You're not crazy: Pop music IS getting simpler.

[@wackmidi]

Music peaked at Crazy Frog, of course it'll get simpler. There's nowhere to go after Crazy Frog.

[@doinkle_idk]

if crazy frog has 1 million fans I'm one of them if crazy frog has 5 fans then I'm one of them too if crazy frog has 1 fan then that's fan is me if crazy frog has 0 fans I'm dead I will always be a crazy frog fan

[@orlock20]

Crazy Frog is Axel F with a frog.

[@InventorZahran]

Bing bing!

[@chrisdavidson911]

Never. A truer word. Spoken.

[@chrisdavidson911]

@@orlock20 Axel Frogly.

[@Sir.Felix1590]

Rick beato better not find this

[@Bubba.mitchell4603]

He will roast everyone

[@kev1257ful]

Never forget that Rick Beato is homophobic, causing Adam Neely to stop associating with him. He replied to a comment criticizing him saying to “say hi to your boyfriend for me”. The guy commenting wasn’t being rude nor was he queer

[@CosmicPotato]

​@@kev1257ful what....? Happen to remember what video this was on?

[@kev1257ful]

@@CosmicPotato it was around 2018/2019. i commented this before but rick has way more fanboys that i thought, so i got called a hater or a softie. at least now people are rightfully calling him out for his faults. i’ll try to find the original comment or video though anyway

[@mrvegetables2934]

🤣😭​@@kev1257ful

[@IlyaKokoev]

Only thing that confuses me here is the question of sample size of 5 songs per year. Sure, it might not change decades long trends, but on a decade short parts it might differ wildly if we add top-10 or top-20 songs. I get that even top-5 is a lot of work, but still.

[@itsaUSBline]

yeah it's definitely an incredibly limited sample.

[@ramenai]

I agree that it's a relatively small sample size, but given that a top-10 sample size would have them listen to 730 songs in total (or 1460 songs in total if they used top-20), if they did want to replicate the study with a bigger sample size, they're gonna need WAY more help to analyze the songs than if just the two listed authors did the work alone.

[@Speccy94]

​@@ramenai Yep, hopefully the attention from this paper gets the research group a grant that lets another 2 PhD students listen to 10 songs each and look at 5 more metrics

[@GEMSofGOD_com]

Thank you for the comment. This video is not worth these precious minutes of my life

[@kai5]

5 songs per year is so small and insignificant it barely even counts as an anecdote.

[@Silvarret]

By the simple = bad metric, Rush E must be the best pop song ever written.

[@YellowMonke]

I did not expect to see silv here lmao

[@Yan_8]

I need the retween button so bad right now.

[@enri_mucca]

And Anton Webern is my favourite pop songwriter!

[@Champiness]

Ironically the signature element of Rush E is probably its note density

[@GizzyDillespee]

It's not a pop song

[@SoundsOfTheWild3]

I think its because a lot of modern pop music is more production based compared to the old days.

[@MikeSparksMusic]

Nice observation

[@jcsmith4324]

nobody tell this guy about goerge martin and brain wilson

[@Noivryn]

modern pop sounds so corporate

[@Somewhere_Bagel]

@@Noivryn modern pop as in billboard charts or just the genre in general. i hope u mean just the mainstream cause some of the best pop albums have dropped this year

[@Noivryn]

@Somewhere_Bagel I'm only talking about the billboard stuff

[@Dodong716]

Rick Beato is fuming right now

[@dereklasker5350]

As a statistician (by trade at least anyway) this is an incredibly interesting way to turn music into data and actually perform an analysis on it. Great job to Madeline and whoever else aided her in this research Also the “this study doesn’t mean you should assume that music is bad now” is so important, there are too many people who take data as absolute truth and have no idea how to actually interpret data and read between the lines of what it’s actually saying

[@the_piano_nerd4960]

As a recent grad with a degree in data scientist, I’m wondering how I can jump on research like this

[@dereklasker5350]

@@the_piano_nerd4960 you probably have to just find people who are doing research on it and reach out, otherwise if you’re doing it on your own you would have to find some public data or something

[@maxinator317]

The equilibrium idea is really fascinating. You can apply it to pretty much every genre and see what they emphasize and where they cut back, which is really neat to think about.

