LIKE A BROKEN RECORD:

A CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF POPULAR MUSIC

by

MARISSA JANELLE ZAK

B.A, Eastern Illinois University, 2017

A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of the

University of Colorado Colorado Springs

In partial fulfillment of the

requirements for the degree of

Master of Arts

Department of Communication

2019

ii

This thesis for the Master of Arts degree by

Marissa Janelle Zak

has been approved for the

Department of Communication

by

Christopher Bell, Chair

Maja Krakowiak

David Nelson

December 16th, 2019

iii

Zak, Marissa Janelle (M.A., Communication)

Like a Broken Record: A Critical Analysis of Popular Music

Thesis directed by Associate Professor Christopher Bell

ABSTRACT

The purpose of this study is to assess the diversity of two different categories of

popular music, Rock and Roll and Hot 100, while applying concepts from Horkheimer

and Adorno’s ‘The Dialectic of Enlightenment’. This study looked at the tempo, time

signature, key signature, song length and song format of 50 songs from each genre, 100

songs total, and compares them across genre and within genre to determine how similar

or different the songs are. What resulted was the determination that no matter the genre,

there was no major differentiation between songs. From Horkheimer and Adorno, the

concepts of pseudo-individualism and standardization are used, and from Benjamin, the

aura of the music is also discussed. It was concluded that due to the monetary success of

the music industry, consumers do not want music that is diverse, or music that is

authentic.

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER

I. INTRODUCTION…………………...………………………………………..1

Statement of Problem…………………………………………………...………1

Specific Purpose……………………………………………………………..….2

Significance of Study………………………………………………………...…2

I. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE……………………………………….…..4

Critical Theory and the Culture Industry……………. ………………………...4

The Culture Industry and Music………………………………………………..7

The Music Industry and Song Ranking…………………………………..….10

Rock and Roll……………………………………………………………..…..11

Hot 100………………………………………………………………………...14

II. METHODOLOGY…………………………………………………………..18

Sample………………………………………………………………………..18

Procedure………………………………….…………………………………18

Tempo………………………………..…………………………………..18

Time Signature……………….…………………………………………..19

Song Length………………….…………………………………………..19

Key Signature……………………………………………………...……..19

Song Structure……………………………………………………..……..19

Measurement…………………………………………………………………20

III. RESULTS……………………………………………………………………21

IV. DISCUSSION…………………………….………………………………….34

v

Pseudo-Individualism……………….……………………………………….37

Authenticity………………… ………………………………………………42

V. CONCLUSSION……………………………………………………...……..48

Limitations……………………………………………………………...……48

Future Research…………………………………………………………...…49

References……………………………………………………………………51

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LIST OF TABLES

TABLE

1. Active Rock 2014 Song Data…………………………………………………….21

2. Active Rock 2015 Song Data…………………………………………………….22

3. Active Rock 2016 Song Data…………………………………………………….23

4. Active Rock 2017 Song Data…………………………………………………….24

5. Active Rock 2018 Song Data…………………………………………………….25

6. Hot 100 2014 Song Data…………………………………………………...…….26

7. Hot 100 2015 Song Data…………………………………………...….………....27

8. Hot 100 2016 Song Data……………………….…………………......………….28

9. Hot 100 2017 Song Data…………………………………………………...…….29

10. Hot 100 2018 Song Data…………………………………...…………………….30

11. Tempo Category………………………………………………………………….34

12. Key Signature…………………………………………………………………….34

13. Major and Minor…………………………………………………...…………….34

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

According to Nielsen, the content that is most likely playing if someone were to

turn on the radio would be some kind of music (2018). If someone sits in a waiting room

or walks through a store, music is probably there to accompany the shoppers (Yalch,

Spangenberg, 2000). If someone has their headphones in while sitting at their desk,

taking a walk, or working out, music notes are more than likely pouring out of their

mobile device, through their headphones and into their ears (Edison Research, 2018).

Music is very pervasive in today’s society, and almost everyone has an opinion on

what genre of music is the best, as evident in album sales as well as radio station

performance. Every week, Billboard.com puts out list after list of the newest and greatest

songs that make it to the top of the charts for a variety of genres, from Rock and Roll to

Pop to Holliday music. However, even though these new songs have different titles and

come from a variety of artists, are they really that new, or has the world already heard

them before?

Statement of Problem

Horkheimer and Adorno (2002) expressed a concern that every artifact that the

cultural industry has to offer is lacking in any originality. They claim that thanks to

standardization in the culture industry, very little individuality can be detected between

different television shows, movies, music and more. Applying this concept to modern

music may seem unrealistic to some people; there are new songs released every day and

new artists being added to every genre almost as often, so how can music all be the same?

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Every song, whether it comes from Beethoven, Ariana Grande or Metallica, can

be reduced down into some individual parts, and it is their individual parts that, when

fleshed out and compared, can begin to seem all too similar. These aspects of music

might fly under the radar for some listeners who might be unknowingly buying into the

same song over and over again. Some people, however, are quite keen to the small

musical elements that make up every song.

Specific Purpose

This study aims to determine if two different genres of music from two Billboard

lists, Hot 100 (sometimes referred to as Pop or Top 40), and Active Rock, fall to the

concepts of Critical Theory that Horkheimer and Adorno talk about. The two genres will

be compared against each other as well as themselves to see if the songs and genres are

very similar or maintain some sort of individuality in modern times.

Significance of the Study

While television and film often take the center stage in media studies, music is

something that lacks the quantity of modern research that some other media have. This

study will hopefully bring a medium that is often thought of as a passive activity

(Pluskota, 2015) into the focus of other scholars in media and critical studies. It is already

known by many scholars that one Western film will be nearly the same as another

Western film due to formula and clichés (Andrae, 2005), but will one Rock and Roll song

mirror another Rock and Roll song for the same reasons?

In the last handful of years, music, particularly popular music that is heard on the

radio, has been accused of sounding all too much the same. Studies show that as music

becomes more popular, it also begins to homogenize and sound like things that

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consumers have already heard before (Barnes, 2015). For some people, this is no

mystery, and it has even become a point of comedic effect. The Australian comedy music

trio, The Axis of Awesome, makes fun of this with their song ‘4 Chords’, where they

identify 47 popular songs that use the same four chords in succession (Davis, B., Naimo,

L., Raskopaolos, J., 2011), and comedian Rob Paravonian points out that this chord

progression dates back as far as the 1600s with Pachelbel’s ‘Canon in D’ (2006).

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CHAPTER II

REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE

Critical Theory and the Culture Industry

It was Horkheimer and Adorno who first posited the idea of the Culture Industry

in their book, Dialectic of Enlightenment (2002). Here, they explain that everything that

could be counted as a cultural artifact, be it film, television, music and so on is nothing

more than a carbon copy of something else. Every new film is a copy of the last

successful film that came out; every television show is the same with only slight changes

in characters; every song could easily be swapped out for another song and there would

be no difference. Culture, they say, is no longer well-thought-out art, but “trash” that

businesses constantly pump out to make a quick buck off of those consumers who are

none the wiser (p. 95), and no matter what anyone tries to do, there is no way to escape

this phenomenon.

The concept of the culture industry gave rise to two supporting terms:

standardization and pseudo-individualism. Standardization makes everything very

familiar to consumers and makes it easier for the consumer to know if they like or dislike

that particular cultural product. Genres of music and television shows and plot tropes of

films are examples of what standardization gives to the culture industry. If there are

horses and cowboys and the setting is in the American West, then it is definitely a

Western film or television series. If there are two main characters, one male and one

female, and a series of silly yet serendipitous events happen to bring them into a romantic

relationship, then it is more than likely a romantic comedy. According to Andrae (1979)

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“gags, formulas, and clichés were calculated for their effects by special teams of experts,

the lengths of stories rigidly adhered to, and the endings of films wholly predictable from

the outset” (p. 5). Standardization begets formulas, and formula begets the very core of

the culture industry, with pseudo-individualization keeping the consumers of the culture

industry blissfully blind to the formulaic content that they are consuming.

Pseudo-individualism is what makes cultural products just different enough to

pass for something completely new and unique, and if standardization were to be realized

by the consumer public, there could potentially be some sort of resistance. That is why

standardization must be hidden in the culture industry by way of pseudo-individualism.

Pseudo-individualism keeps consumers eager for more by helping them forget that the

thing they want to see next is something that they have more than likely already

experienced (Adorno, 2002). In two Western films, there might be a lone wolf cowboy

trying to hunt down a band of bandits in order to keep a town and a particular saloon girl

safe from harm; but as long as the towns have different names and the shady cowboys

have different, vague backstories, there is no doubt in the consumer’s mind that they are

two equally unique and special movies. There could be two romantic comedy movies that

feature two attractive lead characters who fall in love, live in ecstasy and then hit a rough

patch in their relationship before making up, but as long as one takes place in a city and

one takes place in the tropics, two completely new movies have just been created. Adorno

(2002) says that “every detail is substitutable; it serves its function only as a cog in a

machine” (p. 7). Just like the interchangeable parts in an automobile, there are

interchangeable parts in a film or television show. As long as the skeleton of the product

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is sound and proven to work, new, small details can be added to the framework and be

quickly sent out into the consumer public as a completely new and unique product.

