Following a thorough analysis of over 17,000 songs, researchers at the Imperial College and the University of London have determined that Hip-Hop is the most influential genre since the 1960s, this according to a study published by Royal Society Open Science.
Matthias Mauch, lead researcher for the study, found that, "The rise of Rap and related genres appears, then, to be the single most important event that has shaped the musical structure of the American charts in the period that we studied."
Between the years 1960 through 2010, thirty-second snippets from songs charting on the Billboard Top 100 were first analyzed. Next, the scientists categorized the songs based on their chord patterns, instrumentation, and musical properties, and other elements associated with the song's popularity and chart performance.
Mauch believes that the groundbreaking study will be the new benchmark for the scientific study of how music evolves over the decades.
"For the first time we can measure musical properties in recordings on a large scale," he stated before adding, "We can actually go beyond what music experts tell us, or what we know ourselves about them, by looking directly into the songs, measuring their make-up, and understanding how they have changed."
Hooray for Hip-Hop!
Source: Royal Society Open Science / AllHipHop
