Social scientists discover 3 revolutions in American pop

Our recent scientific analysis of the “fossil record” of the Billboard charts prompted widespread attention, particularly the findings about the three musical “revolutions” that shaped the musical landscape of the second half of the 20th century.

The journey that got me here started in 1992, when I was a sheltered 12-year-old boy, growing up in a small town in Germany. But I had just discovered a window to the world: every Sunday, Radio Luxembourg transmitted the original US Top 40, in English, and I was addicted. So much so that when we absolutely had to go and visit grandma, I set the timer to record the show on compact cassette. Listening back one night I heard the marvellous sound of a man singing “Mama, ooh”, in a song so unusual, so exuberantly creative I had to re-listen over and over – it became the musical love of my life.

It was, of course, Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody, which resurfaced in the charts after the song’s appearance in the film Wayne’s World. I had stumbled across a gem from the 1970s in a sea of 1990s music. Little did I know then that I would grow up to analyse the difference between 70s and 90s pop, and much more.