to popularity. But I would say more often, quality is irrelevant--hence, no correlation. It's other characteristics or circumstances that make popularity happen or not happen.</blockquote>

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