The above image comes from research by the music writer Ted Gioia, and is described in more detail below.
As for the first article we see here, this question starts us off - are these scientists measuring the "natural" changing preference in our culture for less complex music, or are they simply measuring market forces? (A crippled market of course, which has no more growth potential, and which is cannibalizing itself, as described below.)
Using network science, study shows music has become less complex
Jan 2025, phys.org
Measuring the complexity of a piece of music - They began by thinking of each note as a node on a network and then connecting them using edges if they came directly one after another, then thickening the edges based on the number of times a single note transitioned to another. The more complex the series of notes, the more complex the music.20,000 songs later, they found that classical music was more complex than modern music, with the exception of jazz.The researchers also found that music of all kinds has slowly become simpler as time has passed, even classical and jazz. They were not able to explain why but suggested that technical advancements allowing more people to participate in composing songs may play a role. [I wonder how they cancel industry effects like consolidation of companies and risk avoidance, a la Ted Gioia)
via Sapienza University of Rome and the University of Padova: Niccolo' Di Marco et al, Decoding Musical Evolution Through Network Science, arXiv (2025). DOI: 10.48550/arxiv.2501.07557
Contrasting the above research, which comes from culturally hermetic academia, with the research below, which comes from a music writer who's also a musician and a bit more nuance in how the actual world of music works:
The Music Business is Healthy Again? Really?
Feb 2025, Ted Gioia
Instead of focusing on exciting new music, Spotify prefers to serve up AI slop (acquired on the cheap), fake artists, and lots of old songs.This is a stark contrast to video streaming—where Netflix, Apple, Amazon, Disney, and others invest tens of billions of dollars annually in creating new films and series.Music streamers don’t like creating content (that word, ugh!). Other people need to make those risky investments—not the streaming platform.
And he goes on to show announcements that both Warner Music and Universal have signed recently new deals with Spotify, without disclosing any financial details. His solution?
"Instead of bowing and scraping, they should cut off Spotify and launch their own streaming platform—run as a cooperative of labels and artists."
And lastly, he says even Spotify execs are selling their shares.
'Work flow' music designed to improve performance does just that
Feb 2025, phys.org
I hear "functional fragrance" but for music:
196 adult volunteers listened to various types of music and office background noise while conducting work tasks. The only type of music that helped performance was work flow, and it improved reaction time and mood."Their work also shows that the people behind the creation of work flow music have done their homework in identifying the sounds and arrangements that can take attentional focus away from the music toward the task at hand. Such music, they note, tends to have a strong rhythm, simple tonality, moderate dynamism and broad spectral energy."
"The people" they're talking about are probably AI programs bought by a streaming company. At least that's my suspicion, so I looked.
The first was “work flow” music sampled from a synonymous playlist on a music therapy app (spiritune.com). On spiritune's website, I read "Our scientific advisors and composers work together to deliver compositions optimized and adapted around those musical characteristics to help create tracks that work harder for your health." And when I hear "scientific advisor" I think "IP Thief Chief".
The second type was “deep focus” music, sampled from a synonymous playlist on a music streaming platform, and that would be Spotify.
(Note: Neither work flow nor deep focus music had lyrics; and two additional audio conditions used were the “Hot 100” playlist published by an American music magazine, and “calm office noise”sampled from a synonymous sound generator on a website offering noise stimulation.)
via Department of Neuroscience at Georgetown University Medical Center, Stanford School of Medicine and Center for Computer Research in Music and Acoustics, Department of Psychology and Music and Audio Research Laboratory at NYU: Joan Orpella et al, Effects of music advertised to support focus on mood and processing speed, PLOS ONE (2025). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0316047
Post Script: "participants were recruited online using Amazon Mechanical Turk"; always good to remember who butters the bread.
Further Reading: Muzak is Back
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