According to Adorno (2002), the culture industry also gives the masses the

artifacts they create as a way of pacifying the masses. Adorno says that, for example,

music played over the radio has a “soporific”, or sedative effect on people, “to keep

listeners from criticizing social realities” (p. 231). The more that people listen, the less

they are willing to do anything else. This concept is the stark opposite of what Lasswell

called the theory of Uses and Gratifications. Uses and Gratifications states that media

consumers are quite particular about the media that they consume; they aren’t the passive,

mindless consumers that Adorno believes them to be (Littlejohn, Foss, Oetzel, 2017). To

Adorno, people have no choice or free will when it comes to culture and media; no one

has a choice; no one knows that they don’t have a choice, everyone stays happy.

What is it that the masses necessarily need pacifying from? The exact thing that

pacifies them in the first place. Adorno believes that if consumers were to figure out the

scheme of the culture industry, that is standardization and pseudo-individualism, people

would be less than pleased to know that the media and the products that they have been

consuming all their lives, is nothing more than a copy and paste of what they saw last

week and the week before, and that the culture industry is the broken record that divvies

it out and takes their money for it.

What happens if people were to ignore the culture around them? In this case, what

would happen to someone if they were to completely ignore today’s television shows,

films, music and books? These people are outsiders in the eyes of the masses; they

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contribute nothing to conversation and are considered sub-par when compared to people

who bathe themselves in popular culture (Adorno, 1971). When a cultural product is sold,

the consumer is buying more than just a film or a song; they buy a sense of belonging; a

passport into the conversation. Eventually, even the most dogmatic of individuals is

pulled into the masses, whether they are consumers of media or the ones who create it.

The Culture Industry and Music

The rules of the culture industry are not just limited to those artifacts that can be

viewed on a screen, as the music industry has fallen equally victim to the accusation of

standardization and pseudo-individualization. Despite the Copyright Law of 1909, which

gave protection to those who wrote and composed music, (Peterson, 1990) there is no law

in existence that prohibits one artist from creating a piece that is incredibly similar to

someone else’s work. Adorno (1971) calls standardization a fundamental characteristic of

popular music, even when there is an effort to make content that is unique and one of a

kind. He goes on in this particular article to discuss jazz music, the new and popular

music of the time, to the likes of Beethoven, Bach and other classical, “serious”

composers, claiming that the latter was free from standardization and pseudo-

individualization, but that its true individuality would be lost on the common listener who

associated with more popular genres of music.

Adorno found that the low risk of similarity was something that many artists

were, and still are attracted to. “As one particular song scored a great success, hundreds

of others sprang up imitating the successful one” (p. 18). This is because, as Andrae

(1979) and Adorno (1996) point out, the ultimate goal of the culture industry is to make

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as much money as possible, not to make people happy or spread the so-called art of the

creator. And when something is proven to work and make a profit, there is no reason to

deviate from said successful formula. This is also why covers of previously successful

songs do so well on the market and why only the most successful songs get covered; they

already did well once, so the odds of them doing well again are higher in comparison to a

brand-new song (Babich, 2018).

According to Ahlkvist and Fisher (n.d.) the success and failure of certain music is

not completely at the fault of the creators of the song; the radio stations that new songs

get played on also play a part in the amount of air time and exposure a song get, or if it

even has a place at their station at all. The size of the radio market affects what kind of

songs get added to the roster of music. Larger radio markets, such as those in the Top 50,

utilize market research and consultants to decide exactly what music gets the most

airtime on their station. This helps to maximize the number of listeners to a station and

garner more funds from advertisers. This can, however, minimize the variety of music

that gets played to a particularly large audience, such as those who live in cities like New

York, Los Angeles or Chicago. Radio stations smaller markets, on the other hand, who

have less money to lose and less competition with other stations, can afford to play fast

and loose with the songs that they allow over their airwaves. They can play songs that

might be considered risky and less formulaic than those played in larger markets. Radio

stations in smaller markets also have the ability to utilize the feedback of their listeners,

whereas those who live in larger markets will have a harder time getting their voices and

opinions heard about the music that gets fed to them. This has a great effect on the way

songs are perceived and also how they are ranked on popular music charts.

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It should also be considered the fact that FM radio, where much of today’s

popular music gets heard, is in constant competition with other broadcast media such as

Satellite radio, and music streaming services such as Spotify and Pandora. According to

Edison Research in 2018, AM/FM radio, while still the most popular form of in-car

media, is slowly declining in popularity year by year, as satellite radio and other online

audio sources steadily make the climb upward. In what Adorno (1996) refers to as a

“Darwinian” style survival of the fittest (p. 234), radio tends to play the music that is the

most likely to attract listeners and take them away from other attractive audio options.

Popular music attracts a large audience; and large audience attracts advertisers;

advertisers bring the money to keep the stations alive and running.

There were other, more lucrative ways of getting music to be popular through the

radio. Peterson and Berger point out that music production companies used to have more

of a corporate connection with broadcasting firms and would use that to their advantage

when it was time to push the newest singles (1975). It was not uncommon for radio disk

jockeys to be paid money under the table to hock a new song and give it some extra

airtime, letting their influence on the music world act as persuasion to the listeners who

had no idea that a monetary transaction had been made. Better known as “payola,” this

act was made illegal in 1960 with an amendment to the Federal Communication Act that

required full disclosure if extra airtime had been purchased for specific music (Kelly,

2016).

Some scholars believe that the number of musicians producing music at a given

time, or the market density, has an effect on how diverse the music they produce is.

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Peterson and Berger (1975) found that a higher concentration of musicians at a given

time leads to a decrease in music diversity, in part due to the vertical integration and the

oligopolistic nature of the music industry. On the other hand, Alexander (1966) believed

that a moderately concentrated market provides the most diversity in the music industry.

The Music Industry and Song Ranking

The commercial music industry started in the 1880s, where the primary focus was

on the publication of sheet music, the theater circuit and touring music performances

(Anand & Peterson, 2000). Billboard magazine, which is now the most popular magazine

in the music industry (Lopes, 1992), came into being not very long after. Previously,

Billboard only gave its readers little bits and pieces of information about the music

industry and those musical artists that were big and in the spotlight. Now, Billboard has

essentially set the standard that musicians must live up to in order to be successful. When

the 1940s and 1950s came along, the music industry started to shift its focus and became

more concerned with recorded music over printed music. In response to this, Billboard

started to create what it is now most famous for; its Top 40 list for popular music singles.

With how effective this method of measuring the success of music was, the Top 40 list

format started to be used by other organizations as well, such as record stores, music and

recording agencies, radio stations, as well as other magazines in the music industry.

The Top 40 list was not the only list that Billboard magazine started out with.

Other lists like “best seller in the stores,” “most played by jockeys,” and “most played in

juke boxes” also populated people’s opinions to inform them if a song was popular or

not. These lists, however, all consolidated into what is now the “Hot 100” list, which still

11

keeps people up to date about what singles are the most popular of the week from any

genres. Other than this list, Billboard keeps track of the top songs in a variety of genres,

such as rock, pop, country, holiday and more. They also have the Billboard 200 chart,

which keeps track of album sales, as well as various “greatest of all time” charts

(billboard.com).

Rock and Roll

The 1950s gave rise to more than just the change in Billboard magazine’s format

and its place in the music industry. It was in the 1950s when Frank Sinatra, Nat King

Cole, Johnnie Ray and Doris Day gave way to the likes of Elvis Presley, Buddy Holly,

Chuck Berry and Bill Haley, thus giving birth to the revolution of Rock and Roll. Up

until this point, the culture industry was missing a crucial demographic of people from

which to make money: the youth of America (Peterson, 1990). Fortunately, Elvis’s

swinging hips and Bill Haley’s Comets gave the culture industry a way right into the

pockets of the youth culture.

Regev (1994) talks about Rock and Roll music as a whole and its place as art in

our culture industry. He speaks of various critics who hold Rock and Roll music in the

highest regards when compared to other forms of mainstream music, placing it among the

works of “serious” music composers such as Bach and Beethoven. This is in contrast to

other critics who think of Rock and Roll as nothing more than musical incompetence and

rugged, disruptive noise (Straw, 1984). Different than classical music, however, Rock and

Roll music was, and is, oftentimes, seen as counterculture, creating multiple subcultures

that were meant to disrupt the norm of society (Kellner, Durham, 2012).

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Modern day Rock and Roll music and its respective sub-cultures are often easily

identified. Straw (1984) notes extended guitar solos and longer than average song lengths

as two hallmarks of the genre. He also mentioned that the visual aesthetic of Rock and

Roll was quite important, as the live shows present a considerable amount of flashiness,

the album covers are often elaborate with shocking imagery, and the fans of the genre can

be seen with long hair, tattoos, and are clad top to bottom in leather and/or denim.