[@shankieinthefridge]

Agree, and you could apply it even beyond that. I really liked Mic's comparison to cooking, but you could apply it to tons of other things - films, sports, work, who knows what else?

[@evacody1249]

Expect it fails when you take it into metal bands that fallow the path of symphonic sounds where melody, harmony, etc all play a part in the music. Take it out and all you have is just hardcore music.

[@thatsbetoman]

dont show this to rick beato. please.

[@talkgoodenglish7500]

Music used to have guitars man! What is even the point of music if no guitar?

[@plnkblue]

rick beato doesn’t need facts, he’ll keep rambling about the “good ol days” regardless

[@douglaspantz]

it's crazy how good rick beato could be if he just did his music theory/production song breakdowns and interviews and stopped the boomer nostalgia bait

[@mappplesirrup8473]

god i wish rick beato would shut up sometimes

[@ryantubbs9173]

I assume those are the videos that get the most engagement so they’re probably here to stay

[@connorshelton9535]

Legit was thinking "is that the Billie Jean beat?" at 3:50 and felt absolutely vindicated when you started singing

[@kielaurie]

Same here, it says something about how iconic the Billie Jean drums are that there wasn't even a second option for what that could have been. Quincy Jones worked some magic in the studio that day

[@the_piano_nerd4960]

ME. TOO. Part of it I think is the tempo is perfectly set. Not rushing, not dragging, just grooving

[@BurntOutMillennial]

Same here

[@DavidBennettPiano]

You handled this topic so well! So many people are ready to let their confirmation bias win the day but this was a really well-balanced and well-considered discussion. 😊 great job

[@marcen12]

I'm hyped for this. Pop music has ALWAYS been complicated to make but simple enough to be catchy.

[@riahlexington]

I don’t think that music has gotten worse but I do think that the TikTok trends of shorter songs as songs are forgoing bridges and tension as well as key changes makes pop music less interesting to me. I’m a big K-pop fan and have observed this a lot. But every decade has its fair share of bad pop songs that we forget about. The best songs are the ones that always will be remembered. So I don’t think music is getting worse I think everything has peaks and valleys. But I don’t like a lot of current trends right now. Also as Justin Timberlake once said “what goes around goes around goes around goes around comes back around” so older trends always come back!

[@MorganHJackson]

Honestly, considering we spent years with pop being flavoured by RnB and then EDM, it shouldn't be a surprise that it has a stronger focus on rhythm and tone.

[@jesuisunstroopwafel]

Next video: what exactly is Pop music?

[@thegeecyproject]

*Vsauce music plays*

[@jor1870]

@@thegeecyproject”Hey, The Snare, Michael here. Pop music is such a recognisable and easy to define genre…. Or is it?”

[@IsiahTomas]

*shrug.* Lame dad music?

[@seannolan9857]

Anything that charts in the top 40.

[@zsj2735]

I think a more important shift is the song structure, pop music is getting shorter and shorter but the bpm isn’t changing overall, so to make a track less than 3 minutes you have to get rid of either a full on verse or a bridge, which can make a track underbaked

[@Tomhyde098]

I was a “pop doomer” until until a couple years ago. I absolutely hated most pop music of the 2010’s, it was overly repetitive and I just didn’t like it. But starting a couple years ago it feels better, there’s more instruments and more interesting lyrics. For the first time in a decade I’m actually listening to and enjoying pop music which is really surprising to me because I had pretty much written it off

[@justink8156]

The progression from me being 14 like "ewww Soulja boy this shit sucks I listen to rock and good hip hop like the roots" to now understanding how beautiful the simplicity of crank dat is

[@DBEO23]

Same here but for me, it was more pop in the late 2010s It just felt like 2017-2019 was operating on 3 hours of sleep & ambien. Just nothing but moody singing over tepid trap beats, Imaginedragons overproduced yet underwritten indie rock songs you’d hear in Laptops commercials, or bland EDM songs with nameless singers. Most of pop musics titans were asleep during this era or doing other things or failing. But starting 2020, it feels like Pop Music has started to have life again and to feel like Pop music again. It genuinely feels like Pop Music is being Pop Music again and having life in it and I’m glad for that. It’s made listening to local radio in the car much better & conversations around Pop singers much more fun and interesting, both due to the newer Pop artists & so many pop titans returning(Beyonce, Gaga, Rihanna sort of, etc) to the spotlight again for their music

