Coldplay, Radiohead or R.E.M. – which band has changed their music the most over the years?
Professor Nick Collins from our Department of Music has used a computer to try and find the answer to this by analysing rhythm, harmony, and sound quality (known as timbre).
The answer is, of course, not that simple.
Sound of music
In the study, Radiohead were consistently more diverse than Coldplay harmonically, but not necessarily timbrally.
Overall, R.E.M. were generally the least adventurous in their musical style with Coldplay becoming increasingly part of the pop mainstream over time.
It is often believed that the older a musician gets, the more they start producing slower, more mellow material, but this is not what this study found. Variations in sound and rhythm continued to occur at different stages of the artists' music careers.
Evolution of music
The research looked at the actual audio from songs — not just lyrics or sheet music — to find patterns in rhythm, tempo, percussion, keys and chords.
It also included music from Patsy Cline, Buddy Holly, and Kirsty MacColl for comparison.
This research is part of a growing field called computational musicology, where computers are used to study music in new ways. By analysing sound files directly, researchers can get a better understanding of how artists grow and change.
In the future, even bigger studies could help us learn more about how music evolves — and what that says about the artists and the times they lived in.
