The evolution of inharmonicity and noisiness in contemporary popular music

Abstract: Much of Western classical music relies on instruments based on acoustic resonance, which produce harmonic or quasi-harmonic sounds. In contrast, since the mid-twentieth century, popular music has increasingly been produced in recording studios, where it is not bound by the constraints of harmonic sounds. In this study, we use modified MPEG-7 features to explore and characterise the evolution of noise and inharmonicity in popular music since 1961. We place this evolution in the context of other broad categories of music, including Western classical piano music, orchestral music, and musique concr`ete. We introduce new features that distinguish between inharmonicity caused by noise and that resulting from interactions between discrete partials. Our analysis reveals that the history of popular music since 1961 can be divided into three phases. From 1961 to 1972, inharmonicity in popular music, initially only slightly higher than in orchestral music, increased significantly. Between 1972 and 1986, this rise in inharmonicity was accompanied by an increase in noise, but since 1986, both inharmonicity and noise have moderately decreased. In recent years (up to 2020), popular music has remained much more inharmonic than popular music from the 1960s or orchestral music involving acoustic resonance instruments. However, it has become less noisy, with noise levels comparable to those of orchestral music. We relate these trends to the evolution of music production techniques. In particular, the use of multi-tracking may explain the higher inharmonicity in popular music compared to orchestral music. We illustrate these trends with analyses of key artists and tracks.