In 1978, "dance" meant squirming to the tune of I Will Survive by Gloria Gaynor: Today is danced with Ariana Grande and One Kiss by Calvin Harris. A study published in the Royal Society Open Science shows how we can use mathematics to explain this metamorphosis.

According to the authors, now climbing the charts while dance songs, but basically depressing. The rock has suffered a setback, while the pop and dance music are living a moment of glory.

The song Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen (1985) is emblematic of a style of music which in recent decades has been abandoned in favor of more pop melodies, less rock and more danceable.

The goal of researchers - led by Natalia Komarova (University of California) - was to identify the elements that characterize the musical evolution. They analyzed 500,000 pieces published in the UK between 1985 and 2015, classifying them according to a dozen parameters, including mood (emotion transmitted) and danceable.

The trend emerged is made good by an example given by the authors in their paper: in 1985 he danced with Glory Days by Bruce Springsteen or Freedom Wham! In 2014 - a year before it was off the search - on top of the hit were Sam Smith Stay with Me and with Passenger Whispers. Not really energizing two texts.

Balliamoci above. According to the authors of the study to climb the charts today are in fact more introspective melodies, danceable provided. Not only that, the researchers also saw that to lead the pop and dance music genre (very popular in recent years) are mainly women. Perhaps because of the decline of rock, regarded rightly or more masculine reason.

A figure finally emerged from the research: the mathematical model used for musical analysis, there is a 75% chance of predicting the characteristics that guarantee the success of a song. That, they say, is good news: it means that today - regardless of the marketing campaigns - the musicians making good music, that meets the tastes of their audience, can still hope to climb the charts.

From Focus