I am not in denial about the fact that I am more into music than most people. I am content with my condition most of the time, but I still cannot help but get excited when I meet a fellow music person. We find each other somehow, through the odds, and we light each other up. We talk about nerdy details while everyone else starts to lose interest. Not to imply that those losing interest aren’t into music at all; it is really just about the extent that music infiltrates a person. There must be some sort of spectrum, some quiz one can take to determine their level of dedication.
In the delightful satire, True Stories, David Burn is our window into a quirky Texas suburban town. At one point, he asks us if we like music. He then informs us that everyone says they do. I think of this because it points out the fact that saying one likes music conveys absolutely nothing. The person who listens to ten minutes of the radio, including advertisements, on his way to and from work might experience music differently than someone who listens to three hours plus of music each evening rather than watching TV. Yet both of these people would say they like music.
I’d always chalked it up to preferences. Some people like music more than others. Some people like video games more than others. Nothing new here. But then I saw this Ben Hunt tweet:
I was curious. What is this graph showing us? Is there a connection somewhere between music and intellect?
Apparently there are varying ideas of what this might mean. Some think: “Musical intelligence is your natural ability to use music and sound as self-reflecting, transformational tools to facilitate total health and well-being.” Although, a natural ability does not necessarily require intelligence, so this might not apply. There is a class you can take to see if music can make you smarter, so I guess someone thinks they nailed it. Although it could just be some guy trying to make a buck, so this might not apply either. Most of the studies and articles I grazed focused on musicians, which doesn’t help us assess the listeners. Those studies that did claim a connection between IQ and music noted that smart people tend to prefer instrumental music, like jazz or classical. Again, this is not relevant to the Billboard chart.
If music and intelligence are linked, to what extent and how are they linked? And finally, does key change appreciation equate to intelligence level?
I suppose looking at the broad picture, if we believe people are getting collectively less intelligent, then we could assume musicians are accordingly less intelligent on average. We could say that musicians and fans have effectively chicken-or-the-egged each other in a cycle of dumbing down music. Perhaps Ben Hunt may be onto something. Is it possible that lazier musicians in tandem with stupider listeners could be the explanation? The world is pure insanity; I certainly wouldn’t try to argue that everyone is brilliant!
I do, however, think there are other potential explanations for the graph.
What if the graph is a reflection of a paradigm change? Billboard has always been a vehicle for major label acts. In the past, anyone who wanted to find an audience needed a major label. Many artists have reported feeling constricted by the major labels over the years. Perhaps we now see more musicians self managing online, thus avoiding not only a controlling label, but also a place on Billboard’s chart.
Or perhaps we are learning something about those who listen to the Billboard Hot 100 Number One Hits specifically. We know that it is not only possible, but likely that those who are fanatics about music might not listen to Billboard hits exclusively. My tastes rarely align with the hits and hit makers of today. There are exceptions of course, but my tastes tend to take me far from the charts.
Then again, maybe I am missing something. What do you think? Does the graph represent the dumbing down of music? Or music listeners? Is it showing us that artists have left the corporate fold and thus quality has suffered? Is the Billboard Hot 100 too narrow a sample to judge music quality at large? Obviously, something is up here, but less obvious is what. I’d be curious to hear your take.
I don't think you are missing anything. I see a stat like that and it reminds me of some stats in baseball that reveal nothing about how the game is actually played. Maybe I'm just old, but basing anything on the Billboard Hot 100 in 2022 is like basing a study on fine dining by only polling patrons of fast food establishments.
I don't know if this means anything deep. Like Steve, I think there's not much to be learned about fine dining from analyzing the market for hot pockets. HOWEVER: I do think that American pop has been sinking into a formulaic morass for decades, and it's only getting worse. So consider the graph a coincidence, but coupled with other data points (one being a massive erosion in the market for high-end musical instruments) and it does suggest something. Hip hop, like it or not, has stolen the oxygen from the markets for rock and pop, and producers are increasingly falling back on tested formulae because they are risk averse. You don't need a graph like this to realize that.