[@PrimarisAngelusMortis]

But pop music is indeed getting worse, uninspiring or straight up boring so how could you explain that? Here comes the gaslighting lmao 😂

[@Tomhyde098]

@@PrimarisAngelusMortis you like what you like, don’t let anyone tell you different or try to impose your views on anyone else. I think it’s getting better, you think it’s getting worse. Cool. Life would be boring if we all agreed with each other

[@PrimarisAngelusMortis]

​@@Tomhyde098 Still doesn't change the fact that pop music is getting even more lame, simple, uninspiring, and boring more than ever. 😂

[@thegeecyproject]

We need a full cover of Tomorrow Never Knows ASAP

[@caitlynsult2685]

one of the best beatles songs tbh

[@ralelunar]

That metaphor about food is so apt. I can't get into modern prog rock because it's all seasoning and there's no room for the actual music to breathe.

[@user-wx2ek3uv1i]

Not really

[@PrimalDirective]

sounds like bad taste diff

[@Sandkasten36]

What kind of prog do you listen? I've been a big Pink Floyd fan and I found lots of modern prog that I like.

[@Sandkasten36]

Listen to Descending by Tool. It has lots of room to breathe and the best drummer who currently lives.

[@literallyap0tat0-q7q]

I was a huge prog fan years ago and I largely agree. I still enjoy it but it's kind of a silly genre imo. It's enjoyable on an intellectual level, but not on a emotional level. Pink Floyd still slaps though

[@ileutur6863]

Honestly? As a big hater of top 40 pop, 2024 is the first year I can say I genuinely enjoyed pop releases. Chapel Roan and Sabrina Carpenter had some bubblegum feelgood hits, Brat summer was an entire thing of its own. I like when pop embraces its own campy stupidity, it makes it fun. The entire trend of overly serious "dark" pop stars was incredibly bland and dishonest.

[@oo4758]

They went dark because they were chasing that Weeknd grindset

[@render6671]

i would like them if they were more lofi but just as intense as the 70's, i cant stand high production music for some reason

[@SmallBlogV8]

Only doing the Top-5 is an understandable starting point if they're building up datasets from little or nothing, but expanding out to the Top-10 would potentially make quite a big difference - albeit whilst doubling their workload...

[@ErkaaJ]

The problem with attaching harmony or melody to 'musical complexity' is that a lot of other and more interesting metrics of musical complexity is lost. Beethoven is notorious for very simple melodies and harmonies (so a simpleton by the researchers), but what makes him the arguably greatest composer of all time is that he transforms that melody, introducing rich structure to a piece. Dante Sonata by Liszt is perhaps the greatest example of this, where the main motif is just a chromatic scale, but the melody transforms to an almost 20-minute titan. What CAN be said, I'd argue, is that music lacks structural variation, since every song needs a hook rather than a developing theme.

[@itsaUSBline]

I mean, some subgenres of jazz have a whole lot of both rhythmic and melodic complexity. And sure it can be kinda intense for casual listening, but it's not impossible to enjoy.

[@jeppy4021]

That's where we gotta realize that pop music is made to appeal to the lowest common denominator of muslic listener, your average 13 year olds making tiktoks and stuff...

[@henryglennon3864]

Agree, but Portico Quartet and BADBADNOTGOOD aren't exactly pop music. For some reason.

[@Oafah]

She did what I tried to do in University, but I got bored and opened a Magic the Gathering store instead.

[@mrsic2012]

Man I just got destroyed at the duskmourn prerelease today

[@justink8156]

​@@mrsic2012Sorry dude, you'll have better luck in the draft next time.

[@Dappis]

Another factor: if your melody is at all similar to a melody by someone who has the money to sue you, you are kinda fucked

[@The_Beautifully_insane]

"Pop music won't be simple when I come along". I think some of the future artists who are gonna say this, might have fun and so may I. I hope spite and creative drive come back to be friends again.

[@Actinjsh]

Mic the Snare SLAMS Rick Beato in latest video!!!?!???!!!??!?!!!!

[@SoundsOfTheWild3]

Rick was a jazz professor and a big theory guy, so its not surprising he finds a lot of the composition bad. He does hone in on the production and often compliments it.

[@ralelunar]

​@@SoundsOfTheWild3 he's very complimentary of Max Martin. The boomers who watch his channel are too ignorant to remember that.

