Science hath declared that Nirvana’s “Smells Like Teen Spirit” is the most iconic song of all time. The seminal grunge track — a cut from SPIN’s Best Album of the Past 30 Years, Nevermind — was placed at the top of a list of 50 songs by researchers from Goldsmiths, University of London, according to the Daily Mail. Computer scientist and musician Dr. Mick Grierson examined songs featured in seven ‘all-time best’ lists from sources like Rolling Stone and NME, and ran them through analytical software to compare their key, BPM, chord variety, lyrical content, timbral variety, and sonic variance. John Lennon’s “Imagine” took second place. U2’s “One,” Michael Jackson’s “Billie Jean,” and Queen’s “Bohemian Rhapsody” rounded out the top five.
“We found the most significant thing these songs have in common is that most of them use sound in a very varied, dynamic way when compared to other records,” Grierson explained. “This makes the sound of the record exciting, holding the listeners attention. By the same token, the sounds these songs use and the way they are combined is highly unique in each case.”
“Ultimately,” Grieson added, “there is no ‘formula’ for this, other than to make your song sound as different, diverse and exciting as possible.”
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2 comments:
Once again Western science has let us down (as it did previously with Y2K and Global Warming). There are other (and better) ways of knowing. A group of Peruvian Homeopaths concluded that Neil and Marge and Me (For the several billion people that have never heard this song, you can check it out here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWHfbryRIqE) is actually the most iconic song of all time. In an independent development, an entire monastery of Shaolin monks in the Henan province of China proved with expert timing that the same song is also the most awesome. I anticipate this will be the final word on the subject.
Funny. Did you know Kurt Cobain made up the words while they were recording the song?
Just a little tidbit of just how much genius that lost soul really had.
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