Music has dumbed down in three stages since 1950, study finds

[pellinore]

Modern songs are simpler now than in the 1950s thanks to three musical revolutions that have dumbed down melodies, a study has found.

Songs have undoubtedly changed from the Rat Pack era of Frank Sinatra through to the world-dominating fame of Taylor Swift, with several previous studies revealing an altered musical landscape.

Madeline Hamilton, a PhD student at Queen Mary University of London, has discovered that melodies have become less complex by around a third since 1950 and that, at the same time, the number of notes per second has almost doubled to around three.

Ms Hamilton investigated the melodies of every top five song for every calendar year from 1950 to 2023. She said the modern listener wants catchy songs and this necessitates a less complex melody.

Music has dumbed down in three stages since 1950, study finds (msn.com)

Edited July 16 by pellinore

[+Liquid Gardens]

Interesting, but there is obviously a vast difference between 'music' and 'top five songs'.  I'd argue that the entire genres of hard rock and metal today are far more 'complex' than any 50's and 60's rock.

[Bendy Demon]

Much of what passes for music these days sounds generic and lifeless.

Doesn't matter if it is rock, country or even classical music; so much of the music is filled with either gibberish, profanity or in the case of classical music is chock full of discords and lacking in any musical cohesion or harmony. It feels so mechanical and soulless that they may as well have used a player piano and be done with it.

With classical there also seems to be a penchant for trying to play the music as fast as possible as if this is somehow an achievement considering that in the era that most of this music was composed, the instruments of that time couldn't even be played that fast. Not only that but the original tempo served a purpose to help set the mood.

I mean, sure, it is ok to up the tempo a bit with some pieces but not so much so that you think the performer is on a super caffeine fix.

With country..it is no longer country but more like rock music and rock music, for the most part, feels dead. Like the food in most restaurant rock music sounds pretty much the same...comes out of the same box.

I don't listen to any of it anymore because it offers nothing. No inspiration, no uplifting moods..nothing. May as well just listen to the sounds that the computer used to use when dialing up to the internet because it all sounded the same.

[Guyver]

I was on the golf course one day last year with a foursome of buddies…old guys like me.  Ahead of us was a foursome of young college students from Cal Poly.  I was running tunes for my group, they had their tunes running.  When we would get close to each other, I would turn our music down, but they left theirs running and we could hear it.  The music these “kids” were playing seemed wimpy, without any soul, and just not good at all IMO.  I thought it was so bad that it was almost depressing, FWIW.

[Grim Reaper 6]

5 hours ago, Liquid Gardens said:

Interesting, but there is obviously a vast difference between 'music' and 'top five songs'.  I'd argue that the entire genres of hard rock and metal today are far more 'complex' than any 50's and 60's rock.

Your certainly right, btu to be fair in the 1950s the technology was primitive compared to today!

[Hawken]

4 hours ago, Guyver said:

I was on the golf course one day last year with a foursome of buddies…old guys like me.  Ahead of us was a foursome of young college students from Cal Poly.  I was running tunes for my group, they had their tunes running.  When we would get close to each other, I would turn our music down, but they left theirs running and we could hear it.  The music these “kids” were playing seemed wimpy, without any soul, and just not good at all IMO.  I thought it was so bad that it was almost depressing, FWIW.

It takes talent to sing and play musical instruments. But no talent to talk into a mic to a computerized beat. 

[pellinore]

22 minutes ago, Hawken said:

It takes talent to sing and play musical instruments. But no talent to talk into a mic to a computerized beat. 

Yet rap stars are idolized and can earn millions. I think perhaps it is an age thing, but when I compare, say, Buddy Holly with Ed Sheeran or Taylor Swift, I think BH is the better composer. I think of the latter two as composing background or elevator music.

[Guyver]

I’ve skipped so much of the modern music, I’m prolly out of date.  Cage the Elephant was the last modern band I remember coming out.

[Guyver]

I like such a wide variety of music of almost every time and genre…but I am a rock and roller at heart. I like everything from Phil Collins and Genesis, through the Police…all the nineties bands…Collective Soul, Perl Jam, Audioslave..still listen to those and all kinds of music from the sixties right through the nineties.  That’s basically my era.

[Hawken]

8 hours ago, Guyver said:

I’ve skipped so much of the modern music, I’m prolly out of date.  Cage the Elephant was the last modern band I remember coming out.

When I go to the gym. I listen to music from the 60s to 90s on my flip phone I downloaded. Music today is nothing to me. I don't recognize the artist.

[+Liquid Gardens]

12 hours ago, Grim Reaper 6 said:

Your certainly right, btu to be fair in the 1950s the technology was primitive compared to today!

True, but John Coltrane created complex music with a sax and a band and very little technology, so I'm not sure that tech always affects or even adds to 'complexity'.

 

[Grim Reaper 6]

2 minutes ago, Liquid Gardens said:

True, but John Coltrane created complex music with a sax and a band and very little technology, so I'm not sure that tech always affects or even adds to 'complexity'.

 

I see your point, I was looking at it from a different perspective.

[+Liquid Gardens]

39 minutes ago, Grim Reaper 6 said:

I see your point, I was looking at it from a different perspective.

Totally valid, I haven't looked at this study but I'm not sure how to solidly define 'complexity' anyway, especially in something like music that I only have a rudimentary understanding of.

[Essan]

11 hours ago, pellinore said:

Yet rap stars are idolized and can earn millions. I think perhaps it is an age thing, but when I compare, say, Buddy Holly with Ed Sheeran or Taylor Swift, I think BH is the better composer. I think of the latter two as composing background or elevator music.

I have never knowingly heard any song by Ed Sheeran or Taylor Swift!     Or, for that matter, any rap star.  

I agree that some artists, like, Bruce Springsteen and Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) produce much simpler songs these days compared with the much more complex material - both lyrically and musically - of their 70s hey-days, but I think that's more an age thing; the need to write material more suited to their now more limited vocal abilities.  On the other hand, there's no question that a lot of Iron Maiden's more recent output, like Empire of the Clouds, is on a whole different scale of complexity compared with early songs like Running Free!
 

[Guyver]

2 hours ago, Liquid Gardens said:

True, but John Coltrane created complex music with a sax and a band and very little technology, so I'm not sure that tech always affects or even adds to 'complexity'.

I’m not sure if everyone knows what a god this man was among jazz musicians.

[+Liquid Gardens]

1 hour ago, Guyver said:

I’m not sure if everyone knows what a god this man was among jazz musicians.

Yea I can only appreciate his music at a rudimentary level, can only imagine what trained musicians can hear in it.

[beyondism]

Music hasn't dumbed down at all. There is lots of good music out there. It's taste which has dumbed down.

[Occupational Hubris]

You guys are all missing out. There is more good music out these days then ever before. You might have to look for it cause it isn't going to be spoon fed to you on the radio, but there is something for everyone out there.