Listen to the Beat
The markets are collapsing, so let's listen to Beyonce and forget the Foo Fighters.
According to an NYU academic Phil Maymin the more regular the beat on the nation's top 100 singles, the more volatile the American markets. After studying decades of Billboard's Hot 100 hits, Maymin found that songs with low "beat variance" had an inverse correlation with market turbulence. True to this statement, Beyonce's most steady-beat song, single ladies is EVERYWHERE, but the appeal of indie grunge bands, like the Foo Fighters and MGMT are now beginning to fade. The most obvious examples to me are now happening in recession-hit Britain. You have the rising starlet golden girls, such as "Adele", the "Ting Tings", and "Little Boots" suddenly hitting the charts this year with their VERY regular beating pop, or electro pop music, enabling some, like "Duffy" to even go on to win the Brit Awards. Then you have good old Coldplay, REM and no doubt other indie rock bands, who in previous boom years would have swept the awards and chart toppings, but this year have failed to be mentioned.
Apparently, people's preference of musical beats always correlates with changes in economic stability. The most popular songs become steady just before the economy slumps, but complex songs catch on before the markets rebound. I like to think of it as escapism. When the markets turn sour and people start to lose money, people go home and turn on stable, regular pop music to help them stay positive to keep going. When the markets become bullish again, people cheer up, they have more money and time to spare, so they like to listen to more complex music. To put it simply, when we have no money, we listen to brainless pop and when we have money, we listen to deep melancholic indie rock.
I for one prefer indie rock, as a reminder of the halcyon days of when the markets were well and people were happy, at least on the surface. But then again, I am usually deeply melancholic.
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This week, Lost in Americana scowls at his failed experiments, realizing he wasted last weekend staining tissue that simply dropped off into the ether after long hours of painstaking preparation. But he quickly cheers up again by doing another experiment that ends up with a real result. He has also been set the task of teaching a fresh graduate student how to dissect mice, even though he has barely got the hang of it himself. In the process he is reminded of the analogy to playing action video games. With dissection/surgery, as with video games all you require is good hand-eye coordination and a good stomach for a little gore.
According to an NYU academic Phil Maymin the more regular the beat on the nation's top 100 singles, the more volatile the American markets. After studying decades of Billboard's Hot 100 hits, Maymin found that songs with low "beat variance" had an inverse correlation with market turbulence. True to this statement, Beyonce's most steady-beat song, single ladies is EVERYWHERE, but the appeal of indie grunge bands, like the Foo Fighters and MGMT are now beginning to fade. The most obvious examples to me are now happening in recession-hit Britain. You have the rising starlet golden girls, such as "Adele", the "Ting Tings", and "Little Boots" suddenly hitting the charts this year with their VERY regular beating pop, or electro pop music, enabling some, like "Duffy" to even go on to win the Brit Awards. Then you have good old Coldplay, REM and no doubt other indie rock bands, who in previous boom years would have swept the awards and chart toppings, but this year have failed to be mentioned.
Apparently, people's preference of musical beats always correlates with changes in economic stability. The most popular songs become steady just before the economy slumps, but complex songs catch on before the markets rebound. I like to think of it as escapism. When the markets turn sour and people start to lose money, people go home and turn on stable, regular pop music to help them stay positive to keep going. When the markets become bullish again, people cheer up, they have more money and time to spare, so they like to listen to more complex music. To put it simply, when we have no money, we listen to brainless pop and when we have money, we listen to deep melancholic indie rock.
I for one prefer indie rock, as a reminder of the halcyon days of when the markets were well and people were happy, at least on the surface. But then again, I am usually deeply melancholic.
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This week, Lost in Americana scowls at his failed experiments, realizing he wasted last weekend staining tissue that simply dropped off into the ether after long hours of painstaking preparation. But he quickly cheers up again by doing another experiment that ends up with a real result. He has also been set the task of teaching a fresh graduate student how to dissect mice, even though he has barely got the hang of it himself. In the process he is reminded of the analogy to playing action video games. With dissection/surgery, as with video games all you require is good hand-eye coordination and a good stomach for a little gore.
posted by Lost in Americana at 2:20 am
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