Interesting methodology here, but the examples cited are ridiculous. First of all Billboard Top 100 in recent years contains the worst quality modern pop music out there. So you are starting out with a highly flawed data set.
#musictheory #cosomusic
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Hit songs rely on increasing “harmonic surprise” to hook listeners, study finds | Ars Technica
https://arstechnica.com/gaming/2021/08/hit-songs-rely-on-increasing-harmonic-surprise-to-hook-listeners-study-finds/
I agree with your assertion about the quality of modern pop music. Do you happen to follow Rick Beato on YouTube? He talks about this a lot.
@mikeflstfi
Yes I do; he's great! I especially loved the episode where he dug into John Bonham, and compared his real performances with quantized versions.
Check out the Strong Songs podcast I linked to also. Kirk doesn't go into quite as much detail as Beato does, but he does a great job of pulling in influences from other songs / artists when analyzing a song.
@voltronic
I will check out the podcast, yes!
Rick has led me along a path of wanting to understand music way beyond what I thought was possible. His theory videos are usually way over my head but I still watch and try to learn something.