Schulzke (2014) points out that much of the culture industry, be it music, video

games, comic books and so on, make people feel as though they belong to a group. By

having a sense of belonging to a larger culture or sub-culture, there is a sense of approval

or gratification that is earned. This sense of belonging can be observed in a number of

ways, such as bonding over shared interests or even bonding over shared dislikes. In the

1970s, it was well-known that if someone was a Rock and Roll aficionado, it more than

likely meant that the disco scene was something that they avoided and mocked (Straw,

1948). Even though disco has more than passed its heyday, there is still a camaraderie

found in the Rock and Roll community via the mockery of other genres. Many

documentaries, such as Metal: A Headbanger’s Journey (Wise, Dunn, McFadyen,

Feldman, 2006) and several episodes of Behind the Music (Gay Rosenthal Productions,

1997) feature interview after interview with fans and musicians alike singing the praise of

their favorite genre of music all while putting others to shame, because even though

people love to love, people also love to hate.

As tight knit as this sub-culture seems to be, some of the exclusivity and some of

its original ‘attitude’ seems to be fading, with a part of the blame falling on the culture

industry. Kellner and Durham (2012) note that as subcultures become more familiar to

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the general public, they become more marketable and profitable, no matter the origin of

said group. Even though Rock and Roll music and its many sub-genres like Punk and

Heavy Metal were known for being cultural jammers, as people started to get more

familiar with them, and potentially less afraid of them, the music industry began to find

ways to make money off of them. This is what Regev refers to as the “incorporation

thesis,” which is a lens that many in academia use to look at Rock and Roll and many of

its sub-genres. “A central issue in the study of rock has been the "loss of authenticity,"

the subordination of its original social meanings to the interests of the music industry and

to the hegemonic culture” (88). The incorporation thesis relates back to the original

concepts of the culture industry, pseudo-individualization and standardization, and helps

to illustrate the point that, in the culture industry, the consumer is not thought of as a

priority, but as the sole means of making money (Adorno, Radinbach, 1975).

When Regev refers to authenticity, what exactly does that mean? A basic

Merriam-Webster (n.d.) definition of “authentic” states “not false or imitation; true to

one’s own personality, spirit, or character”, or “of undisputed origin”. This term can

obviously be in reference to many artifacts. Authentic Mexican food is cuisine that comes

out of someone’s Mexican kitchen, not the local Taco Bell drive-through. Likewise,

music can have authenticity depending on the artist from whence it came. Bell (2010)

reviews authenticity in relationship to contestants on the FOX series, American Idol. The

judges from the show deem authenticity in an artist when they “inhibit a very specific

genre and excel within that genre, and must venture out of that genre only briefly and

begrudgingly, if at all” (p. 129). By that decree, the band AC/DC, with its multitude of

Classic Rock albums and anthems and nary a deviation from their Rockin’ roots could be

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argued as a very authentic Rock and Roll act, whereas Britney Spears’ cover of ‘I Love

Rock ‘n’ Roll’ does nothing in bringing the Pop Princess among the ranks of Joan Jett &

the Blackhearts.

As previously mentioned, Adorno saw most genres of music as lesser forms of art

when compared to the likes of classical music, or what he referred to as “serious” music.

A few popular artists, however, did stand out to him as someone who’s music, even as

popular as it was at the time, could sit in the same pantheon as Vivaldi and Mozart. These

artists were typically using political criticisms in their works, and often went more

against the grain when compared to what other popular artists were creating (1987).

Morris (2015) argues that some sub genres of Rock and Roll, namely Extreme Heavy

Metal (i.e. Speed Metal, Black Metal, Death Metal) would also fall under this category of

“resistant music.” “Music capable of resisting the politics of the culture industry is not

necessarily music that is very accessible to contemporary publics” (p. 290). Due to

Extreme Heavy Metal’s darker themes, loud and hoarse vocals and detuned melodies, it

is designed to be a bit off-putting to the general public and is created to be a sort of

alternative to mainstream popular music. “The negations of heavy metal model the

interests of negative dialectics in their form and content—not by expressing negative

dialectics but by dramatizing the contradictions of late capitalism that the practitioners

and fans clearly experience” (p. 301).

Hot 100

Unlike Rock and Roll, Hot 100 (also referred to as Top 40) music is not as much

of a genre as it is a different kind of classification for music, or a category. Hot 100

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Refers to the 100 songs in a given week or year that are the most popular based on radio

airplay, sales, and streaming (billboard.com). This loose category is sometimes referred

to as pop music, where the “pop” simply stands for “popular,” reflecting its success at a

given point in time. This should not be confused with Pop music as a specific genre, for

example what Michael Jackson and Madonna are known for. Even though this genre does

often fall into the Hot 100 category, the terms are not necessarily interchangeable. To

eliminate confusion for the purpose of this study, the music that is considered most

popular at a point in time will not be referred to as Pop, but as Hot 100 music, and this

music will be the second focus of this study.

The fact that Hot 100 is not a specific genre of music brings into question what

genres are rising to the top during certain times, as genre popularity has changed greatly

over the years. 1960 brought early Rock and Roll and Rockabilly into their end-of-the-

year Top 10 with Elvis and Chubby Checkers; 1970 was spotted with soul via Diana Ross

and Freda Payne; 1980 was topped off with Rock and Roll hits from the likes of Queen

and Pink Floyd; 1990 brought in pop hits form Madonna and Wilson Phillips; and

country hits from Lonestar and Faith Hill rounded out the end-of-the-year hits for the

year 2000 (musicoutfitters.com). No list looks the same from one decade to the next, as

year in and year out, changes in music preference are easy to spot on the Top 100 list.

Even though music in the Hot 100 category can range in genre, from hip-hop to

pop to R&B to Rock and Roll and anything else that manages to climb to the top, there

are some similarities that tend to bring these songs together. Lyrics to these songs are

seen to be rather predictable and have been known to fall into a few categories

16

(Christenson et al, 2018). The three most prevalent lyrical themes in Hot 100 music are as

follows: love and romantic relationships, explicitly described sexuality, and lifestyle

relating to partying, dancing, substance abuse and conspicuous consumption. Christenson

et. al. found that from 1960 to 2010, love and romance has been a consistent theme that

finds its way into the lyrics of many of the country’s favorite songs. Vianinni and Meyers

(2002) also noticed this trend in music and see it as a lazy writing device for lyrical

content. Two other popular themes, however, have risen through the ranks throughout the

years (C. Hanba, D. Hanba, 2018). From the 1980s to the 2010s, there was a significant

rise in the mention of alcohol, marijuana and opioid consumption in Hot 100 music, and

were mentioned in at least 50% of the most popular songs in 2018.

It’s easy to look at the Billboard end of the year chart and see what genres of

music are popular in the ears of the public and what genres do not get a lot of attention.

The mid 2000s started a trend that is still seen today in the end of the year top 10. It was

around that time where Hip-Hop, Rap, R&B, Pop, and dance music started to take control

of the radio airwaves and took many people’s attention. These genres are still prevalent

today, as Billboard shows that they are still heavily favored by the masses.

Rock and Roll music is no stranger to the end of the year top 100 charts, though it

has been a while since it was included in the top 10. As previously mentioned, 1960 had

Elvis and Chubby Checkers, and 1980 had Queen and Pink Floyd, but after 1990, there

was a distinct lack of any song that could be classified as Rock and Roll, as R&B, hip-

hop and rap music made its way to the top in its stead. This is a pattern that has persisted

into modern day; even though the artists have changed and there are new faces delivering

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the music, Rock and Roll has faded from anywhere near the top. Looking at the end of

the year top 100 charts, 2010 was the last year to include any Rock and Roll music at all,

as it was faded out in popularity in 2011 (Billboard).

Research Question

Literature shows two contrasting ideas about rock music in the culture industry.

Per Horkheimer and Adorno, all popular music that is produced is nothing more than a

copy of what was first popular (2002). However, other scholars (Regev, 1994) point to

those who believe Rock and Roll music to be the exception to that assumption. This study

attempts to find which school of thought has more truth.

The study seeks to answer the following research questions:

RQ1: Do the sample songs from the Active Rock category have many qualities in

common with each other? If so, which qualities are they?

RQ2: Do the sample songs from the Hot 100 category have many qualities in common

with each other? If so, which qualities are they?

RQ3: Are there a lot of similar qualities between songs from Active Rock and Hot 100? If

so, which qualities are they?

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CHAPTER III

Methodology

Sample

The songs that were examined were chosen from Billboard.com’s year-end charts

for both Hot 100 and Active Rock. The top ten songs from the last five years (2014-2018)

are the songs that contributed to the sample so that each genre had an equal number; 50

songs each and 100 songs total. These songs are considered to be the most popular and

successful in that category for that particular year by Billboard, based on radio airplay,

physical and digital sales, and music streaming time (Billboard.com). These ratings thus

give a good representation of what that genre has to offer.

These two music genres were picked due to their difference in popularity on FM

radio stations. Contemporary Hits Radio, also called Current Hits Radio, Hot 100, or Pop

Radio, is consistently ranked as the most listened-to music radio format, whereas Rock

radio typically hangs closer to the bottom of the popularity ranking (Nielsen, 2018).

