The evolution of popular music: USA 1960–2010 – , , ,
In modern societies, cultural change seems ceaseless. The flux of fashion is especially obvious for popular music. While much has been written about the origin and evolution of pop, most claims about its history are anecdotal rather than scientific in nature. To rectify this, the authors investigated the US Billboard Hot 100 between 1960 and 2010. Using music information retrieval and text-mining tools, they analysed the musical properties of approximately 17 000 recordings that appeared in the charts and demonstrate quantitative trends in their harmonic and timbral properties. They used these properties to produce an audio-based classification of musical styles and study the evolution of musical diversity and disparity, testing, and rejecting, several classical theories of cultural change. Finally, they investigated whether pop musical evolution has been gradual or punctuated. They show that, although pop music has evolved continuously, it did so with particular rapidity during three stylistic ‘revolutions’ around 1964, 1983 and 1991. They conclude by discussing how their study points the way to a quantitative science of cultural change.
Need help with this article? Discover more with the Scientific Literacy Tool
Get the Scientific Literacy Tool