Has Popular Music Really Gotten Simpler Since 1950?

Research on top Billboard songs from 1950-2022 shows a decrease in melodic complexity, potentially linked to genre evolution and digital music production advancements, even as other musical components may have grown more complex.

The complexity of the melodies of the most popular songs each year in the USA — according to the Billboard year-end singles charts — has decreased since 1950, a study published on July 4 in the journal Scientific Reports suggests.

Madeline Hamilton and Marcus Pearce analyzed the most prominent melodies (usually the vocal melody) of songs that reached the top five positions of the US Billboard year-end singles music charts each year between 1950 and 2022. They found that the complexity of song rhythms and pitch arrangements decreased over this period as the average number of notes played per second increased.

They also identified two significant decreases in melodic complexity that occurred in 1975 and 2000, along with a smaller decrease in 1996. The researchers speculate that the melodic changes that occurred in 1975 could represent the rise of genres such as new wave, disco, and stadium rock. Those occurring in 1996 and 2000 could represent the rise of hip-hop or the adoption of digital audio workstations, which enabled the repeated playing of audio loops, they add.