Though there is some variance in popularity depending on the age group, and different

radio formats target different audiences, there is no denying the vast difference in

listenership between the two formats.

Procedure

Each song was listened to, and the following information from each song was

analyzed and then recorded:

Tempo. Tempo is the speed at which a song is performed, and is measured in

Beats Per Minute, or BPM. The higher the BPM, the faster the song will go. The songs

were sorted into one of six tempo categories or intervals: Andante (70-83 BPM),

19

Moderato (84-97 BPM), Allegro (98-132 BPM), Vivace (133-150 BPM), Allegrissimo

(151-167 BPM), and Presto (177+ BPM). These are common music terms that are

typically applied to music that is written out, but they can be applied to the audio format

as well. Tempo was also measured on a ratio scale in order to run a t-test analysis.

Time Signature. Time signature measures how many beats are in one measure of

music. By ear, time signature can be determined by listening to which beats in the song

are emphasized. The most popular time signature is 4/4 time, which means there are four

quarter notes per measure, however there are many other time signatures that can be used.

Song Length. All song lengths were taken from the iTunes store, a popular

destination to purchase digital music which also provides basic information about the

artist and their songs. Length was measured in seconds as opposed to minutes and

seconds (i.e., 3:25 = 205 seconds).

Key Signature. The key signature of a song designates what kind of notes,

particularly sharps and flats, that will be played in the song. Certain key signatures tend

to give the song a certain tone or mood.

Song Structure. The structure of the song is how the song is put together. How

many verses are there and where are they placed? Is there an instrument solo? Is there a

bridge to the chorus, etc.?

Song tempo, time signature and key signature will be ascertained from

tunebat.com, a music database meant to “help DJs, producers, musicians, and music

enthusiasts find key and BPM info, as well as much more for 40M+ songs”

(tubebat.com). The song formulations will be done by ear and by looking at the lyrics of

the songs on genius.com.

20

Measurement

Once the data was collected for each song and organized, the researcher compared

and contrasted the characteristics of the songs. The information was also put into the

SPSS Statistics software.

21

CHAPTER IV

Results

All song information can be seen on Table 1

Table 1: Active Rock 2014 Song Data

Song Tempo Time Signature

Length Min:sec/sec

Key Signature

Structure

Heaven Knows- The Pretty Reckless

84 4/4 3:44 244

D Major V1, chorus, V2, refrain, bridge, V3, refrain, bridge, V1, refrain

Shephard of Fire- Avenged Sevenfold

128 4/4 5:22 322

D Major Intro, V1, chorus, V2, chorus, guitar solo, spoken interlude, bridge, chorus

This is the Time (Ballast)- Nothing More

110 4/4, 3/4 3:40 220

B Minor V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus 2, chorus 3

Words as Weapons- Seether

110 4/4 4:00 240

F Minor Intro, V1, V2, pre-chorus, V3, V4, pre-chorus, chorus, pre-chorus, pre-chorus, chorus

Take Out the Gunman- Chevelle

85 4/4 4:18 258

F major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, guitar solo, bridge, chorus, outro

Painkiller- Three Days Grace

89 4/4 2:59 169

A major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, chorus

Torn to Pieces- Pop Evil

122 4/4 3:16 251

C major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus

Tired- Stone Sour

101 4/4 4:11 214

E♭ Minor V1, chorus, V2, chorus, guitar solo, chorus

Dead but Rising- Volbeat

108 4/4 3:34 288

G major Intro, V1, refrain, V2, refrain, bridge,

22

chorus, instrumental outro

My Demons- Starset

173 4/4 4:48 214

F minor V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, interlude, first half of chorus, chorus, chorus

Table 2: Active Rock 2015 Song Data

Song Tempo Time Signature

Length Min:sec/sec

Key Signature

Structure

Failure- Breaking Benjamin

155 4/4 3:34 214

D♭major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, chorus, outro

Footsteps- Pop Evil

92 4/4 4:22 262

F major Intro, V1, V2, chorus, V3, chorus, bridge, bridge/chorus, bridge/chorus, chorus

Follow Me Down- The Pretty Reckless

144 4/4 4:40 280

E♭major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, bridge, chorus,

Cut the Cord- Shinedown

89 4/4 3:44 224

G major Intro, V1, pre-chorus, intro interlude, V2, pre-chorus, bridge, pre-chorus, chorus, outro interlude

I Am Machine- Three Days Grace

75 4/4 3:20 200

D minor V1, pre-chorus 1, chorus, V2, pre-chorus 2, chorus, bridge, chorus

Angel- Theory of a Deadman

76 4/4 3:22 202

B minor V1, pre-chorus 1, chorus, V2, pre- chorus 2, chorus, bridge, chorus

Heavy is the Head- Zac Brown band ft. Chris Cornell

171 4/4, 3/4 3:59 239

A♭major Intro, Refrain, V1, pre-chorus, chorus, Refrain, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, guitar solo, chorus, refrain

23

The Vengeful One- Disturbed

170 4/4 4:12 252

E minor Intro, V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus, outro

Lydia- Highly Suspect

127 4/4 4:02 242

F# minor V1, chorus1, V2, Chorus2, V3, Chorus 3, outro

Little Monster- Royal Blood

96 4/4 3:32 212

F major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, guitar solo, intrlude, chorus

Table 3: Active Rock 2016 Song Data

Song Tempo Time Signature

Length Min:sec/sec

Key Signature

Structure

The Devil’s Bleeding Crown- Volbeat

110 4/4 3:58 238

G major V1, Chorus, V2, Chorus, interlude, guitar solo, bridge, chorus

The Sound of Silence- Disturbed (Originally by Simon and Garfunkle)

86 (107)

4/4 (4/4)

4:08 248 (3:05)

F# minor (F# major)

V1, V2, V3, V4, V5

Dark Necessities- Red Hot Chili Peppers

92 4/4 5:02 302

F Minor Instrumental intro, V1, V2, Chorus, V3, chorus, bridge, V4, chorus, outro

State of My Head- Shinedown

80 4/4 3:25 205

G minor Intro, V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, bridge, chorus, outro

Take Me Down- The Pretty Reckless

111 4/4 4:13 253

D major V1, refrain, V2, refrain, bridge, refrain

Asking for It- Shinedown

144 4/4 3:30 210

B♭major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro

24

Emotionless- Red Sun Rising

92 4/4 4:22 262

E♭minor V1, chorus, V2, chorus, guitar solo, bridge, chorus, chorus

Joyride (Omen)- Chevelle

91 4/4 3:37 217

C minor V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, chorus

Happy Song- Bring Me the Horizon

172 4/4 3:59 239

F major Refrain, V1, V2, Chorus, refrain, V3, Chorus, V4, spoken interlude, refrain

Take It All- Pop Evil

110 4/4 3:18 198

G minor V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus,

Table 4: Active Rock 2017 Song Data

Song Tempo Time Signature

Length Min:sec/sec

Key Signature

Structure

Song #3- Stone Sour

157 4/4 4:16 256

D♭major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, guitar solo, bridge, chorus,

Little One- Highly Suspect

140 4/4 4:01 419

G major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, guitar solo, chorus, chorus, V3

Monster- Starset

98 4/4 4:16 256

D♭minor V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, bridge, pre-chorus, chorus,

How Did You Love- Shinedown

93 4/4 3:07 187

F major V1, V2 chorus, V3, chorus, bridge, chorus, bridge, outro

My Name Is Human- Highly Suspect

140 4/4 4:18 258

D minor V1, chorus1, V2, chorus2, bridge, chorus3, outro

Lights Out- Royal Blood

90 4/4 3:56 236

C major V1, pre-chorus1, chorus, V2, pre-chorus2, chorus, guitar solo, chorus

Highway Tune- Greta Van Fleet

124 4/4 3:00 180

E major V1, refrain, V2, refrain, guitar solo, refrain

25

Help- Papa Roach

92 4/4 3:34 314

G major Intro, V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro

The Violence- Rise Against

92 4/4 3:48 228

B♭minor V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, chorus

Let You Down- Seether

84 4/4 4:10 250

D major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, musical interlude, chorus

Table 5: Active Rock 2018 Song Data

Song Tempo Time Signature

Length Min:sec/sec

Key Signature

Structure

Bulletproof- Godsmack

162 4/4 2:57 177

F minor V1, chorus, V2, chorus, guitar solo, chorus

Devil- Shinedown

120 4/4 3:27 207

G major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, interlude, chorus, outro

Rats- Ghost 124 4/4 4:21 261

D minor V1, refrain, V2, refrain, bridge, guitar solo, bridge2, refrain, outro

Zombie- Bad Wolves (Originally by The Cranberries)

77 (167)

4/4 (4/4)

4:14 254 (5:06)

D minor (G major)

V1, Pre-chorus1, refrain, V2, pre-chorus2, chorus, guitar solo, bridge, chorus

The Mountain- Three Days Grace

92 4/4 3:18 198

B♭major Intro, V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, chorus

Safari Song- Greta Van Fleet

176 4/4 3:54 234

D major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, guitar solo, bridge, chorus, outro

