Ever put much thought into Pop music? Pop music is technically the most popular music out there, and a group of researchers are trying to prove that it is ruining your brain. Should be more worried about the next Miley Cyrus single pumping through the car radio than eating over-processed food?
First off, are we really going to lump everything topping the charts into one brain rotting category? Sure, there is some pretty awful ‘music’ on the radio these days… but there always has been! What is currently #1 on the billboard 200? Woman – Jill Scott . Is that seriously what is killing peoples creativity? Does that sounds like plastic over processed dumbed down noise to you?
What about Bruno Mars’s Uptown funk. If that is considered garbage pop music, I think it’s time for me to find a new creative outlet. Is Ed Sheeran lacking in the musical talent department? No, would think that would be a resounding NO. 
For those who think that pop music is getting WORSE, there are dozens of studies that will prove you dead wrong. Take this study from Queen Mary University of London. A group of researchers put 17,000 songs spanning 50 years of the Billboard 100 list through data-mining software to generate a quantitative data set about the evolution of what’s topping the charts. Look and see what happened in the 80s! That decade was the least diverse of any time period in the last half-century.
The team measured harmony, timbre, and chord changes, the researchers built a “fossil record” that tracked when particular stylings were more or less prominent. With that data, the team was able to see the decline of the dominant 7th chords as jazz and blues faded from the mainstream. Via Mental Floss
These days you can find a scientific study to support just about anything. This is great so long as you take both sides of the coin in, and apply some critical thinking skills.
This study claims that people that prefer pop music over other genres significantly lack creativity. Does this mean that pop music kills your creativity?
In 2008, Adrian North of Scotland’s Heriot-Watt University published the largest study yet of musical taste, involving 36,000 people, 60 countries and three years of work. He asked each participant to rank their favorite genres of music. He discovered that the most common characteristic among all genre listeners was creativity. However, one group of listeners showed a genuine and significant lack of creativity: pop music lovers.
That doesn’t necessarily mean that stupid people love pop — just that pop trains us to expect less from our artistic and creative lives. Music can nourish our minds like almost nothing else, so when a mega-industry is devoted to selling the least inspired music they can, they’re short-changing all of us. A survey of other research on music reveals that pop music has gotten worse over the last 50 years. Not only that, it’s been used to brainwash listeners through predatory marketing strategies across all media channels. Via mic.com
Lets get this straight. Pop music is the most popular music. You can always choose to change the station, or download a different album. Pop stars often gets a bad wrap in the music community. It is easy to criticize and complain that One Direction is a completely talentless flock of soulless models. At the same time, THEY are the ones that have millions of people listening to their music and buying tickets to their sold out shows.
They must be doing something right! I do not personally enjoy their music, but a good amount of people do, which makes their music perfectly valid. Yes, it probably took a team of people to write those songs, but if people still like the music… does it really matter?
Pop music hasn’t always been that way. Researchers measured the variety of words, chord variations and volume of songs across the decades sine the 1950s. Unsurprisingly, they found that modern pop is a watered-down version of what John, Paul, George and Ringo used to rock the charts with. Since the 1950s, vocal timbre — the character of the voice — has become less diverse and pitch content has become totally monochromatic (fewer chord and melodic variations), while everything has gotten much louder overall. Our popular music is literally being dumbed down.Via mic.com
Again, it is important not to group all pop music into the same massive category. Is Bruno Mars’s ‘Uptown Funk’ anywhere close to the caliber of Nikki Minaj’s ‘Anaconda’? There will always be bad pop music, and there will always be good pop music. Over time, the good will continue to float to the top, and be remembered as a classic of that era.
I disagree with a few point this article which has gone viral recently, but they do mention some good points. Have a read and see what you think!
Unfortunately, there’s no end in sight. As these songs get watered down, they become cheap and easy fuel for the music business because they appeal to the lowest common denominator and thus reach a wide audience. That isn’t a frivolous thing, though: Researchers have thoroughly documented that pop music is the “heavy equipment” of the adolescent years. It is far more influential than computers, television and movies in shaping how kids grow up.
If we care about our culture — and if we care about our minds — we’ll vote with our ears. If the formulas stop paying off for the industry, we might get real music back into the mainstream. Via mic.com
You just do not get it eh! Scientists Prove That Pop Music Is Literally Ruining Our Brains http://t.co/EDyeudn73l pic.twitter.com/vaDr4Ykix4
— Aumakua (@OdomankomaSeer) September 15, 2014
Music Can Alter Your Child’s Brain
Getty Images Theres little doubt that learning to play a musical instrument is great for developing brains. Science has shown that when children learn to play music, their brains begin to hear and process sounds that they couldnt otherwise hear. Many parents probably read the above sentence and started mentally Google-ing child music classes in their local area. Via time.com
Your musical tastes reveal how you think: a new study
Do you think your music preferences are linked to the way you think? Can skimming your itunes playlist give someone some insight as to how your brain works? This study might have a big impact on how the music business advertises to you. Read more…
