A new survey suggests that there have only been three true pop music revolutions since 1960.
The evolution of western pop music, covering the years of 1960 to 2010, was studied by a team of scientists from Queen Mary University of London and Imperial College London, according to the BBC. They analyzed more than 17,000 songs from the U.S. Billboard Hot 100, and found cultural and sound shifts in three years: 1964, 1983, and 1991.
The study was published in the Royal Society Open Science Journal. “The researchers looked at the different characteristics of music, including harmony, chords changes and timbres (the tonal quality of the music), and then analysed how they changed over time,” writes the BBC.
1964 saw the British invasion introducing a new, rock and roll sound, with chords called dominant sevenths, found in jazz and blues starting to die out.
1983 brought about new technology with the rise of synthesizers, samplers and drum machines, signaling the second-greatest musical shift and first in nearly 20 years.
1991 was the introduction of rap and hip-hop to the mainstream.
Here’s more from the BBC:
“The third revolution is the biggest,” explained [Dr Matthias Mauch, from Queen Mary University of London]. “This is so prominent in our analysis, because we looked at harmony — and rap and hip-hop don’t use a lot of harmony. The emphasis is on speech sounds and rhythm. This was a real revolution: suddenly it was possible that you had a pop song without harmony.”
The researchers say that some musical changes were slower to become embedded within the charts, but still had a big impact.
Synths, drum machines and samplers helped bands like the Eurythmics to transform the charts.
“The minor seventh chords were introduced through funk, soul and disco in the 1970s,” said Dr Mauch.
“That didn’t cause a revolution, but these chords were not present before – and they haven’t gone away since. New songs still heavily use these chords.”
The researchers found that music constantly evolved and change throughout the 50-year period.
However, there was a blip – the introduction of arena rock in the 1980s meant that, for a while, music lacked diversity.
Dr. Mauch said: “A lot of hair metal and stadium rock, like Bon Jovi and Bruce Spingsteen, came into the charts, and they had a bigger share of the overall charts. But then rap and hip-hop came in. I think that hip-hop saved the charts.”
One aspect not mentioned in the survey is that we are due for the fourth revolution. There were 19 years between the first and second (1964 to 1983), and then just eight years between the second and third (1983 to 1991).
There have been a long 24 years since the final and third revolution.