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Researchers examined entries on the Billboard year-end singles charts dating back to 1950.
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And another study shows
The lyrics have grown increasingly repetitious.
too!
You’ve likely heard enough from your parents about how older tunes are superior.
However, they might be correct – a study shows that song melodies have grown simpler since the 1950s.
Scientists have found that the intricacy of the tunes from the top hits annually in the US has declined over the past seven decades.
The team, from
Queen Mary
University of
London
,
examined the leading tunes (typically the vocal melody) from songs that secured spots within the top five of the US Billboard year-end singles chart for each year spanning 1950 to 2022.
They pinpointed two major drops in melodic complexity occurring in 1975 and 2000, as well as a minor one in 1996.
The change in melody around 1975 might have been due to the emergence of genres like new wave, disco, and stadium rock, according to them.
In the meantime, the modifications recorded in 1996 and 2000 might reflect the emergence of hip-hop or the integration of digital audio workstations, allowing for the repetitive playback of sound loops.
Upon comparing many of the greatest hits from various decades, the progression of music becomes clear to observe.
In 1964, the number one song was “I Want to Hold Your Hand” by The Beatles.
Beatles
, the 1980 equivalent was Blondie’s ‘Call Me’.
Los del Rio’s dance tune ‘Macarena’ was the firm favourite of 1996, and in 2003 50 Cent’s hip hop hit ‘In Da Club’ reached the number one spot.
Although Adele’s emotive hit ‘Rolling in the Deep’ dominated in 2011, Dua Lipa’s dance-floor anthem ‘Levitating’ claimed the top spot in 2021.
The analysis, documented in the journal
Scientific Reports
It was also disclosed that although the intricacy of song rhythms and pitch structures diminished over the years, the rate of notes performed each second went up.
They also suggested that the increase in the usage of digital instruments might have allowed for musical complexity to be conveyed through audio quality instead of just melody.
‘The overriding pattern emerging from these analyses shows decreasing complexity and increasing note density in popular melodies over time, especially since 2000,’ they wrote.
In the 1950s, the variety of tones accessible for musical creation was restricted to the sounds producible using the actual instruments and equipment present during that era.
‘Today, with the accessibility of digital music production software and libraries of millions of samples and loops, anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection can create any sound they can imagine.’
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