One aspect that makes contemporary music boring and could be statistically studied is the lack of new genres since the early 90's. In the past a genre reigned for a decade or so and then faded from popularity as new genres reached proeminence.
Despite far low music production and distribution costs the internet age has been one of genre stagnation. Since early 90's the charts are dominated by hip hop and R&B, rock, metal and country are slowly declining while EDM stays a niche loosely connected to the pop scene.
I feel like your argument is the logical extension of his from the macro level (number of artists on the hot 100) to the micro (features of songs appearing there). Very interesting to see that lower variability is observable in both cases.
This scientific paper was accepted for publication around the same time as this post was published. Very similar analysis and conclusions: https://rdcu.be/dC0W7
This is fascinating. I had no idea such granular data existed. I'd love to see this analysis performed for commercial fiction books. Is there an equivalent dataset available, especially since Spotify now offers audiobook streaming? Or is the metadata insufficient or too corrupted by marketing campaigns for proper analysis? This latter effect might in itself be worth a separate study!
I would suggest that an important measure you might chart is diversity. There would be no place in music today for a track like "Classical Gas" (1968), or "Feelings" (1975), or heaven help us, "Da Da Da" (1982). Those type of quirky tracks are completely gone, now. That's what the movement to sameness does. It's dull. Boring. Lifeless.
Watching Rick Beato dutifully listen through the Spotify top ten, and do his best to try to find some value, any value, to those tracks, and watch the pained expression on his face while he tries... says where we are.
I recall the first time I heard Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean"; I was in a shopping mall and it was playing in a store. I stopped, I listened to the whole thing- it was magical.
Today's music? That just does not happen any more.
“The entire episode sparked debates on the originality of popular songs. Was this a one-off incident of (accidental) mimicry, or was this unintentional mimicry emblematic of pop music's standardization?” Regarding the songs Roar and Brave in 2013.
Why wasn’t this question asked when George Harrison was successfully sued for subconscious plagiarism of He’s so Fine on his song My Sweet Lord?
One aspect that makes contemporary music boring and could be statistically studied is the lack of new genres since the early 90's. In the past a genre reigned for a decade or so and then faded from popularity as new genres reached proeminence.
Despite far low music production and distribution costs the internet age has been one of genre stagnation. Since early 90's the charts are dominated by hip hop and R&B, rock, metal and country are slowly declining while EDM stays a niche loosely connected to the pop scene.
Have you read Alex Mastroianni’s essay “Pop Culture Has Become an Oligopoly”? https://www.experimental-history.com/p/pop-culture-has-become-an-oligopoly
I feel like your argument is the logical extension of his from the macro level (number of artists on the hot 100) to the micro (features of songs appearing there). Very interesting to see that lower variability is observable in both cases.
This scientific paper was accepted for publication around the same time as this post was published. Very similar analysis and conclusions: https://rdcu.be/dC0W7
This is fascinating. I had no idea such granular data existed. I'd love to see this analysis performed for commercial fiction books. Is there an equivalent dataset available, especially since Spotify now offers audiobook streaming? Or is the metadata insufficient or too corrupted by marketing campaigns for proper analysis? This latter effect might in itself be worth a separate study!
I would suggest that an important measure you might chart is diversity. There would be no place in music today for a track like "Classical Gas" (1968), or "Feelings" (1975), or heaven help us, "Da Da Da" (1982). Those type of quirky tracks are completely gone, now. That's what the movement to sameness does. It's dull. Boring. Lifeless.
Watching Rick Beato dutifully listen through the Spotify top ten, and do his best to try to find some value, any value, to those tracks, and watch the pained expression on his face while he tries... says where we are.
I recall the first time I heard Michael Jackson's "Billy Jean"; I was in a shopping mall and it was playing in a store. I stopped, I listened to the whole thing- it was magical.
Today's music? That just does not happen any more.
“The entire episode sparked debates on the originality of popular songs. Was this a one-off incident of (accidental) mimicry, or was this unintentional mimicry emblematic of pop music's standardization?” Regarding the songs Roar and Brave in 2013.
Why wasn’t this question asked when George Harrison was successfully sued for subconscious plagiarism of He’s so Fine on his song My Sweet Lord?