It’s official: Science confirms that pop music is getting louder and blander

For those who suspect that a decline in the enjoyment of pop music is a sign of advancing age there is now scientific evidence to explain why.

After analysing half a million pop songs, from 1955 to 2010, Spanish scientists have found that pop music really is getting louder and blander.

The Spanish study found that the loudness of recorded music is increasing by one decibel every eight years.

Dr Joan Serrà and his team also reported that modern tunes display less variation in the pitch, which “roughly corresponds to the harmonic content of the piece, including its chords, melody, and tonal arrangements”.

The loudness finding tallies with work by researchers at the University of Bristol last year.

Dr Tijl de Bie and colleagues have developed a “hit potential equation”, capable of predicting whether a song will reach top five in the UK charts based on a total of 23 features, including tempo, duration and loudness.

Loudness was one important factor in determining if a song would be a hit, although over the past four decades, songs of all quality have got louder.

The equation was developed using an artificial intelligence technique called machine learning. This type of computer program improves through experience.

While studying numerous songs from the UK chart, the computer learnt which musical features correlate with popularity.

This study was the first to be able to accurately predict hits. The researchers suggest this is because it is the first to take into account changing musical tastes over time.

The time dimension was accounted for by adjusting the “memory” of the program so that it could adapt to new trends.

For those who haven’t adapted to the new trend for loudness, it may be some consolation that the computer found loudness peaked in 2010 and is now in decline.