Music and Societal Trends (Additional Features and Artists)

In the previous part, I explored the evolution of music over the past seventy years and found that popular songs are becoming shorter, louder, more positive and more electronic - a development primarily driven by technological advancements.

There are additional attributes that I wanted to explore because, even though some are technically not "features", they are a big part of what makes a song catchy, successful and, ultimately, impactful.

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Additional Song Attributes

Danceability

Songs have been getting more danceable, going from an average danceability of 0.52 in the 1950s to one of 0.63 in the 2010s. Some associate this trend to the clubbing and party culture that has become prevalent in the West, but while this could certainly be a factor, I was unable to find definitive answers.

Tonal Center (Key and Mode)

Key refers to the key the track is in, which can be C, C#, D, D#, E, F, F#, G, G#, A, A# or B (if you, like me, struggle with the American system, the equivalent European notation is Do, Do#, Re, Re#, Mi, Fa, Fa#, Sol, Sol#, La, La# and Si). Mode indicates the tonality (major or minor), and together key and mode describe the tonal center of a song.

Perception is subjective, and how a song sounds depends on a variety of things beyond just the mode and key but, in general, major keys sound happier than minor ones. The former are also much more popular, reflecting the upbeat feel of Western music. However, minor keys have been gaining popularity (the proportion of songs with a major mode decreased from 80% in the 1950s to 64% in the 2010s), a trend that could be related to the decrease in valence.

As for keys, the most popular ones are by far C and G (Do and Sol), particularly C and G major. These two happen to be amongst the easiest to play on piano and guitar - G is convenient for both while C is convenient for piano but not for guitar. Kenny Ning, Spotify data analyst and jazz pianist, argues that since contemporary instrumentation is largely based precisely around piano and guitar, composers often take the path of least resistance and pick convenient (i.e. easy to play) keys for their songs. Music key signature appears then to be based more on playing than on listening preferences.

Despite the dominance of C and G, there have been temporary fluctuations in key popularity. For instance, D (Re) was pretty popular in the 1970s, with songs like Hotel California, Mamma Mia, and Waterloo using it as their primary key. I researched the phenomenon but was unable to find an explanation for it.

Popularity

Popularity is calculated by Spotify based on a tracks' total number of plays and how recent those plays are. I expected the most recent tracks to have the highest popularity, but the most popular decade was actually the 1980s, with an average popularity of 60.14 compared to 57.5 (out of 100) for the 2010s.

Many newspapers and magazines highlight the cyclicality of pop culture and the associated nostalgia that comes with it. Society, it seems, is currently undergoing a period of "80s nostalgia", with movies, music, clothing and toys from the decade making a comeback. According to some articles, the 80s are appealing because they are "close enough to be recognizable but still different at the same time".

Musicians have jumped on the bandwagon and famous singers like Dua Lipa and The Weekend have recently release 80s-inspired music (Future Nostalgia and Blinding Lights, respectively) to great acclaim, further fueling the nostalgia.

Artist

The biggest artists of every decade (those with the highest number of popular songs) are Ella Fitzgerald (1950s), The Beatles (1960s), ABBA (1970s), Madonna (1980s), Bryan Adams (1990s), Rihanna (2000s) and Ed Sheeran (2010s). They've all exerted a big influence on social and cultural trends.

Fitzgerald, for example, achieved stardom when segregation was still the law in America and helped break down racial barriers through her voice and popularity. The Beatles are regarded as the most influential band in history. From social movements to fashion to religion to politics to (obviously) music, their legacy is wide-reaching. Another big star, Madonna, is considered by many as the greatest woman in the industry. Controversial, polarizing and undoubtedly accomplished, she changed the scene for women in music and paved the way for future female musicians.

Ed Sheeran is credited with bringing popular music "back down to Earth". Sheeran is a posterchild for the growing number of musicians, including Adele and Lewis Capaldi, that turned their backs on pop's previous over-the-top image for more relatable and "normal" music. Technology is, once again, believed to have been a contributing factor in these developments: fans, who once looked up to their favorite artists as remote and mysterious figures, can now connect with them on social media and a lot of people (especially those on the younger side) are appealed by more "normal" stars they can relate to.

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Song Attributes From the 1950 to Now

Technology has been a major driving force in the evolution of music, but it is not the only one. Human psychology, preferences and emotions have also played a big role. I, for one, found it somewhat comical that a lot of the songs we listen to sound the way they do in great part because those notes are easier to play. Additionally, the decrease in music positivity is intriguing, even more so when taking in to account that danceability has actually increased over the same period. Are we just dancing to sadder songs now?

There's just one piece missing (a really big one though): the lyrics. The lyrics are a crucial aspect of commercial music and an essential ingredient for a successful song (the melody might get stuck in our heads but it's the lyrics we sing along to!), so in the next part of the study I will use Natural Language Processing to analyze them.