Ghost- Badflower

140 4/4 4:19 259

B minor V1, V1, chorus, V3, chorus, guitar

26

solo, bridge, chorus, outro

Waking Lions- Pop Evil

143 4/4 3:51 231

F# major V1, V2, chorus, V3, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus,

When the Curtain Falls- Greta Van Fleet

96 4/4 3:42 222

C major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, guitar solo, chorus

Sham Pain- Five Finger Death Punch

97 4/4 3:29 209

B minor V1, chorus, V1, chorus, guitar solo, V3, pre-chorus, chorus

Table 6: Hot 100 2014 Song Data

Song Tempo Time Signature

Length Min:sec/sec

Key Signature

Structure

Happy- Pharrell Williams

160 4/4 3:52 232

F minor V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus

Dark Horse- Katy Perry ft. Juicy J

132 4/4 3:35 215

F# major Intro, V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, V3, pre-chorus, chorus

All of Me- John Legend

120 4/4 3:35 215

A♭major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro

Fancy- Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX

95 4/4 3:19 199

B♭minor V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, V3, chorus, outro

Counting Stars- One Republic

122 4/4 4:19 259

D♭minor Chorus, V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, bridge, chorus, bridge

Talk Dirty- Jason Derulo ft. 2 Chains

82 4/4 3:37 217

C major Intro, V1, pre-chorus, refrain, V2, pre-chorus, refrain, bridge, V3,

27

pre-chorus, refrain, outro

Rude- Magic! 144 4/4 3:44 224

D♭major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, guitar solo, pre-chorus, chorus

All About That Bass- Meghan Trainor

134 4/4 3:07 187

A major Refrain, V1, pre-chorus, refrain, V2, pre-chorus, refrain, refrain, refrain, outro

Problem- Ariana Grande ft. Iggy Azalea

103 4/4 3:13 193

D♭minor Intro, V1, pre-chorus, refrain, V2, pre-chorus, refrain, V3, interlude, pre-chorus, refrain

Stay With Me- Sam Smith

84 4/4 2:52 172

C major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, interlude, chorus, chorus

Table 7: Hot 100 2015 Song Data

Song Tempo Time Signature

Length Min:sec/sec

Key Signature

Structure

Uptown Funk!- Mark Ronson ft. Bruno Mars

115 4/4 4:29 269

C major Intro, V1, V2, pre-chorus, refrain, V3, pre-chorus, V2, pre-chorus, refrain, bridge, pre-chorus, refrain, refrain, refrain

Thinking Out Loud- Ed Sheeran

79 4/4 4:41 281

D major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, chorus, guitar solo

See You Again- Wiz Khalifa ft. Charlie Puth

80 4/4 4:41 281

Bb major Chorus, V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, bridge, chorus

Trap Queen- Fetty Wap

148 4/4 3:42 222

G major Intro, V1, chorus, chorus, V2, chorus, chorus, V1, V3, outro

28

Sugar- Maroon 5

120 4/4 3:55 235

D♭major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus

Shut Up and Dance- Walk the Moon

128 4/4 3:19 199

D♭major Chorus, V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, keyboard solo, bridge, chorus, chorus,

Blank Space- Taylor Swift

96 4/4 3:51 231

F major V1, V2, chorus, V3, V4, chorus, bridge, chorus

Watch me- Silento

140 4/4 3:05 185

A♭major Intro, chorus, V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus

Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)- The Weeknd

120 3/4 4:37 277

D minor V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, V3, chorus, outro

The Hills- The Weeknd

113 4/4 4:02 242

C minor V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro

Table 8: Hot 100 2016 Song Data

Song Tempo Time Signature

Length Min:sec/sec

Key Signature

Structure

Love Yourself- Justin Bieber

103 4/4 3:53 233

E major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, trumpet solo, bridge, chorus, chorus

Sorry- Justin Bieber

100 4/4 3:20 200

C minor V1, pre-chorus, refrain, V2, pre-chorus, refrain, bridge, chorus

One Dance- Drake ft. WizKid and Kyla

104 4/4 2:53 173

D♭major Refrain, V1, chorus, chorus, refrain V2, chorus, chorus, bridge, V3, chorus, chorus

29

Work- Rihanna ft. Drake

91 4/4 3:39 219

B major Refrain, V1, refrain, V2, refrain, V3, refrain, outro

Stressed Out- Twenty One Pilots

170 4/4 3:22 202

E minor V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro

Panda- Desiigner

145 4/4 3:22 202

B♭minor Intro, refrain, V1, V1, refrain, V2, refrain, V1, V1, refrain

Hello- Adele 158 4/4 4:55 295

F minor V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus2, chorus, refrain, chorus

Don’t Let Me Down- The Chainsmokers ft. Daya

160 4/4 3:28 208

B major V1, pre-chorus, refrain, V2, pre-chorus, refrain, bridge, pre-chorus, outro

Can’t Stop The Feeling!- Justin Timberlake

113 4/4 3:57 237

C major V1, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, V3, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, musical interlude, chorus, outro

Closer- The Chainsmokers ft. Halsey

95 4/4 4:04 244

A♭major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, chorus, outro

Table 9: Hot 100 2017 Song Data

Song Tempo Time Signature

Length Min:sec/sec

Key Signature

Structure

Shape of You- Ed Sheeran

96 4/4 3:53 233

D♭minor V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, bridge, chorus

Despacito- Lois Fonsi & Daddy Yankee ft. Justin Bieber

89 4/4 3:49 229

D major V1, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, V3, pre-chorus, chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus

30

That’s What I Like- Bruno Mars

134 4/4 3:26 206

D♭major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, chorus

Humble.- Kendrick Lamar

150 4/4 2:57 177

D♭minor Intro, V1, refrain, V2, chorus

Something Just Like This- The Chainsmokers & Coldplay

103 4/4 4:07 247

B minor V1, pre-chorus, refrain, V2, pre-chorus, refrain, pre-chorus, refrain

Bad and Boujee- Migos ft. Lil Uzi Vert

127 4/4 5:43 343

B major Intro, chorus, V1, chorus, V2, Chorus, V3, chorus

Closer- The Chainsmokers ft. Halsey

95 4/4 4:04 244

A♭major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, chorus, outro

Body Like A Back Road- Sam Hunt

99 4/4 2:45 165

F major V1, Chorus, V2, chorus, guitar solo, bridge, chorus, outro

Believer- Imagine Dragons

125 4/4 3:24 204

B♭minor V1, V2, pre-chorus, chorus, V3, pre-chorus2, chorus, bridge, chorus

Congratulations- Post Malone ft. Quavo

123 4/4 3:40 220

F♭major Chorus, V1, chorus, V2, chorus,

Table 10: Hot 100 2018 Song Data

Song Tempo Time Signature

Length Min:sec/sec

Key Signature

Structure

God’s Plan- Drake

77 4/4 3:18 198

G major Intro, V1, chorus, V2,

Perfect- Ed Sheeran

95 4/4 4:23 263

A♭major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, guitar solo, chorus2

Meant to Be- Bebe Rexha

154 4/4 2:43 163

B♭major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro

31

& Florida Georgia Line

Havana- Camila Cabello ft. Young Thug

105 4/4 3:37 217

D major Chorus, V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, chorus, outro

Rockstar- Post Malone ft. 21 Savages

160 4/4 3:38 218

F major Intro, chorus, V1, chorus, V2, chorus, outro

Psycho- Post Malone ft. Dolla $ign

140 4/4 3:41 221

A♭major Chorus, V1, chorus, V2, chorus

I Like It- Camila Cardi B, Bad Bunny, J Balvin

136 4/4 4:13 253

F minor Intro, V1, chorus, V2, chorus, V3, bridge, chorus

The Middle- Zedd, Maren Morris, Grey

107 4/4 3:04 184

G major V1, pre-chorus, chorus, V2, pre-chorus, bridge, chorus, chorus

In My Feelings- Drake

91 4/4 3:37 217

Db major Intro, chorus, V1, Chorus, bridge, chorus, refrain, chorus, interlude, outro

Girls Like You- Maroon 5 ft. Cardi B

125 4/4 3:55 235

C major V1, chorus, V2, chorus, bridge, V3, chorus

Out of the 100 songs in question, 4 Rock and Roll songs fell into the category of

Andante, or 70-83 beats per minute (BPM), and 3 Hot 100 songs were considered

Andante as well (7 total). 19 Rock and Roll songs fell into the Moderato, 84-97 BPM,

along with 10 Hot 100 songs (29 total). Allegro, 98-32 BMP had the most songs, with 13

Rock and Roll and 22 Hot 100 (35 total). Vivace, 133-150 BPM, had 6 Rock and Roll

songs and 9 Hot 100 songs (8 total). Allegrissimo, 151-167 BPM, had 3 Rock and Roll

songs and 5 Hot 100 songs, (8 total), and Presto, 168+ BPM, had 5 Rock and Roll songs

32

and 1 Hot 100 song (6 total) (Rock and Roll: M = 114.12 , SD = 30.20; Hot 100: M =

233.18, SD = 24.78). This can be seen on chart 2.

