Who remembers the Beatles? The collective memory for popular music.
How well do we remember popular music? To investigate how hit songs are recognized over time, we randomly selected number-one Billboard singles from the last 76 years and presented them to a large sample of mostly millennial participants. In response to hearing each song, participants were prompted...
| Main Authors: | , , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Public Library of Science (PLoS)
2019-01-01
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| Series: | PLoS ONE |
| Online Access: | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210066 |
| _version_ | 1818726285356040192 |
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| author | Stephen Spivack Sara Jordan Philibotte Nathaniel Hugo Spilka Ian Joseph Passman Pascal Wallisch |
| author_facet | Stephen Spivack Sara Jordan Philibotte Nathaniel Hugo Spilka Ian Joseph Passman Pascal Wallisch |
| author_sort | Stephen Spivack |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | How well do we remember popular music? To investigate how hit songs are recognized over time, we randomly selected number-one Billboard singles from the last 76 years and presented them to a large sample of mostly millennial participants. In response to hearing each song, participants were prompted to indicate whether they recognized it. Plotting the recognition proportion for each song as a function of the year during which it reached peak popularity resulted in three distinct phases in collective memory. The first phase is characterized by a steep linear drop-off in recognition for the music from this millennium; the second phase consists of a stable plateau during the 1960s to the 1990s; and the third phase, a further but more gradual drop-off during the 1940s and 1950s. More than half of recognition variability can be accounted for by self-selected exposure to each song as measured by its play count on Spotify. We conclude that collective memory for popular music is different from that of other historical phenomena. |
| first_indexed | 2024-12-17T21:55:46Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-1cccd4898ed843f98a68e62c3db434c8 |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 1932-6203 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-12-17T21:55:46Z |
| publishDate | 2019-01-01 |
| publisher | Public Library of Science (PLoS) |
| record_format | Article |
| series | PLoS ONE |
| spelling | doaj.art-1cccd4898ed843f98a68e62c3db434c82022-12-21T21:31:07ZengPublic Library of Science (PLoS)PLoS ONE1932-62032019-01-01142e021006610.1371/journal.pone.0210066Who remembers the Beatles? The collective memory for popular music.Stephen SpivackSara Jordan PhilibotteNathaniel Hugo SpilkaIan Joseph PassmanPascal WallischHow well do we remember popular music? To investigate how hit songs are recognized over time, we randomly selected number-one Billboard singles from the last 76 years and presented them to a large sample of mostly millennial participants. In response to hearing each song, participants were prompted to indicate whether they recognized it. Plotting the recognition proportion for each song as a function of the year during which it reached peak popularity resulted in three distinct phases in collective memory. The first phase is characterized by a steep linear drop-off in recognition for the music from this millennium; the second phase consists of a stable plateau during the 1960s to the 1990s; and the third phase, a further but more gradual drop-off during the 1940s and 1950s. More than half of recognition variability can be accounted for by self-selected exposure to each song as measured by its play count on Spotify. We conclude that collective memory for popular music is different from that of other historical phenomena.https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210066 |
| spellingShingle | Stephen Spivack Sara Jordan Philibotte Nathaniel Hugo Spilka Ian Joseph Passman Pascal Wallisch Who remembers the Beatles? The collective memory for popular music. PLoS ONE |
| title | Who remembers the Beatles? The collective memory for popular music. |
| title_full | Who remembers the Beatles? The collective memory for popular music. |
| title_fullStr | Who remembers the Beatles? The collective memory for popular music. |
| title_full_unstemmed | Who remembers the Beatles? The collective memory for popular music. |
| title_short | Who remembers the Beatles? The collective memory for popular music. |
| title_sort | who remembers the beatles the collective memory for popular music |
| url | https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0210066 |
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