Scientists prove what 25 million people have already seen...

Earlier this year, researchers from the Medical University of Vienna in Austria published an article titled "Instrumentational Complexity of Music Genres and Why Simplicity Sells" that suggests they have proven that as music increases in popularity it becomes more generic and formulaic. In other words: commercial and mainstream music is all the same.

Most of us will choke with the methodology and analysis presented in the study but the authors open with a very illustrative comparison on musical complexities in Daft Punk's Random Access Memories named "2013 Album of the Year" which was produced with the help of 27 other featured artists or exceptional session musicians, who were asked to play riffs and individual patterns to give the duo a vast library to select from and Justin Timberlake's 20/20 Experience which ended taking the "Best Selling Album" in the same year and for which its producer Tim Mosley could only offer "I know where my bread and butter is at. […] I did this research. It's the women who watch Sex and the City’.

Mic.com wrote an interesting article with a more understandable perspective on this study and supporting their conclusion, here's an excerpt:

"Human beings crave familiarity. Numerous psychological studies show that people choose songs they're familiar with over songs that more closely match their reported music tastes. Our somewhat manipulative music industry, which chooses familiar-sounding music and pushes it to listeners in massive quantities, knows well how to capitalize on those cravings. Genres standardize over time as a way to plug into this psychology. And then we hear the same songs, over and over again"

The most fun perspective on this subject however comes from The Axis of Awesome's video below, with almost 25 million views at the time of this writing, which takes you to a hilarious 6 minutes showing the most popular songs of our time are based on 4 simple chords and unequivocally proving all mainstream music is the same.

Despite all this scientific or empirical evidence, Kurrent Music writers have given me a different perspective on Pop music with articles about revolutionary artists such as Ivy Levan, Kyla La Grange, Lorde, Chvrches and Walk The Moon all of which are genuinely original and have given me hope beyond Meghan Trainor, Becky G and Taylor Swift.