A vast majority of the songs, 99, have a primary time signature of 4/4, which is

the most common time signature in popular music. One song, however, did utilize a 3/4

time signature for the whole song, The Weeknd’s ‘Earned It’ (Fifty Shades of Grey). Two

other songs, Nothing More’s ‘Ballast’, and Zac Brown Band’s ‘Heavy is the Head’

featuring Chris Cornell, did use a 3/4 time signature for a small portion of their songs

before going back to their original 4/4 time signature.

Out of the 100 songs observed, 66 of them had a unique structure in some way,

and the following songs shared a structure with at least one other song: “The Vengeful

One” and “State of My Head”; “Emotionless” and “Song #3”; “Tired” and “Bulletproof”;

“Dead but Rising” and “Help”; “The Hills” and “Meant to Be”; “Thinking Out Loud” and

“Perfect”; “Body Like A Backroad” and “Psycho”; “Asking For It”, “All Of Me” and

“Stressed Out”; “Failure” and “Closer”; “Take Out The Gunman”, “Safari Song”, and

“Body Like a Backroad”; “Follow Me Down”, “Shape of You”, and “The Middle”, “Take

It All” and “Sugar”; “Painkiller”, “Torn to Pieces”, “Joyride”, “The Violence”, and

“Blank Space”.

Research Question 1 asked if Rock songs had certain aspects in common, and

which qualities they were. For tempo, the most common category was Moderato (84-97

beats per minute), which accounted for 38% of the songs. Two key signatures tied for

most popular. The key of D and the key of F both accounted for 24% of rock songs (see

table 3). Major key was more popular than minor key and accounted for 56% of rock

33

songs (see table 4). Mean scores were calculated for beats per minute (M = 114.42, SD =

30.20) and song length (M = 233.18, SD = 30.20).

Research Question 2 asked if Hot 100 songs has certain aspects in common, and

which qualities they were. For tempo, the most common category was Allegro (98-132

beats per minute), and 44% of songs fell into that category (see table 2). The key of D

held the most Hot 100 songs at 24% (see table 3), and 35% of Hot 100 songs were in a

major key (see table 4). Mean scores were calculated for beats per minute (M = 118.20,

SD = 24.78) and song length (M = 223.70, SD = 35.45).

Research question 3 asked about the similarities between the two genres of music;

specifically, which qualities of music were similar. Independent sample two-tailed t-tests

revealed that, when looking at tempo measured in beats per minute, Active Rock (M =

114.42, SD = 30.20) did not differ significantly from Hot 100 songs (M = 118.20, SD =

24.78), t(98) = -.68, p = .50. When looking at song length, Active Rock (M = 233.18, SD

= 31.50) songs did not differ significantly from Hot 100 songs (M = 224.00, SD = 35.44),

t(98) = 4.41, p = .16.

Analyses were run to ascertain information about categorical song components

and how they related across genre. No significant differences between genres were found

in tempo (χ2 (5, N = 100) = .15, p = .20), time signature (χ2 (2, N=100) =3.00, p = .22),

key signature (χ2 (6, N = 100) =8.10, p = .23), or major/minor key (χ2 (1, N=100) =2.10,

p=.15).

34

Table 11: Tempo Category

Tempo Category (BPM)

Andante (70-83)

Moderato (84-97)

Allegro (98-32)

Vivace (133-150)

Allegrissimo (151-167)

Presto (168+)

Active Rock

16 (8%) 19 (38%) 13 (26%) 6 (12%) 3 (6%) 5 (10%)

Hot 100 12 (6%) 10 (20%) 22 (44%) 9 (18%) 5 (10%) 1 (2%)

Table 12: Key Signature

Key Signature Active Rock Hot 100

A 2 (4%) 7 (14%)

B 7 (14%) 9 (18%)

C 4 (8%) 7 (14%)

D 12 (24%) 14 (28%)

E 5 (10%) 2 (4%)

F 12 (24%) 8 (16%)

G 8 (16%) 3 (6%)

Table 13: Major and Minor

Active Rock Hot 100

Major 28 (56%) 35 (70%)

Minor 22 (44%) 15 (30%)

Discussion

Considering that tempo category, major/minor, key signature or time signature do

not have an equal distribution of songs among them, one could essentially formulate the

most common hot 100 or Active Rock song from this information. A successful Hot 100

song is generally in an Allegro tempo category in the key of D major, and a successful

Active Rock song is typically in the Moderato tempo category in the key of either D

major or F major. Contrary to what fans of these two different genres might think, these

two ideas are not all that different from one another.

35

That being said, even though there is not an equal distribution of songs among the

individual musical components, not all of the components are completely one sided in

their distributions, as most of them have at least a few songs in each of the given

categories. For the tempo category, most of the songs tended to have tempos that were in

the middle of the range, but that does not mean that ‘extremes’ on either end of the tempo

spectrum were completely missing. Active Rock, in particular, had over 40% of its songs

between Andante, the slowest tempo, and Presto, the fastest tempo.

Key signature also had a distribution that would not suggest formula within the

songs. The distribution is erratic and not necessarily easy to predict, and unlike the tempo

category, it was distributed on less of a bell curve. Major/Minor was a little different,

though, particularly regarding Hot 100, where the vast majority of the songs were in a

major key rather than a minor key. Active Rock, however, was a little more equally

distributed.

Song format was another element that differentiated the songs a bit. Out of the

100 songs, 23 songs shared a format with at least one other song, with 13 different song

formats being shared among them. That means that the rest of the songs had something

unique about their format that differentiated them from the rest of the songs, making a

total of 81 different song formats from the sample of 100. If a formula were to be

followed for all 100 songs, there would probably be a greater number of songs with a

shared format and a smaller number of songs that were unique in format.

The one musical element that was very formulaic was time signature, as 97 of the

100 songs strictly used 4/4 time. The three songs that escaped this formula were ‘Heavy

is the Head’- Zac Brown Band ft. Chris Cornell (2015), ‘This is the Time (Ballast)’-

36

Nothing More (2014) and ‘Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey)’-

The Weeknd (2015). Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey) was the only song in the mix that

exclusively used a 3/4 time signature; This is the Time (Ballast), and Heavy is the Head

only used 3/4 for a portion of their song before returning to 4/4 time. What is it about

these three songs that allowed them to be successful despite resisting the 4/4 formula?

Earned It (Fifty Shades of Grey), as the name implies, was featured in the

soundtrack for the 2015 romance film, Fifty Shared of Grey (Taylor-Johnson, De Luca,

James, Brunetti), which grossed almost $570 million. With a film as successful as Fifty

Shades of Grey, the soundtrack obviously saw its fair share of success as well, peaking at

number 1 on the Billboard US Soundtrack Albums, and number 2 on the US Billboard

200 charts (Billboard.com). Despite the song’s deviation from the more conventional

time signature, its association with the film could possibly be what brought the song to

such popularity and success.

Heavy is the Head was another success story that had interesting origins

compared to the rest of the songs. Zac Brown Band is not a Rock and Roll act but is

instead a Country/Folk act. Whereas all their previous songs and other songs to this date

have ended up on various Country Music charts, this song’s inclusion of Chris Cornell is

what tipped this particular song into Rock radio stations and Rock and Roll music charts.

Cornell was the lead singer of popular Rock/Grunge acts Soundgarden and Audioslave;

he unfortunately passed away in 2017 due to suicide. By combining the popularity of Zac

Brown Band, in the heyday of Country Music, with the Classic Rock voice of Chris

Cornell, this song was able to reach multiple music fanbases, which was probably a

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contributing factor to this song’s popularity on the music charts, despite its less than

typical time signature change.

Pseudo-Individualism and Standardization

These small differentiations from song to song are interesting and are definitely

worth noting, but there was much similarity in the 100 songs and the two genres did not

differ significantly in any category. Just as Horkheimer and Adorno had theorized, this

study confirms that music is yet another cultural product that claims individuality;

however, it falls short of its potential to be more than just another face in the crowd of

tunes. When comparing Active Rock to Hot 100, there was no data to support the notion

that the two genres had any significant differences behind them on a musical level when

comparing tempo, time signature, key signature, length and song format. Similarly, when

comparing the songs within the two genres, the data also pointed to the idea that if

someone has heard one Hot 100 song, they have heard them all, and if someone has heard

one Active Rock song, they have also heard them all.

Standardization can be seen very clearly within the sample, and one wouldn’t

need to look farther than the time signature that absolutely dominates almost all the

songs. Of the 100 songs that were observed, 99 of them used the classic 4/4 time

signature. While one song did utilize the 3/4 time signature throughout the entirety of the

song and two of the 99 songs mentioned used 3/4 for a small portion, it cannot be denied

that when someone wants to write a song to be produced for the masses, the familiar

1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 counting is the clear choice for a musician.

