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It may come as no surprise but a study has found that the Golden Age of memorable pop music was from the 1960s to the 1990s.

What is surprising was that the research quizzed people aged 18 to 25, who weren't even around during most of those decades.

The participants in the survey would have been born between 1994 and 2001. And yet they quickly forgot any pop songs that were released since 2000.

The 643 young people who took part were tested on their ability to recognise hit records from different decades.

They maintained a steady memory of top tunes that came out between 1960 and 1999.

But their memory of 21st century songs from 2000 to 2015 diminished rapidly over time.

(Image: PA)

Lead researcher Dr Pascal Wallisch, from New York University in the USA, said: "The 1960s to 1990s was a special time in music, reflected by a steady recognition of pieces of that era-even by today's millennials."

During this period songs reaching the top of the US Billboard charts were significantly more varied than they were between 2000 to 2015, or the 1940s and 1950s, said the scientists.

Even so, certain songs were far more memorable than others.

Well known examples included When a Man Loves a Woman by Percy Sledge (1966), Baby Come Back by Player (1977) and The Tide is High by Blondie (1980).

Others, including Knock Three Times by Dawn (1970), I'm Sorry by John Denver (1975) and Truly by Lionel Richie (1982) were all but forgotten.

Songs selected for the study included those that reached number one on the Billboard Top 100 between 1940 and 1957, and top slot on the Billboard Hot 100 from 1958 to 2015.

Each participant was presented with short excerpts from a random selection of seven out of 152 songs and asked to say if they recognised them.

Below, the story of pop legend George Michael:

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The recognition proportion for each song was then plotted as a function of the year when it was a hit.

A steep drop-off in recognition was seen for hits produced between the years 2015 and 2000, and a more gradual decline for songs of the 1950s and 1940s.

However, songs from the 1960s to 1990s generated a "stable plateau" of music recognition.

The research is published in the journal Public Library of Science ONE.