[@caleb281]

​@SoundsOfTheWild3 and then he'll make the thumbnail for the video him grimacing with the words "IS THIS EVEN MUSIC ANYMORE - WTF HAPPENED??"

[@SoundsOfTheWild3]

@@caleb281 I know its funny, and then he doesn't say anything like the thumbnail. That's more KZbin algorithm click baiting.

[@daishoryujin95]

@@SoundsOfTheWild3 I call it Clickbeato.

[@meredithmallette6392]

Broooo literally just this morning I was contemplating what a game changer being able to synthesize basically any sound was!! Your run away with me analysis permanently rewired my brain to pay attention to tamber especially and it's wild obvious now how much bigger of an audio effect palatte modern music has vs even the 70's, 80's.

[@walterxbenjamin]

"There's sort of a maximum amount of complexity that we can handle in music in order for it to stay enjoyable" Glances at the Ruins records on my shelf.

[@dewot1256]

Yeah I feel like this statement is contingent on the sorry state of music education in the general public.

[@enri_mucca]

Ruins are a crazy band!

[@alfonsstekebrugge8049]

It's an argument that is just speculative. Don't pay it any attention I would say. Besides Ruins isn't actually that complex all in all. Yeah sure they are all over the place in terms of melodies and rhythms, I'm certainly not claiming the opposite, but ultimately it's just bass and drums largely playing in a sort of stable dynamic. In terms of timbre they easily spend a whole album not changing a single thing for instance. Meanwhile we've got 14 year old girls listening to K-Pop that is so complex it absolutely blows the mind, but as the main driving force is just a cute melody people don't rate it as such. Check out Eunbi - Glitch for instance. The whole pop getting simpler argument is just nothing but boomerism when you hear stuff like that.

[@WaffleAbuser]

Thanks, will check them out

[@onelonelypebble5629]

MIC THE SNARE 🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🗣🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥

[@theelectricant98]

White boy can sing

[@bigredradish]

i believe the Heidecker-Wareheim Pretense has already proven all songs really just branch out from Farmer in the Dell but it's good to get some quantitative studies done

[@yoshim616]

Right before you said it my thought was that there’s so much production complexity that pop music nowadays can be very interesting on that level.

[@sumanthmoole]

insanely well written and well paced video, this was a really unique watch compared to other music content on youtube

[@5600block]

Melodies are getting simpler, but frequency is far more complex

[@jackyboy2593]

2 word for you… Progressive rock

[@5600block]

@@jackyboy2593 I prefer Kraut Rock

[@MellonAM]

So glad for the revival of pop this year

[@ShayTheValiant]

Will you be doing "The Music That Defined The 1980s"?

[@cador6169]

i feel like the fact that trap beats have gotten so universally popular within the past decade or so is clear evidence of rhythmic complexity increasing in pop music, especially drill-type beats, they often have so many rapid layered sounds involved

[@LogannnnnnnnY]

Phew. Thanks for the answer Mic! I was worried.

[@tswizzle2020]

this is the exact kind of nerdy music stuff i love. delicious

[@CadenMustoe]

3:18 why does Mic sound like Kermit the Frog

[@quinnmackay-smith9352]

In the next video, can you do "Why is there no new bands that are popular anymore?".

[@adityabhujbal6891]

You didn't mention the MIcrophones' Mount Eerie album, which is extremely melodic, mind you.

[@danytalksmusic]

to answer your question, is there a whiter song than Breathe by Faith Hill? yes, Dancing Queen by Abba

[@pavaoc0p]

Maybe Don't Stop Believing by Journey. That's pretty white ngl.

[@shankieinthefridge]

What about A Thousand Miles by Vanessa Carlton?

[@danytalksmusic]

I've DJ'ed at many weddings and Dancing Queen is guaranteed to make the white people stand up and the black people sit down 😂

[@GabeWilliams]

A song can be different types of useful to different people. If there is a simple song that any amount of people enjoy, I don’t really see the point in trying to quantify it and compare it to what you prefer. There’s limited time we get here. I’d rather listen to what I love and look for more because there’s frankly too much good music to listen to it all.

[@itamarlibman]

"there is frankly too much good music" i feel this, sometimes i get overwhelmed and not listen to great albums because there is too many stuff and i cant focus on it

[@GabeWilliams]

@@itamarlibman so many decades of music. I try to keep a few albums saved at a time that I can come back to, but I’m always stumbling upon something amazing everyone else knew about for years.

