An earlier version of this article was published in 2018.
History is studied by experts. Both in art and in the natural or social sciences, thanks to professionals who detect changes in the social-cultural sphere with more interpretation than facts. That is, in a way qualitative but not quantitative. The appearance of the data, the easy access to it and the tools to index and interpret it in a generalized way will help to give precision to the historical perspective in many areas. Researchers Matthias Mauch, Robert M. MacCallum, Mark Levy, and Armand M. Leroi have chosen to get started with music.
In his work The evolution of popular music: USA 1960–2010 They explain that, for the first time, the evolution of the weekly lists of the 100 biggest hits on Billboard (that is, 17,000 songs) has been analyzed in a general way to test the different theories about popular music that we have taken as true for years. Their data only allows them to monitor what happened within the mainstream, but it is such a broad base that it helps to “demonstrate the quantitative trends in their harmonic and timbral properties” of music.
And here is the segmentation of the different songs analyzed. The major seventh chord (H1) is typical of music such as blues and jazz, minor seventh (H3) that of funky and dance seventies, and “no chords” (H5) it’s basically rap. So yes, you can see how the interest in music in the style of BB King or Nat ‘King’ Cole has been declining or how bands like Chic or Sly & The Family Stone arrived, dominated and left. Gradual chords, figure H6, are in general the most used by mass rock.
The timbral part is equally identifiable: the rock sound (T5) is on the retreat, while the energetic (T3) is still experiencing its great moment.
And how is music evolving? One of the most widespread fears and clichés is that music is becoming homogenized. Given that the Billboard, the most popular sounds of each era, is being analyzed, this data is perfect to contrast it. Seeing the variations of use of various chords and rhythms, the experts assure us that No need to worry, the variety of music is more than guaranteed. Of course, thanks to the three great moments of change, it is seen that there are genres that burst forth with force in a short space of time and tend to mark a longer time of sound stasis.
There have been three great revolutions that have led to the contraction of other genres. In 1964 and with the British invasion (The Beatles) started the era of pop. In 1983 the emergence of rock is perceived. In 1991, the golden era of rap began at a statistical (not historical) level, which is, according to the data collected by the research team, the most important musical revolution in the history of the 20th century and whose reign continues today. . Not the Beatles or Bruce Springsteen or AC / DC or anything.
If we had to sum it all up to a single genre, the most influential thing that has ever existed is rap. And then the first song to sneak into number 1 on this top: