Analysis of patterns in 1300 popular songs
Amateur musicians from the site hooktheory.com decided to find patterns in modern pop music. They conducted a statistical analysis of chords of 1300 songs and published the results : which consonances are most often found in music and how they interact with each other.
In fact, the authors have done a titanic work, because until now there was no open base of chords, from where one could just get the information. For two years, they slowly compiled it manually, listening to all the songs from the charts in turn. On their website, chords are synchronized with Youtube videos, and there is a step-by-step layout for the synthesizer and guitar for each song.
Catalog of popular songs
Below are some of the results of the study.
')
The most popular chord ranges for all songs.
The most popular chords (all songs are in the C major scale (C), so that a direct comparison is possible).
As expected, C major (C) is often found in the C major scale (C), but as often we see F major (F) and G major (G), and even more often!
As it turned out, in many popular songs it is considered normal at certain places to withdraw C major to give effect. For example, see the chords My Heart Will Go On , this is just one of many examples.
Even for novice musicians, this information provides plenty of food for thought. For example, it is clear from the frequency of chords that they should not use A major at all (A), if they are not 100% sure of their actions, it is better to take A minor (am), this is a less risky option.
Interestingly, Apple developers are clearly familiar with music theory. For example, GarageBand has Smart Instruments mode — and the choice of chords for it clearly coincides with the results of a statistical analysis of songs from pop charts.
Chord Sequence Analysis has brought even more striking discoveries. For example, if you look at the major scale of Do - what do you think, what chord will follow after E minor? The result is shown in the diagram. It turns out that 93% of cases are immediately followed by F major or A minor.
It turns out that pop music is quite predictable. The remaining results of the study, the authors promise to publish in the second part of the review.
Video: 4 chords
Thanks, maxatwork , dmitriid
In fact, the authors have done a titanic work, because until now there was no open base of chords, from where one could just get the information. For two years, they slowly compiled it manually, listening to all the songs from the charts in turn. On their website, chords are synchronized with Youtube videos, and there is a step-by-step layout for the synthesizer and guitar for each song.
Catalog of popular songs
Below are some of the results of the study.
')
The most popular chord ranges for all songs.
The most popular chords (all songs are in the C major scale (C), so that a direct comparison is possible).
As expected, C major (C) is often found in the C major scale (C), but as often we see F major (F) and G major (G), and even more often!
As it turned out, in many popular songs it is considered normal at certain places to withdraw C major to give effect. For example, see the chords My Heart Will Go On , this is just one of many examples.
Even for novice musicians, this information provides plenty of food for thought. For example, it is clear from the frequency of chords that they should not use A major at all (A), if they are not 100% sure of their actions, it is better to take A minor (am), this is a less risky option.
Interestingly, Apple developers are clearly familiar with music theory. For example, GarageBand has Smart Instruments mode — and the choice of chords for it clearly coincides with the results of a statistical analysis of songs from pop charts.
Chord Sequence Analysis has brought even more striking discoveries. For example, if you look at the major scale of Do - what do you think, what chord will follow after E minor? The result is shown in the diagram. It turns out that 93% of cases are immediately followed by F major or A minor.
It turns out that pop music is quite predictable. The remaining results of the study, the authors promise to publish in the second part of the review.
Video: 4 chords
Thanks, maxatwork , dmitriid
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/145901/
All Articles