[@Wheatly_Portal2]

I feel like music has gone to cool melody and lyrics, to “ooh this sounds good”

[@V.F.D.DaleSalvador]

This is why I like a lot of Vocaloid songs. The vocal/main melodies are more complex but usually centered around combining a bunch of micro melodies. It almost comes across as rap/singing a lot. I'd say because of the more rhythmic/in depth structure of Japanese as a language, and the limitations of the Vocaloid software were pitch is locked in key. The song "Just Be Friends" by Dixie Flatline is a perfect example. The main hook is a classic 2010 Pop Hook, but the rest is a series of very rhythmic micro melodies creating larger melodies.

[@Drkonlime]

I love Mr. Snare! He make videos. Videos good. We dance. ✨

[@Drkonlime]

Also the videos are very informative to me!

[@DuhAverageJoe]

3:53 This is how I imagine Daryl Hall singing “Billie Jean” 😂

[@360crazycoco]

Omg I used Markov chains in my university dissertation! Wild hearing about them in the real world

[@niklaslachmann1038]

I don't think a melody is simple just because it has a low ambitus and small steps. Some of the most beutiful melodies in history are like that. Look at Beethovens Allegretto from the 7th Symphonie, look at Händel's Sarabande. By this metric the melodies would be called simple, but they are meticulously constructed. I think "clearness" is a better word in those cases

[@JaxzanProditor]

So cool to see this use for Markov chains in a completely different area from where I’m used to seeing them! I’ll have to dive into that paper when I have a chance

[@jess_o]

I want to go back in time and play Imaginal Disk for a medieval peasant

[@courtneyp289wruosihj]

super interesting to think about how music changes so much with how technology is evolving! great vid!

[@orchestrate]

it's not just about melody though. there's some sort of richness & character that's missing in some new pop music in general. I'm not saying all, but a still higher ratio than the past.

[@Heheha329]

Harmony that's not copy paste?

[@orchestrate]

@@Heheha329 nahh I don't think it's that easy to explain. blaming it on harmony or melody or mix or... any series of specific things like that is like being so hyper-focused on the letters n accents that you forget to read the sentence. you can use whatever "letters" (aka instruments, techniques, lyrics, harmonies, etc) you want, but you need to say something at the end. modern pop music just doesn't. at best, it's just a really cool looking sequence of words. it lacks that "soul", that MJ, that "got a dance". that "you CANNOT believe what I just felt. I can't explain it, but I hope this song does. I can't wait to show you what it was like".

[@andy2641]

so what’s missing is you don’t like it 🙄

[@orchestrate]

@@andy2641 check my orchestrations, half of it is billie eilish n drake n dua lipa n shit. I don't think it's fair to play the "shoo away, boomer" card. my point's completely fair.

[@andy2641]

@@orchestrate i'm just saying what you said. your point is that you don't like it cus u don't like it. your conclusion was that you only get the "you CANNOT believe what I just felt" feeling when you listen to older music, so that is your preference - it's nothing specific to the music, it's just a stylistic / genre preference

[@puwumats8122]

mr mic you CAN'T just blast me with superman by goldfinger and NOT follow it up with a ska video

[@DEATH-KRAB-WAR-ZONE-mg2bz]

I'm down if everything will start sounding like Chappell Roan.

[@Malkmusianful]

I can't wait for Rick Beato to rant about how Terry Riley ruined music

[@soulfulserenity8522]

It's not just melodies. Soul in singing and in instrumental is barely there. It feels a lot more artificial compared to Early Noughties.

[@seanieyeet]

Yo I just watched your ajr discography deep dive and they have a new album and I think you should listen to it and let us know what you think. If it changes anything about them. If it’s better than previous albums. Or any other thing you think about it. 😊

[@seanieyeet]

Album is - The Maybe Man. Please consider!

[@mrflipperinvader7922]

I knew this happened when "Laffy Taffy" became a hit

[@SoundsOfTheWild3]

I don't know about that balance thing, some genres of music are all around very simple, while other genres are all around very complicated.

[@adamshay3251]

If you're wanting more stuff to read about pop music - there's a whole association of researchers studying it! It's called the IASPM (International Association for the Study of Popular Music), and all sorts of really cool work is being done by them.

