Since the album is named Cylone, and the cover prominently features a Mercury Cougar, yet there was another  Mercury Sport coupe of the same period called the Cyclone, the album art director has me confused.

Based on mathematics alone this theory is false.  Just because a later vote appears to have less impact on the average rating does not mean that this is actually true.  An average is an average.  In this case it is the sum of all votes divided by the number of votes cast.  Sequence of vote does not even show up in the formula!  If the 1st 100 people vote 10 and the next 100 vote 3, the result is the same as if the 1st 100 people vote 3 and the next 100 vote 10.  Either way the result is 6.5.

IMO, the phenomenon behind your observation that "the rating is established and additional votes do no matter" is that the taste of the RP audience is not dramatically shifting over time.  In other words, there isn't going to be a scenario like the one I described above, when the 1st 100 voters call a song a "10" but the next 100 call it a "3," moving it down 6.5.  Assuming the sample size is big enough, the 2nd 100 voters are going to have an average vote very close to the 1st 100 voters.  And as the sample size in each group increases, these two averages will converge.  In any survey the sample average approaches the true average as the sample size approaches the actual population.

10 -> 11

These ratings only get you so far... you gotta consider the source. Not dissin' RP listeners, but the reason I even listen to RP is that the DJs call the shots, not some 'race to the bottom' popularity contest of the teeny bopping masses. What the DJs do with the ratings and comments  other than merely read them, who knows? But I do I know that the Bill has played Lady Gagged knowing that he would take a serious blogo-fragging, and I think that's a good thing, even though I really don't want to hear that kind of 'popular' music on RP.

She's won a place in  my heart (albeit a place in a back room, in a closet, under the stairs of my heart...) The singer  following Neko on RP today was Janis, so Neko sounds a little 'weak' by comparison, perhaps. But my first car was a '68 Mercury Cougar and I'd have let Neko stand on the hood.

Since the album is named Cylone, and the cover prominently features a Mercury Cougar, yet there was another  Mercury Sport coupe of the same period called the Cyclone, the album art director has me confused.

 Typesbad wrote:
Good point, but I wouldn't read too much into the cover art choices. It was that or an album titled "Cougar" until some marketing genius saw the light at the 11th hour. BTW, our first car was a Mercury Cougar like the one pictured except yellow. What a POS! All style and little substance. One of the first things that failed was the headlight covers, followed closely by the sequential rear turn signals. But we drove it for many years before selling it to our across-the-street neighbor, and we've seen it several times since around town over the ensuing years. If it came with that "hood ornament," I'd have kept it a lot longer! :-)