That is not to say that 4/4 and 3/4 are the only time signatures that can be used in

popular music that is destined for the radio; both Pop and Rock and Roll music have had

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their fair share of off-timing hits. ‘Hey Ya’ by Outkast uses a 11/4 time signature and was

number 1 on the Hot 100 chart in 2003 and 2004. Arethra Franklin’s cover of ‘Say a

Little Prayer’ was in the same time signature and was number 10 on the Hot 100 Chart in

1968. Pink Floyd’s ‘Money’, a Rock and Roll classic, was number 13 on the Hot 100

chart in 1973, when Rock and Roll actually made it to that chart frequently, with a 7/8

time signature. ‘Them Bones’ by Alice in Chains and ‘Spoonman’ by Soundgarden also

utilized the 7/8 time signature and were both successful songs on the Mainstream Rock

chart and the Alternative Rock Chart in the early 1990s. And perhaps one of the most

successful songs of all time, ‘All You Need is Love’ from the Beatles, was a number one

song in many countries in 1967 after showing off its 7/8 time signature. Though these

songs were more than likely falling to standardization similar to the songs of today, they

at least had something different to show for in terms of time signature.

With the knowledge that music tends to be similar no matter the genre, how is it

that people can make the determination of what music they actively choose to listen to?

The answer could bring in a large aspect of popular music that this study did not assess;

lyrical content.

Lyrics to a song are sometimes confusing and nonsensical; a jabbering mess of

words and concepts that some listeners might be able to make some sort of sense of, but

no one meaning can be gleaned from it without the say-so from the artist. These songs

can mean different things to different people, and they can pick up different meanings

from them on their own. Other songs, however, have very clear messages that are easy to

discern, or said lyrical content has been spoken for by the person who writes them.

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Because of this inconsistency, however, lyrical content was left out of this study as to

omit any sort of guess work and to rely only on objective data.

Just because it was left out of this study, however, doesn’t mean that lyrics are not

important in music and music popularity. Women in particular have been known to take

lyrics into consideration when choosing the music that they favor, as well as the

sentiment that those lyrics might convey (Boyle, Hosterman, Ramsey, 1981). Lyrics,

however, are more than likely an example of pseudo-individualistic qualities that lead

consumers into believing that one song is completely different from the last, especially

given that lyrics have already been categorized into only a few subjects (Christiansen

at.al. 2018). Just because Ed Sheeran is singing specifically about his love and his

romantic relationships doesn’t mean that his songs are any different from John Legend’s

‘individualized’ love songs. This concept isn't just singling out these two artists either;

while listening to all of the songs for the data collection, it was easy to hear that a good

portion of the 100 songs went in a romantic direction.

What might be another encouraging factor that pushes certain people to certain

kinds of music? Briefly mentioned earlier was the subculture that surrounds Rock and

Roll music and its fanbase; long-haired, leather and denim-clad head-bangers with a

hankering for long guitar solos and a pyrotechnic filled live show. Though this image

might be a bit of a stereotype, and one that not all Rock fans identify with, stereotypes

plague all genres of music and the fans that affiliate themselves with them. Someone’s

music preference could give the outside world a reason to think positively or negatively

about them all based off of their own opinion of that genre and the people who partake in

it (North, Hargreaves, 1999)

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When stereotyping any given genre of music, most people are in agreeance on

what stereotype they give a genre; Rock and Roll and Heavy Metal are energetic and

rebellious, Pop and Country music is upbeat and simple, and so on (Rentfrow, Gosling

2003). It is believed that these stereotypes can give a pretty good view into that group’s

social category (Rentfrow, McDonald, 2009). While this might be seen as a negative

result of hasty generalization by people outside of the genre, these stereotypes and

generalizations do have a positive effect of people within a given genre’s fanbase.

Music has become a method of bonding and creating friendships. Not only do

people tend to enjoy the company of those who share a similar taste in music, but this

similar music preference can lead people to believe that the other person shares similar

values and interests, whether it is with an established relationship, or a first-time meeting

(Boer, Fischer, Strack, et. al., 2011; Rentfrow, Gosling 2006). It is these stereotypes that

can help people form life-long bonds with others, and can give people a feeling of

belonging to a group that shares a similar lifestyle (North, Hargreaves, 1999)

Though the listeners and the fans of the genre are most often blamed or attributed

with giving a genre of music its iconic image, the artists themselves are equally to blame

for any iconic imagery and are there to help enforce the stereotypes associated with their

music (Rentfrow, McDonald 2009). This can easily be seen in many genres and the

starring acts that keep them at the top of the charts. The band Five Finger Death Punch,

who had a chart-topping song in 2018, can often be seen wearing dark colors, leather,

denim and chains, while spiking their hair into mohawks and twisting dreadlocks into

their beards. Many press photos of the band also include them sticking out their tongues,

holding bloodied baseball bats and chainsaws, and throwing out the traditional ‘devil

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horns’ hand gesture. Ghost, another 2018 favorite in the Active Rock chart, also adorns

black often and commonly paints their faces with skeletal-inspired makeup. They also

tend to dress in religious inspired attire, like a pope costume, or wear masks and capes

like it’s Halloween.

The ways that Rock bands tend to portray themselves is often in stark contrast to

the ways that those on the Hot 100 list tend to present themselves. Taylor Swift, who had

a chart-topper in 2015, commonly adorns colorful and whimsical outfits to compliment

her bubbly personality and Pop music. Back when she focused more on a country-

influenced sound in her music, however, her style matched that genre too, as she

commonly wore cowgirl styled boots and straw hats. Hip-Hop group Migos had a

successful song on the Hot 100 charts in 2017, and they have adopted a very urban style

of dress, complete with large gold chains and bold clothing patterns.

The way that the artist or band presents themselves helps to determine who in the

world is going to listen, and it helps to reinforce the structure of the genre in question

(Askina, Mauskapf, 2017). This is also a way of marketing the music in hopes of getting

it to the right person in what Ogden, Ogden and Long call “interpersonal marketing” (p.

120, 2011). This happens when an artist and a listener can ‘connect’ through a similar

mode of self-expression, even if it is on but a parasocial level. This can happen on an

emotional level, like through song lyrics as well, as it is assumed that about 22% of music

listeners use music for an emotional reason, like accompanying an emotion or trying to

change an emotion (Chamorro-Premuzic, Furnham, 2007).

The way that the band or artist presents themselves along with the stereotypes

they choose to accept and embrace could be another aspect of pseudo-individuality.

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While Five Finger Death Punch uses their rough, Rock and Roll inspired appearance to

physically differentiate themselves from the likes of Migos and Maroon 5, they don’t

have much to keep themselves separate from other bands in a similar category. To those

unfamiliar with the band and its members, Avenged Sevenfold, Three Days Grace,

Disturbed, or Stone Sour could easily be interchanged without the average person

knowing. There are a few exceptions to this idea, namely bands with women in their

lineup, which is a short list in this sample consisting of only The Pretty Reckless, who is

fronted by Taylor Momsen, and Pop Evil, who’s drummer is Hayley Cramer. This

concept is not limited to those artists in the Active Rock chart, as the Hot 100 musicians

fall victim to physical tropes as well, even considering the wide array of genres that they

represent. Taylor Swift’s colorful and quirky outfits could easily be replaced by Katy

Perry’s, and her country attire can be seen on just about any other female country star.

Similarly, Migos’ urban attire of large jewelry looks like it came out of the same closet of

2 Chains and Fetty Wap.

Authenticity

There are two songs out of the tested 100 that should have a little more attention

brought to them; Disturbed’s 2016 song ‘The Sound of Silence’ and Bad Wolves’ 2018

song ‘Zombie’. Eagle-eyed consumers are wise to the fact that these songs are not

original works by these modern Rock and Roll bands but are covers of songs originally

released many years ago. The duo Simon and Garfunkel released ‘The Sound of Silence’

in 1965, where the song was met with great success and was number one on the Billboard

Hot 100 chart, and also topped other music charts all over the world. ‘Zombie’ was

originally created by the Irish band The Cranberries in 1994 and was also a hit at the

43

time; It was number one on Billboard’s US Alternative Songs chart and was successful in

many other countries as well.

These songs were both a great success when they were originally released and are

still popular today, so it makes sense that other musicians would want to capitalize off of

that success and re-release it in modern times and in a modern fashion. Other than the

pre-established chart-topping success that these covers have, they were also able to

garner a lot of attention from outside places. Disturbed’s music video for their version of

‘The Sound of Silence’ has almost 570 million views on YouTube (Disturbed, 2015), and

the recording of their live performance on ‘Late Night with Conan O’Brien’ has over 100

million views, which is the most viewed video on that channel (TeamCOCO, 2016). This

performance even garnered the attention of Paul Simon, the song’s original writer, which

prompted him to email David Draiman, Disturbed’s vocalist, with praise for his

performance, which Draiman shared on Facebook: “Really powerful performance on

Conan the other day. First time I’d seen you do it live. Nice. Thanks.” (Disturbed, 2016).

Bad Wolves also gained a sort of blessing for their cover from the original band, as The

Cranberries lead singer, Dolores O’Riordan, was slated to reprice her vocal performance

in their cover, as explained in the start of the music video for the song. “On January 15,

2018, The Cranberries’ Dolores O’Riordan was set to reprise her iconic vocals on Bad

Wolves’ cover of “Zombie”. That day, she tragically left this world. In her memory, Bad

Wolves released the song, donating proceeds to her children.” (Better Noise Music,

2018).