[@hay4664]

What are we down to the 3 cords of pop now?

[@davidthepangolin]

Hey Mic!

[@MicTheSnare]

Hey David!

[@enri_mucca]

Pop is too simple and monotonous for me guys (proceeds to listen to Paysage D'Hiver)

[@funguy183]

“Pop is too simple and monotonous for me guys.” *Says the guy who has a Henry Cow profile picture*

[@enri_mucca]

​​​@@funguy183It's a joke😀 Paysage D'Hiver makes ridiculously monotonous music. Pop music is good imo

[@jerrys1]

Ouch

[@Bartholomule01]

Great point about Rock music. Simple drums to make room for more complex guitar solos. Similarly music with vocals only has room for a lot of musical complexity during vocal breaks. Instrumental music has way more room for solos and stuff because of the voice.

[@robwilson6748]

I used to be a proper pop doomer. As far as I'm concerned there was a mini golden period (in the UK at least, where I'm from) between the late 90s and early 2000s (when it was Timbaland vs. Pharrell vs. Richard X vs. William Orbit vs. Xenomania) and then again in the mid-2000s (when loads of indie labels suddenly got loads of money and huge numbers of alternative acts (Arctic Monkeys, My Chemical Romance, Scissor Sisters, Robyn) were suddenly having massive hits and loads of exposure. There was a great *MIX* of things in the charts and it was great to get so much different stuff from music radio. That's all I want out of pop, really: stylistic variety. The "quality" of pop (for want of a better term) never really changes, but if there's a lot of stylistic variety then the good stuff just comes naturally because there's something for everyone. And the 2000s were an incredibly diverse time in terms of the genres, sounds, and acts getting into the top 10 and on the radio. But then in 2008 the banks crashed, labels and promoters completely ran out of money, and radios and tastemakers just wanted guaranteed money-spinners. So the 2010s was defined by almost everyone following the same EDM/brostep trend, interspersed with sensitive singer-songwriter stuff. Rock of any persuasion vanished entirely. There was no sense that every artist/band was in their own lane or that scenes were trying to outdo each other. It was just fuchsia mulch. Everyone tried a club banger, and if that didn't work they'd try a slightly softer club banger that was geared towards festival sounds, and softer, and softer, until it finally worked - usually when they collaborated with another famous artist. Things were better in America, where lots of different listening habits coalesce into a much larger pop charts/radio scene. But in the UK we're all under the same roof - it's either the BBC, Spotify, or Capital FM, and that's it - and the diversity of pop music ground to a halt in the 2010s. I really thought that was just going to be it, forever. But around late 2019, early 2020, TikTok and the pandemic hit. And suddenly pop's game had changed. And now I think we're in another golden age where you've got singer-songwriters, dance and electro, rap and hip hop have come back, even power pop/rock have returned. You get artists like Chappell Roan and Noah Kahan (he's not my cup of tea but...), who have come out of absolutely nowhere, having major chart success just because a bunch of kids on TikTok liked his stuff. TikTok, for all its faults, has democratised pop again (as much as it can be democratised) and finally shook things up after nearly a full decade of stasis.

[@jeppy4021]

pop songs are simple, because they are designed to grab the lowest common denominator of music listeners. And they are getting simpler because (just a theory of mine), there has been an increase in headphone/earphones users in general and the consumer quality, hence we don't need to blast them with complex stuff Edit: Also realized on the increase of the "vibe" culture where people use music, not for musical purpose, but as a social connecting device, so the easier a song is to sing along or hum along to with your friends and family, the better.

[@xamp_exclammark]

I like how you mention vibe culture and then procced to describe how people acted towards music in the earliest of its days

[@jeppy4021]

@@xamp_exclammark yeah humans were dumb early but as technology and comfort increased, people got more intellectual... so you want us to go back to caveman ooga booga times?

[@TheJttv]

Only the top 5 seems like a tiny sample set. But I understand how much work even that was.

[@greagandev]

I haven't read the study yet. Here are my concerns, based on your video. Biased variable 1: the data is based on a single researcher's subjective perception. There is a big variation in what different people will "hear". Biased variable 2: the top songs by year. This doesn't take into account how the songs got to the top 5. This has had multiple shifts over time (technology, industry, etc).

