Scientists: Pop Music Getting Louder, More Bland

[gunslingingbird]

According to Reuters, a team of scientists has apparently confirmed the long-held suspicions of parents everywhere that pop music is getting louder and blander.

The research team, which is based out of Spain, reached their conclusions after analyzing pop records from 1955 through 2010, running the songs through algorithms to look at factors such as chord progressions and melodic complexity.

"We found evidence of a progressive homogenization of the musical discourse," Joan Serra, the head of the team, told Reuters. "In particular, we obtained numerical indicators that the diversity of transitions between note combinations — roughly speaking, chords plus melodies — has consistently diminished in the last 50 years."

Some researchers in spain studied some music. Who knows the exact list of music or "algorithm," but their findings are basically pop music since 1950s is becoming more and more simple, a chap at work said "kind of like basic rap music": same notes/chords played at same volume. Also, it is becoming louder due to all the uber-compression studios are using. I was taught at school by a music teacher and strangely a genius and creativity teacher that our music ebbs and flows from complex to simple over the centuries.and we are in a more simplistic trend now. Some say the simple trend is society getting lulled cognitively in to a consumerist hypnotic haze and perhaps getting dumber musically and/or in general.

I say challenge yourself, listen to different stuff you are not used to, more complex stuff (not just jazz or prog metal, maybe kraut rock or math rock or experimental or sad core or fado or Tibetan throat singing). Listen to stuff that has influenced artists you like. Use websites like allmusic.com to find influences, releated music, etc. There is soo much out there besides the lady caca or kaya west or music in the background of advertisements. You may already be kind of doing it by reading the article. Let us know some good tunes you like and shows to spread the musical gamut that this world has to offer. Which eventually may beg the question: what is ***** music like? Think about it!!!

Story

 

[ApolloBalboa]

Again, as you've mentioned and as it's clearly been studied now, it doesn't take much to realize that music today (for the most part) is formulaic and lacks the spirit/creativity/complexity/insert what you wish here as music from years past. I love music going back to the 20's (band and classical singing), going to the 50's, 60's, and 70's (Beatles, Zeppelin, what have you), and I've never been much of a fan of music that came after the 90's (grunge was my stopping point), but I admit that I've probably never really looked "outside the box" as to musics different from what I usually listen to (certainly nothing like throat singing or sad core, having never heard of those). It certainly doesn't hurt oneself to be exposed to things that can widen a hemisphere, and I'd like to think that I can educate myself on things like music because I love and enjoy it so. So, having read the article and your thoughts, I've been looking up both math rock and throat singing to start, and hope to worm my way through other forms of music that I'm unfamiliar with.

Thanks for sharing this. :hatsoff:

 

[BlueBalls]

Well, of course it is. What has been had the biggest effect on contemporary pop music outside of the digital download in the last decade? The rise of the reality talent show, which looks for "talent" that fits into an incredibly specific and highly marketable bubble both in terms of look and sound, built by the shows creators that has become the archetypal image of what most people would consider a "pop star" in this day in age (especially among the target audience who have a reasonably disposable income and are susceptible to the kind of populism that is profitable to record companies) and as such we see the proliferation of new stars who fit this very specific mould.

There is good contemporary music out there. But more often than not it isn't in the public sphere.

Or I'm just getting old and that god fer sakin' rackit is just doing me in.

 

[PlumpRump]

I'd be willing to bet that whomever funded this "scientific" experiment could have saved a lot of money, and been provided with the same results, if they would have just put a poll question up on any given music forum.

 

[DR. B]

Good thing I don't listen to pop music.

 

[DP_LOVER]

i like to think of myself as having a broad taste of music, and i can appreciate all genres of music, but i have to agree that 'pop' music now is at its worst since i can remember.

pop is now all about auto-tune and generic, formulaic rhythms that just reproduce whatever 'the ****' are listening to these days.

I refuse to belive that todays 'hits' will be looked back on with such a warm glow and appreciation as we do right now to songs by the beatles, the kinks or the rolling stones. The future generations will realise that modern pop music is pish

 

[STDiva]

I agree, but Kanye West isn't generic pop. Just sayin.

 

[TheSpokenWheel]

Thanks, Science! Now go cure some diseases.

 

[DP_LOVER]

I agree, but Kanye West isn't generic pop. Just sayin.

i would argue that it is. He certainly isnt hip hop anyway. When he first came on the scene with the College Dropout that was a real shot in the arm for hip hop which had been on the wane for a few years. His sampling and beat selection were ahead of the game, but now you can see that influence in most pop and rap records. The high pitched auto tuned samples are now everywhere, and have crossed over to mainstream pop music.

Hip hop as a genre for me has lost all its appeal. I am a massive rap and hip hop fan, and love artists like Run DMC, Public Enemy, NWA, Tupac, Biggie, Nas, etc. Thats when real hip hop had feeling, and soul to it. The artists were using hip hop as a way to promote their issues and raise awareness. Now its just an endless stream of rhymes about money and bitches. It has lost its core values which made it such an exciting form of music to become generic and just focused on selling records which totally goes against the meaning of hip hop.

Pop to me is the same, its not about writing a good lyric or a catchy beat that will stand the test of time, its just formulaic, by the numbers, get as much out as we can and make money, and i find that very sad as a music lover.

 

[Death-Proof-69]

Thanks, Science! Now go cure some diseases.

haha yeah really...anyone with ear drums and half a sense for music already knew this

 

[Sin After Sin]

Most new music simply makes me want to listen to old music.

 

[DukeLaCrosse]

pop music was way blander in 1955. perry como anyone?

 

[Death-Proof-69]

pop music was way blander in 1955. perry como anyone?

i think by bland they mean less substance, more fluff...as in it's becoming more and more meaningless