Mainly, judging public taste is hard to do and predicting where it will go next is darn near impossible. That is why the entertainment industry gives us more of what we wanted yesterday and is often surprised when something new comes along and it is what we want today.
I don't think proffessionals are all that surprised when something unexpected becomes popular; there have been enough "freak" successes, so they know that it's always possible for something everyone thought was crazy to become a runawat hit. I agree that public taste is impossible to predict, but since these people stil have to make bussiness decisions based on what is likely to find an audience, they try to make educated guesses, sometimes right, sometimes wrong. I don't think that they always play it safe, as I often see new and exciting things in books, films and music.
I don't think proffessionals are all that surprised when something unexpected becomes popular; there have been enough "freak" successes, so they know that it's always possible for something everyone thought was crazy to become a runawat hit. I agree that public taste is impossible to predict, but since these people stil have to make bussiness decisions based on what is likely to find an audience, they try to make educated guesses, sometimes right, sometimes wrong. I don't think that they always play it safe, as I often see new and exciting things in books, films and music.