If you enjoy music and have a history of listening to pop songs, you already can listen to a song and identify which decade it was released because of the sound and style. It’s interesting to learn that a new study has been published that confirms some distinct changes in music through the decades.
Recently, the journal Scientific Reports ran a story about pop music becoming increasingly less complex over the past 75 years or so. Computational musicologists from Queen Mary University of London were able to apply mathematical models and algorithms to the top five songs from the Billboard charts between the years 1950 to 2023. Some of those songs included Madonna’s “Vogue,” the Beatles’ “Hey Jude,” and Lady Gaga’s “Poker Face.”
What was discovered is a change in the rhythm and pitch over the decades. The complexity of those qualities both fell by about 30% for songs that were produced during that time period. The study used more than 360 songs. Another interesting discovery was that there were three specific “melodic revolutions” in the years 1975, 1996, and 2000. These were years where researches state that melodies became more simplified.
The shift in 1975 was identified as a change from disco and stadium rock. The changes in 1996 and 2000 were from rap, electronic music, and MTV.