Are your elders always complaining about loud and monotonous music? Or perhaps you've started to feel similar sentiments? The Artificial Intelligence Research Institute in Barcelona says it's not just a matter of opinion. The team analyzed data on loudness, pitch and timbre from just under half a million tracks spanning 55 years, finding the average volume of recordings has increased in that time -- said to be the doing of record labels so songs stand out amongst other radio noise. But, they report that little has changed in the actual music, and whilst there are obviously differences in composition, most melodies are created from just ten popular chords. Variations in timbre, or tone quality, have also dipped since the 1960s, which the team attributes to the experimentation of shredders from that era. Creativity in music is obviously still abundant and it's important to point out only Western pop music was included in the analysis, but Gran was never really into the progressive stuff anyway.

Researchers prove your grandmother right, modern music is louder and all the same originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 30 Jul 2012 16:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.