[@jsc315]

We age and don't like what the younger generations like. This is something that has happened literally all through all history.

[@PuttinOnTheRiffs]

I remember feeling this way when Del Ray’s Summertime Sadness came out on the radio with the heavy back beat. The studio version is beautiful and sad. The radio version is at war with its own message

[@akex519]

1:18 MUSESCORE MENTIONED ‼️‼️

[@bgmchrisc]

It isn't just a pop music thing. As evident as I have always felt this phenomenon was, rock and metal have also seen their focus shift from melody to rhythm in the last two decades (the rise of djent, etc). I can't explain why the current generations have tilted in that direction, but it's happening in more than just pop music. As always, pop is a reflection of the rest of culture, not usually a driving force unto itself.

[@amandaslough125]

See, I have 2 main thoughts from this video. First, I'd love to see the same study done specifically on the Kpop industry, since I feel like crossing the kpop generations would probably showcase the same type of data across a smaller time period. Especially with the trend of simpler to nonexistent choruses now in exchange for background complexity and overall vibes. Second, in a vacuum I dont think it's a problem. But taking into account how many fewer producers there are for the mainstream industry mixed with the current technological era of tiktok, low attention spans, issues within education, and an economy that mimics 100 years ago; I do think there should be some cause for concern when so much of music is written with lower writing literacy tendencies and used as low vibe escapism. I think it's a symptom of larger systematic issues.

[@benharlow2186]

Yo this video was really interesting I’d love to see you cover more studies like this

[@Picobits]

By the end of the century, pop music will have devolved into first-verse-of-Mr-Brightside levels of monotone melodies

[@iantaakalla8180]

This Is How We Do by Katy Perry was already that monotone except for when she says “It’s no big deal” and is dedicating stuff to other people doing slightly awkward stuff that can, in a regimented world, be looked down upon.

[@evanpetrolle2596]

UNBELIEVABLE video as always Mic💪

[@victoryzy]

I’ve heard it this way - horizontal composition (harmonically complex) is getting simpler while we are advancing in vertical composition (timbres, sound design). Compare Hans Zimmer one note drone scores with John Williams. At the end of the day, music is a medium to make us feel something!

[@RakkiOfficial]

have to say about myself I'm not really a doomer of pop music, just not a fan of the current trend and patiently waiting for the trends of the next decade to kick in in the next 2-3 years :) (they always start around the middle of the decade looking back at pop music history) but that's also why I search for the music I like instead of relying on charts, that's the beauty of the diversefied modern music world :)

[@marshal-d-123]

I think people just feel like modern pop is getting worse, but then pin it on the completely wrong reasons. I wouldn’t say modern pop is getting worse because it’s melodies are simpler. Well crafted simple melodies can be very powerful. But I am still of the opinion that modern pop IS in fact worse because there is less musicianship and more reliance on software as a crutch. And I’m not saying DAWs getting easier to use or more accessible is the problem, I’m just saying the over reliance on them is bad. And the result of this is music that sounds less human. That’s why I think modern pop is generally worse. When you start using auto tune to compensate for bad singing, drum machines to compensate for a lack of a drummer, quantizing an actual drummer’s recording which makes it sound like a drum machine, etc. you get a stale, rigid, and machine like sound. AI is going to bite many artists in the butts because of this. So really, I’m not saying all music is getting worse. There are plenty of amazing musicians and artists out there who know how to use these digital tools (even auto tune!) but use them tastefully and NOT as a crutch. An example would be using auto tune as a vocal effect for a specific part of a song but not as a crutch. So my only point is that popular music is getting worse, not all music, and really my definition of “worse” is less human. Most modern pop sounds rigid and stale to me because of the heavy reliance on these digital tools to make things easier, and the insistence on rooting out small human mistakes instead of leaving them in, which ultimately sucks the humanity and life out of it.

[@laurenan9381]

please do a deep discog dive on Courtney Love's band "Hole", they have amazing grunge and rock-pop music, such an underrated and forgotten band of the 90s! :) I love Nirvana but Hole gets too much hate because of preconceived bias! give the 3 essential Hole albums a chance, Courtney's songwriting is amazing!

[@DanLyndon]

So yeah, I think we all knew that music was becoming more focused on sound than melody, but the thing is, just having more going on sonically does not make something sound better unless it's done well, which it rarely is. We've already learned how to combine complex melodies with complex sonic palettes in classical, orchestral music. You just bring different sounds in at different times that work best in that moment, not throw everything at the listener at once.

