The Beat Goes Static: A Tempo Analysis of U.S. Billboard Hot 100 #1 Songs from 1955–2015

Roessner S. The Beat Goes Static: A Tempo Analysis of U.S. Billboard Hot 100 #1 Songs from 1955–2015. In: AES Convention 143. Audio Engineering Society; 2017. Paper 9849. Available from: https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=19246

@inproceedings{Roessner2017_19246,
  author = {Roessner, Stephen},
  title = {{The Beat Goes Static: A Tempo Analysis of U.S. Billboard Hot 100 \#1 Songs from 1955–2015}},
  booktitle = {AES Convention 143},
  note = {Paper 9849},
  year = {2017},
  month = oct,
  publisher = {Audio Engineering Society},
  url = {https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=19246}
}

TY  - CPAPER
TI  - The Beat Goes Static: A Tempo Analysis of U.S. Billboard Hot 100 #1 Songs from 1955–2015
AU  - Roessner, Stephen
T2  - AES Convention 143
M1  - Paper 9849
PY  - 2017
DA  - 2017/10/06
UR  - https://aes.org/publications/elibrary-page/?id=19246
PB  - Audio Engineering Society
LA  - en
AB  - The Billboard Hot 100 is a rich source of information for tracking musical trends. Using available data analysis tools, we devised a method to accurately track tempo throughout a song. In this paper we demonstrate through an analysis of all number one songs from the chart that tempo variation within a song has declined over a 60-year period. In the 5-year span from 1955–1959, the average standard deviation of tempo was 5.01 beats per minute, or about 4.8%. Conversely, from 2010–2014, the average standard deviation was less than 1 beat per minute, or only about 0.85% of the average tempo.
ER  -