Our Parents Were Right

If your parents were like mine, their response to the music you listened to as a teenager was something along the lines of "You call that noise music? Back when I was a kid we had real music."

Doesn't matter how old you are or what you listened to, chances are that response was universal.

I find myself saying the same thing to our kids, but now I have scientific evidence to back me up.

It is a familiar complaint from those of a certain age: today’s pop music is louder and all the songs sound the same.

It turns out they are right.

Research shows that modern recordings are louder than those of those of the 1950s and 60s.  They are also blander, with less variety in terms of chords and melodies.

The finding, which will come as no surprise to all those over the age of 35 or so, comes from Spanish researchers who carried out a computer analysis of the key features of almost half a million  pop, rock and hip hop songs from 1955 to 2010.

The study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, also found evidence that songs are more similar than in the past.

The chords used and the changes between chords are simpler, leading to the production of music that  is easy on the ear but contains little variety.

"It is less an artistic expression and more a commercial product. Old music was more expressive, more experimental."

My, how times have changed...