[@VincenzodeLeon]

What people tend to forget is that “pop” music is a descriptive genre more than a prescriptive, especially when we use it in this context. So, it’s not that pop music has gotten simpler, rather simple music has become popular. (Yes I watched the video, I know we dove deeper than that, I’m just riffing on the title)

[@dakorpg]

love you both for this

[@Shenderson3003]

Pop music has always been about making easy to listen songs, so it makes sense that it's becoming more simple. Even Elvis' biggest hits used techniques that are criticised in today's media, such as implementing a hook at the start of the song and also repeating lyrics to make the song more catchy. Obviously, these are more heightened now than they were in the 1950's, but the blueprints are very much the same

[@antoniojoserunez4165]

For those who try to demonize Rick, he basically said the same thing. What he is more concerned about is how people value music nowadays.

[@Billiamwoods]

Was this in the video titled "WTF IS THE SPOTIFY TOP 10 EVEN MUSIC?" or "WHY DOES ALL MUSIC SOUND THE SAME??"

[@antoniojoserunez4165]

@@Billiamwoods The latter, alongside his video after that.

[@jeppy4021]

we gotta realize that we are now living in an economy which is only second worst to the great depression of the 1930s people are quite busy and stressed. So the "value" of music you are talking about, sadly only the rich and the people with free time are able to fully experience.. most people just listen to music as an escape from real life coping mechanism nowadays or to make tiktoks

[@AManChoosesASlaveObeys]

Tell why does Beatles have só many songs that sound the same, production, lyrics and composition wise then try tô have the same talk with Rick who Will Tell you are a zoomer bred from tiktok who doesnt know what "real music" should sounds like.

[@antoniojoserunez4165]

@@AManChoosesASlaveObeys That was in their early days, before they tried to be more innovative and experimental. Those songs are still good though.

[@themusicnerdguy]

another banger by michael snare

[@biblioholic7139]

Sample size seems too small for the population it's supposed to represent.

[@Phosfit]

If it lacks diversity, it will stay entertaining for only so long. People will age out of it, then it’ll become the Axe Body Spray of genres until it changes, then it’d be back.

[@gabrielvasquez8080]

how can I imlore fo a study like this to be done on latin music. I believe it breaks your last conclussions, as for the last 20 years a single genre with significant rythm simlicity has overshadowed, more rythmically comlex genres

[@BadSodaProductions]

Mic my man I’m gonna. Start begging you to cover Current Joys in a dive or just Nick Rattigan’s whole body of work Cuz dude his New LP is So So good

[@jonno8360]

Great video!

[@Minnepopin]

Whusup Mr mic the snare

[@thenumberIX]

Is 5 songs per year really enough?

[@ponyphonic]

No, those numbers say "this warrants more study" and are not something to base a conclusion on.

[@Michel-r6m]

Music is now taken care of in a complex studio? What about Exile on Main St. that took about nine months to be done? Nowadays it is a lot of "copy & paste" and errors are just overdubbed instead of left in to add character (just as sharing one mike with three or so singers in a primitive studio). Things had a sound and character, no mention of compression...or music repriduction in general...?

[@joshgibbons-eyre8697]

Reading the title, I was really worried this video was gonna be like that absolute pile of dogturd Inside The Score released a few years ago but thankfully there's actual research and nuance in this one so nice job Michael Snare.

[@DerekPower]

Yup, art has been a perpetual pendulum swing between simple and complex. Always has been. This should supersede the earlier one that was used to make the claim that “music is getting worse” as the approach is more - dare I say - musical. Furthermore, that earlier one presumed that timbre was getting simpler, even similar, because everyone uses a DAW and a sampler. This is like saying novels are the same because the vast majority of them were written using word processing software.

[@theatomicpunkkid]

A lot of people say that the floor fell out in 2000 with the boy bands while I say the floor got a few marks on it with the boy bands. I'd say the floor officially fell out for popular music in late 2018 and it was quite sudden.

[@erenjaeger5210]

Yeah Mic, analyzing music theory and looking at graphs *insert Nickelback joke here* is cool and all but let's get down to business. (Amogus) You're a video game nerd so when are we getting the Sonic content? I know you can't resist it.