Pop music is slowing down as people feel more reflective

If your taste in music is slowing down, it’s probably not a sign of you getting older but instead, a product of our troubled times.

As we crave mellow music to cope with turbulent times, the tempo of the average song has fallen by 20 per cent since 2012, experts say.  

Five years ago the most popular songs had a tempo of 113.5 beats per minute (bpm), but this year the most popular songs – such as ‘Shape of You’ by Ed Sheeran and ‘Evolve’ by Imagine Dragons – had an average tempo of just 90.5 (bpm).

Chart-topping songs by influential singers such as Adele might have encouraged musicians to slow down their beats but now it seems everyone is at it (stock image)

WHY MUSIC TASTE IS SLOWING DOWN

BBC Radio 6 Music DJ Chris Hawkins cited the ‘national mood’ as a reason the country might be feeling more reflective. 

He said the ‘bleak news and the frenetic lives that we lead’ were reasons reasons music had slowed down.

Some industry experts believed the popularity of slow-burning ballads could also be sign the country is feeling more reflective.

‘In a crisis like we’re in right now, where people’s rights are being taken away and people are being shot in the street, that’s a different kind of crisis , a moral and social one’, said Bonnie McKee, who has written eight number ones in the US.

‘People don’t really feel right about jumping up and down and bopping right this second’, she said.

Yakov Vorobyev, developer of Mixed in Key app for DJs who is based in Miami, compared the 25 most-streamed songs on Spotify in 2012 with the most streamed songs of this year.

He believes chart-topping songs by influential singers such as Adele and Ed Sheeran might have encouraged musicians to slow down their beats but now it seems everyone is at it. 

Analysis showed the percentage of songs with tempos faster than 120 bpm had fallen to 12.5 per cent this year – down from 56 per cent in 2012. 

Even Hip-hop has become much slower under the influence of more relaxed R&B.  

‘If you think about the most popular acts, they’re known for their ballads and more low tempo burning anthems as opposed to frenetic dance music being at the fore’, Chris Hawkins, BBC Radio 6 Music DJ told The Times.

‘Music like Rag ’n’ Bone Man has a laid-back, chilled sound’, he said.  

However, the slow-burning ballads could also be sign the country is feeling more reflective.

‘The other element is the national mood, with all the bleak news and the frenetic lives that we lead and the dark times we live in’, Hawkins said.

Artists whose tunes are too steady to be blasted out on the dancefloor are increasingly releasing uptempo remixes.

Some experts believe people ‘burnt out’ on uptempo poppy stuff.

‘Then as the sociopolitical climate got darker, people just weren’t in the mood to hear some upbeat bop’, Bonnie McKee, who has written eight number ones in the US told Rolling Stone. 

Analysis showed the percentage of songs with tempos faster than 120 bpm had fallen to 12.5 per cent this year - down from 56 per cent in 2012. Pictured is Ed Sheeran who sung 'Shape of You' which is 97 bpm 

Analysis showed the percentage of songs with tempos faster than 120 bpm had fallen to 12.5 per cent this year – down from 56 per cent in 2012. Pictured is Ed Sheeran who sung ‘Shape of You’ which is 97 bpm 

SLOWING DOWN

Three of Spotify’s Top 25 in 2012 – 

We Found Love, Rihanna and Calvin Harris – 130 bpm

Sexy and I Know It, LMFAO – 130 bpm

Euphoria, Loreen – 135 bpm

Three of Spotify’s Top 25 in 2017 – 

Shape of You, Ed Sheeran – 97 bpm 

Despacito (Remix feat Justin Bieber), Luis Fonsi and Daddy Yankee – 90 bpm

Evolve, Imagine Dragons – 85 bpm

‘When you think about the financial crisis of 2008, there was a lot more up-tempo stuff. 

‘In a crisis like that, people want to forget their problems’, she said. 

Even electronic music – which was known for its racing beats – is embracing more stately rhythms.

‘In a crisis like we’re in right now, where people’s rights are being taken away and people are being shot in the street, that’s a different kind of crisis , a moral and social one’, said Ms McKee. 

‘People don’t really feel right about jumping up and down and bopping right this second’.

Research in April found that the drawn-out dramatic intros of 80s pop power ballads were all but gone in today’s chart toppers.

Instrumental intros that averaged more than 20 seconds in the mid-80s are now only around five seconds long, the study found.

This evolution is likely driven by what researchers from The Ohio State University call the ‘attention economy’ of modern-day pop.

This means that artists get to the musical point more quickly in the interest of grabbing a fickle listening audience.

MUSIC CAN CHANGE THE TASTE OF FOOD 

Fancy a little more heat in your curry? Then reach for the Red Hot Chili Peppers – or even the Spice Girls

Fancy a little more heat in your curry? Then reach for the Red Hot Chili Peppers – or even the Spice Girls

Fancy a little more heat in your curry? Then reach for the Red Hot Chili Peppers – or even the Spice Girls.

Scientists have found that listening to fast-paced, energetic music can increase the perceived spiciness of food by up to ten per cent. 

And the experts, based at the University of Oxford, have even christened the bizarre phenomenon ‘sonic seasoning’.

Perhaps unsurprisingly, traditional Indian music – featuring shrill sitar notes, a fast drum beat and high pitched singing – has one of the strongest sonic seasoning effects. 

But uptempo songs from bands such as the Spice Girls and Chili Peppers can also affected the taste buds.

The researchers asked volunteers to pick music that they thought would be associated with spicy food.

They then asked 180 volunteers to eat spicy food while listening to short clips of the music, white noise or silence. 

They found those listening to music with a faster tempo, higher pitch and distorted sounds said the food was spicier and had more intense flavours.

 

Read more at DailyMail.co.uk