Even though these covers saw great amounts of success and even garnered

positive attention from their original creators, this is where the concept of authenticity

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comes into question. Walter Benjamin (2001) points out that authenticity isn’t just about

the product itself, but also the process of making the product. Disturbed and Bad Wolves

both put twists on the songs to make them slightly different from the original recording;

Disturbed made ‘The Sound of Silence’ a bit slower and added some prominent

percussion to their cover, and Bad Wolves changed some lyrics and had a heavy focus on

the electric guitar in ‘Zombies’. That being said, however, these bands were not around

during the initial creation of the song, and thus missed out on that important experience.

Benjamin has another word that he uses to describe art; the word “aura”, and he

defines in by the “unique phenomenon of a distance, no matter how close it may be” (p.

5). It can be more thoroughly explained as the feeling someone gets from the initial

experience with the art. the songs in question both cover topics that were relevant to the

artists at the time of their creation. In the case of ‘Zombie’, it was written as a memorial

for the two young children who were killed in the 1993 Warrington Bombings in

England. The song was released one year later, and the lyrics reflect the events of the

bombings as well as the emotions to follow. The ‘aura’ of that song was captured at the

time of writing from the point of view of The Cranberries and is something that cannot be

replicated by simply covering the song.

In the version that Bad Wolves released, the idea of aura could have been

something that they thought about. A brief change in lyrics was made in the pre-chorus to

the song. Originally, the lyrics sang “with their tanks and their bombs and their bombs

and their guns”; Bad Wolves changed “guns” to “drones” in their rendition, and also

changed the year “1916” to “2018”. This was likely an attempt to modernize the song in a

way and bring their own aura into the creative process. However, if they wanted to have a

45

song full of their own aura, they would have to start from scratch and create something

from the ground up.

‘The Sound of Silence’ also has its meaning spoken for by Paul Simon, who said

that the song reflects people’s inability to communicate and inability to share their

emotions (Hilburn, 2019). Disturbed made no changed to the original lyrics of the song,

thus keeping the original meaning intact, possibly as a reference to the idea that this is

still an issue that people are dealing with today. That does not, however, make the two

songs one in the same as Benjamin dictates “Even the most perfect reproduction of a

work of art is lacking in one element: its presence in time and space, its unique existence

at the place where it happens to be” (p. 3).

When talking about cover songs, it can be assumed that all sense of ‘authenticity’

has been lost; what does this mean for original songs, that made up 98% of the sample?

Benjamin believes that in modern day, when music is created with reproduction in mind,

the sense of aura is still lost, especially due to mechanical reproduction (1935). Musicians

today have something very important on their mind when they are creating music for the

masses: money. This mindset, Benjamin says, changes the creative process and the way

that people produce art. What will sell the most records? What will be played on the radio

the most? What will convince people to pay money to see a live show? These factors blur

musicians' minds as they record take after take of the same song, trying to make it sound

as marketable as possible, before they end up taking a chunk from one recording and

another part from another recording and fastening them together to create the ‘perfect

song’. Created in this fashion, can modern music be called ‘authentic’ or ‘genuine’? To

Benjamin, all sense of authenticity was lost as soon as mechanical reproduction became

46

the norm. It could also be argued that authenticity is equally lost when making money is

the reason for making music.

If authenticity is lost on the creator’s end, what does that mean for those people

who are on the consumer’s end? Music that is recorded and then distributed to the masses

brings in nearly 20 million dollars per year (Watson, 2019), which is no small amount

considering that most of the products are very similar to one another, and most of the

products lack any sense of authenticity and/or aura. If that dollar amount says anything,

however, it’s that this is the way that people prefer their music to be; consistent and fake.

Music is like a supermodel posing for a magazine. She might be a healthy and

beautiful woman all on her own, and a certain amount of people might even see her as

perfection. The beauty industry, however, might want to enlarge her bust and hips, make

her waistline smaller, and get rid of the stretch marks on her thighs in order to make her

even more ‘perfect’. They want to make her as marketable to a mass audience as possible

even if that means taking away her authenticity, or what makes her who she is.

Baudrillard, a French academic, was able to take this concept a good deal further.

Baudrillard (1981) wrote about the notion of the ‘simulacra’, which is Latin for

‘likeness’ or ‘similarity’. In Baudrillard’s text, he more officially defines it as “…the

generation by models of a real without origin or reality: a hyperreal” (p. 1). In an

example, he applied this concept to Disneyland and its wide appeal. Disneyland is a place

full of imagination and wonder. It’s colorful characters and fantastic portrayal of

childhood splendor is something not found in the real world, but only within the confines

of the park. People love the whimsy that is otherwise not found in our world and use the

park as a means to escape the mundane place that they live (Baudrillard, Glaser, 2018).

47

The rose-colored glasses that so perfectly explains “the happiest place on earth”

and the super model from before can easily be applied to music. People don’t want

authenticity in music because authenticity is less than perfect. The voice cracks and

wrong notes of a live performance are marks of imperfection in music, like a stretch mark

is to a bikini model. The head honchos that are the gatekeepers to and from the music

industry want to get rid of any hiccups that could be seen as undesirable as to make the

consumers think that perfection and authenticity are one and the same. When people say

that an artist is authentic, they might only go so far as to match a genre to an appearance;

if he wears a straw hat and sings about his truck, he must be an authentic country singer.

The word ‘authenticity’ may have lost too much meaning to the point where consumers

might not have a complete grip on the concept. If a record company can keep consumers

believing that the music that they are listening to is as authentic as it gets, however, they

can keep the masses happy and keep their wallets full.

Horkheimer and Adorno agree with this as well. “Those in charge no longer take

much trouble to conceal the structure, the power of which increases the more bluntly its

existence is admitted” (p. 95). In essence, they said that those higher up in the music

production industry are creating power for themselves by producing music that is

considered to be perfect, but repetitive, as long as people are willing to buy it, which they

are. They can wave thousands of copy and paste songs in front of the masses and relish in

the happiness of the consumers, not necessarily because of their happiness, but because

of their willingness to spend money through their naïve happiness.

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CHAPTER VI

Conclusion

The music industry is a multi-billion-dollar industry that, every year, produces

music that is now concluded to be incredibly similar in many aspects, and from on genre

to the next. This conclusion was able to come to fruition by looking at popular music

from the perspective that someone might look at a piece of classical sheet music, as the

tempo, time signature, and key signature might not be areas of music that someone

without prior music training would think about, let alone apply to popular music.

Limitations

That being said, however, this is where a limitation of the study comes in. Without

sheet music or an incredibly well-trained ear, deciphering something like a song’s key

signature is next to impossible. Because of this, the song database, tunebat.com, was used

to collect the key signature for every song. For every song, only one key signature was

reported from the database, however, some songs do change key signatures part way

through, which might go unnoticed by the casual listener. Though it is possible that none

of the sample songs changed key signature, there is a chance that tunebat.com only listed

the key signature that was featured most within the song. With no way to prove if

tunebat.com was accurate or not, this study relied on the music knowledge and accuracy

of the website’s contributors.

Tunebat.com was also used to ascertain the song’s tempo, as doing that by ear

would take a good bit of time as well as an accurate metronome. Even with those two

components, measuring an accurate tempo is not easy, as a song that has a tempo of 130

beats per minute and a song with a tempo of 135 beats per minute are relatively difficult

49

to tell apart as far as the tempo is concerned. By using a song database, the measurements

were hopefully consistent and accurate.

As mentioned before, the lyrical content of the music was not addressed in this

study based off of the desire to keep the data subjective, as lyrical content might not be as

black and white as something like time signature. There are also studies that have already

looked at lyrical content of popular music, so there was less of a need to include it in this

study. It is, however, important to the song as well as to the people who listen to the song

and is probably easier for the average listener to understand when compared to something

as technical as key signature and song format.

Future Research

Including lyrical content in a study that also covers other aspects of music would

be a great way to compare multiple elements of a song, even elements that are not

necessarily objective. Obtaining more information about a song would only give more

detail when comparing it to other songs.

Having a musician or someone who has greater musical knowledge on the

research team would also give great perspective to the research, especially if their music

knowledge was able to be used instead of a music database. Like what was previously

mentioned, having to rely on an outside source to find things like key signature and time

signature was a bit of a shot in the dark, and the information might not be as detailed as

desired. If a musician was on hand for the coding portion of the research, there could be

more accuracy in the obtained information.

Given the idea that this study showed that there is not much to differentiate genres

of music by the way the songs sound, one could take that information and try to find why

50

people are attracted to the music that they do favor. This could be done through

interviews, surveys or other means of getting what will probably be qualitative

information from people. Maybe the people who enjoy one particular genre of music the

most all report similar reasons for liking the genre, or perhaps the reasons vary from

person to person. Maybe a music preference is gained due to inundation of the music

during formative years, such as a parent listening to a specific genre while driving in the

car. Or, maybe in an effort to spite that inundation, a different genre of music is self-

administered. Regardless of how sterile and formulaic music is today, there are a myriad

of reasons why someone chooses to pump that particular genre into their ears, and finding

out said reasons could be an interesting discovery.

51

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