Isaac Greene

The researchers are only looking at pitches and rhythms. They are not considering lyrics aside from timing and stress patterns, and they are not considering timbre at all. That’s a big omission for rock! In fairness, though, there is no formal framework for analyzing timbre, so there’s not much you can do with it quantitatively.

I’m always amazed at the academic ability to disregard something when it proves hard to measure, even if that thing is wildly important. Most of us could guess the decade of a song only from the timbre. Only the chords? Not a chance.