Scientific study proves that today’s pop music really does suck

It’s not just our imagination – pop music really has been getting worse and worse. And now we have a scientific study that proves it.



This article from Reuters states:

“Comforting news for anyone over the age of 35, scientists have worked out that modern pop music really is louder and does all sound the same. Researchers in Spain used a huge archive known as the Million Song Dataset, which breaks down audio and lyrical content into data that can be crunched, to study pop songs from 1955 to 2010. A team led by artificial intelligence specialist Joan Serra at the Spanish National Research Council ran music from the last 50 years through some complex algorithms and found that pop songs have become intrinsically louder and more bland in terms of the chords, melodies and types of sound used.”

The “loudness” description refers to dynamic range compression. In the past, there was about 18 db between the average sound level and the peak sound level. The bigger this difference is, the more “punch” the music has. In recent years, the average sound level has been boosted, which reduces the difference between the average sound level and the peak sound level. Turning down the volume control on your stereo does not fix this “loudness” problem. Here’s a demonstration:

The Loudness War

As far as today’s music sounding more homogenous than the music of the past, here’s a Donna Summer song from 1979, followed by a different Donna Summer song from 2008. It’s very clear that the first is far more “musical” than the second:

Donna Summer – “Journey to the Center of Your Heart”

Donna Summer – “Mr. Music”