Song melodies have become simpler since the 1950s – study

According to scientists, the melodies of popular songs have become simpler since the 1950s.

An analysis of hundreds of chart hits over the past 70 years has shown a “significant decline” in the complexity of rhythm and pitch in song melodies, British researchers said.

They said the biggest transitions – or “spurts of change” – occurred between 1975 and 2000, when musical genres such as new wave, disco and stadium rock gained popularity in the mid-1970s and hip hop rose to prominence in the early 2000s.

The team also found “moderate evidence” of a “melodic revolution” in 1996, around the time when major music studios began adopting new technologies such as software applications for recording, editing and producing music.

According to the researchers, the findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, suggest that complexity and creative expression in pop music are shifting away from melody and toward other elements such as sound quality.

Madeline Hamilton, a PhD student in computer science at Queen Mary University of London (QMUL), said: “The complexity of the melodies in the most popular songs has declined significantly since 1950.

“This means that people’s enjoyment of music is changing.

“With extremely popular music, we no longer pay attention to complex vocal melodies, but perhaps to something else – such as interesting chord progressions, lyrics or sound textures.”

She said the vocal melody of Eddie Fisher’s “Walking Behind You” – the fourth most popular song of 1953 – contains many notes that are not in the key of the song, making it more complex.

In contrast, the verse of Lady Gaga’s Poker Face – the second most popular song of 2009 – is “much, much simpler”, with “the melody consisting largely of a single note (B major) repeated many times”, she added.

Ms Hamilton, along with Dr Marcus Pearce, a lecturer in QMUL’s School of Electronic Engineering and Computer Science, analysed 1,131 tunes from 360 year-end singles that reached the top five of the US Billboard charts every year between 1950 and 2022.

They found that while the complexity of song rhythms and pitch arrangements decreased over seven decades, the average number of notes played per second increased.

The researchers believe that this shift in complexity from the melody to other elements prevents the music from sounding overwhelming to listeners.

The team wrote: “In the 1950s, the range of possible timbres (sound quality) for music production was limited to the sounds that could be produced with the physical instruments and accessories available at the time.

“Today, thanks to the availability of digital music production software and libraries containing millions of samples and loops, anyone with a laptop and an Internet connection can create any sound imaginable.”