Musicians' songs slow down as they do! Tempos of tracks by Michael Jackson, Elvis Presley and Whitney Houston all declined as the singers aged, study finds
- Slower songs could be evidence of a 'neurobiological slowdown' in later life
- READ MORE: Melodies have become simpler over 70 years, study finds
If you feel like you're getting slower as you age, you are not alone.
In fact, even the world's biggest pop stars struggle to keep the pace up as they approach the later years of their life, a study shows.
The new analysis reveals that musicians' songs get gradually slower as they age – including Elvis Presley, Madonna and Michael Jackson.
And rather than deliberately deciding to make their songs slower, these artists may experience a a 'neurobiological slowdown' in later life.
This means they're unconsciously influenced to slow the tempo when they compose their hits, the study suggests.
Analysis reveals that musicians' songs get gradually slower as they age - including Elvis Presley, Madonna and Michael Jackson
The researchers studied around 1,500 songs released by 'top tier' solo artists who had careers spanning at least two decades
The new research was authored by Geoff Luck, an expert in musicology at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland.
'We saw this very clear downward trend,' he told New Scientist.
'We are confident that tempo really does decline over the lifespan.'
His study focused on nearly 1,500 songs released by 'top tier' solo artists who had careers spanning at least two decades.
The artists selected were Céline Dion, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Shania Twain and Whitney Houston.
'By nature of their popularity and career length, these artists are arguably the most culturally significant solo artists of the popular music era,' Luck said.
The 10 recording artists (5 female and 5 male) were selected for study because they're considered 'culturally-significant' with careers spanning decades
When they're older, artists may have a level of introspection that tends to result in more wistful or thoughtful songs, which tend to fit a slower tempo
It's possible that musical artists have more energy to play the song at a faster tempo when they're younger
'Given their stature in the industry, these artists might be expected to exert significant influence over the characteristics of the music they record, including its tempo.'
For the study, musically-trained students listened to songs from each artist's career – 134 studio albums containing of 1,497 tracks in all.
While listening to the songs on Spotify, they tapped out beats per minute (BPM) using an app and entered the number into a database.
By plotting the data onto graphs, the researcher found that overall, the tempo for each artist saw a reduction over time.
Regardless of the calendar year in which an artist released an album, their output tended to decrease in tempo as they aged.
The effect was especially pronounced for Michael Jackson, as well as artists like Elvis Presley, Lil Wayne, Eminem and Whitney Houston.
It was less strong – although still significant – for the likes of Elton John, Madonna, Mariah Carey and Shania Twain.
These graphs plot the overall decrease in tempo across each artist's age. Note the effect was especially pronounced for Michael Jackson, but much less strong for Elton John
It was also strong for Lil Wayne and Whitney Houston, but less pronounced - although still significant - for the likes of Madonna and Mariah Carey
The findings are 'striking' because the 'clear effect of age' is demonstrated across artists of different sexes and genres, the author says.
Results are consistent with the 'slowing-with-age' hypothesis – where the speed at which tasks are performed gets lower as we get older due to cognitive decline.
A musician putting out slower songs at an older age (relative to songs from earlier in their career) may be evidence of 'neurobiological decay'.
'Timing is a critical aspect of musical performance intimately related to the dynamics of biological motion,' Luck said in his paper.
He admits that 'external factors' may affect song tempos, including changing trends in listener preferences or 'other market forces'.
Pictured, overall age-related tempo declines for Celine Dion (left) and Shania Twain (right)
Artists were selected based on two criteria - they were culturally significant, and their careers were of sufficient length to reveal potential age-related effects on tempo
But overall, the findings have 'important implications' for the music industry and studies of the cognitive ability.
'Commercial recordings, millions of which are instantly accessible via a range of streaming platforms, can offer profound insights into a fundamental and understudied aspect of human functioning across the lifespan,' the paper says.
'These results have implications concerning the extent to which artists are able to both shape their compositions and engage their audience.'
The new study has been released as a pre-print on the bioRxiv server, meaning it's yet to be peer-reviewed.
