NEWS. . . BUT NOT AS YOU KNOW IT

The music that young people pay attention to those days, huh?

If you think I was older when you were young, well, that’s subjective to be fair; however, it was particularly more complex, as science has shown.

Pop music melodies have officially more easy since the 1950s, which also marked the daybreak of rock and roll.

A new study of the biggest hits has identified two “significant” cuts in melodic complexity, one in 1975 and in 2000, as well as a smaller cut in 1996.   

The 1975 change may simply be due to the emergence of new musical styles such as disco and stadium rock, while those of 1996 and 2000 may simply constitute the emergence of hip-hop and virtual production, which allow for the repetition of audio loops, scientists say.

Researchers at Queen Mary University of London analyzed the most striking melodies – the vocal melody – of the songs that reached the top five positions on the US Billboard year-end singles chart each year between 1950 and 2022. .  

Their conclusions, published in the journal Scientific Reports, indicate that the complexity of the melodies of the most popular songs has decreased over the last eight decades.

Madeline Hamilton, PhD, Queen Mary’s School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, and Dr Marcus Pearce led the research.  

Hamilton said: “We found that the complexity of the songs’ rhythms and pitch arrangements decreased as the average number of notes played according to the moment increased.  

“We also know of two significant minimizations in melodic complexity that occurred in 1975 and 2000, as well as a more modest minimization in 1996.  

“The melodic adjustments that occurred in 1975 may simply constitute the shift of genres such as new wave, disco and plain rock.  

“What happened in 1996 and 2000 may simply constitute the hip-hop revolution or the adoption of virtual audio workstations, which allowed for the repeated playback of audio loops. “

“For older songs with melodies, I would mention the number one song from 1975, Love Will Keep Us Together to Captain

“The vocal melody is complex, both in terms of pitch and rhythm. There are many tones in the melody. When songs are in primary B like this, you very rarely see herbal A’s and D’s, as seen here. Rhythmically, too there is complexity – take a look at the triplets in measure 13.  

“Compare that to the melody of the number one song of 2000, Breathe Through Faith Hill. In particular, the chorus melody sounds like this:

“You can see that this melody is much simpler. The word in bar 40 is repeated several times. Rhythmically, the melody is simple.

However, the effects are a verdict on the quality of the music over the years. The team noted that while the complexity of popular melodies appears to have decreased in recent decades, this suggests that the complexity of other musical parts – such as quality or combinations of sounds – has also decreased.  

“A reduction in melodic complexity may simply result from an increase in the complexity of other musical elements, such as an increase in the average number of notes played per second, to prevent the music from sounding overwhelming to listeners,” Hamilton said. saying.  

She says the increased availability of virtual tools can make explicit musical complexity imaginable through sound quality rather than melody.

“The effects provide a deeper insight into the evolution of popular music over the past 70 years. ” 

And he added: “I think the source of the complexity is moving away from the melody and entering into other musical dimensions of the song, such as the harmony of the song (the chords played the melody, or the timbres), the textures or the colors of the sound of the song. ‘used instruments. ‘

However, Hamilton doesn’t think that’s a bad thing.  

“I think it’s neither positive nor negative, it’s simply a change in the way music is created and appreciated. That the melodies fit together more easily is a bad thing,” he said.  

“In fact, some of the songs have very undeniable melodies. “

When asked which was his favorite among those analyzed, he replied: “I was born in 1998, so I am nostalgic for the music of my childhood, from the 2010s, and I must say that I prefer more recent music.

“However, when doing this study, I was able to notice some old songs that are beautiful. My favorite old song that I included in the data set is “You Belong To Me” by Jo Stafford. Her vocal functionality is really lovely, her voice floats above the music.

“I hope this study will help us listen to early music like that. “

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