If you feel like you’re slowing down as you get older, you’re not alone.
Research shows that even the world’s biggest pop stars struggle to keep up the pace as they get older.
The new analysis finds that the songs of musicians including Elvis Presley, Madonna and Michael Jackson gradually slow down as they get older.
Rather than these artists consciously choosing to slow down their songs, they may be experiencing a “neurobiological slowdown” later in life.
The research shows that they unconsciously tend to slow down the tempo when composing their hits.
Analysis shows that musicians’ songs gradually slow down as they get older – including Elvis Presley, Madonna and Michael Jackson
The researchers studied about 1,500 songs by “top solo artists” with careers that lasted at least two decades
The new research was conducted by Geoff Luck, an expert in musicology at the University of Jyväskylä in Finland.
“We saw a very clear downward trend,” he said New scientist.
“We believe that the rate actually slows as lifespan progresses.”
His research focused on nearly 1,500 songs by “top” solo artists with careers that lasted at least two decades.
The selected artists were Céline Dion, Elton John, Elvis Presley, Eminem, Lil Wayne, Madonna, Mariah Carey, Michael Jackson, Shania Twain and Whitney Houston.
“Given their popularity and the length of their careers, these artists are probably the most culturally significant solo artists of the popular music era,” Luck said.
The 10 artists (5 women and 5 men) were selected for the study because they are considered ‘culturally significant’ with careers spanning decades
As they get older, artists can have a level of introspection that tends to result in more wistful or thoughtful songs, which tend to fit into a slower tempo
It is possible that musicians have more energy to play the song at a faster tempo when they are younger
‘Given their stature in the industry, you would expect these artists to exert significant influence over the characteristics of the music they record, including tempo.’
For the study, musically trained students listened to songs from each artist’s career: 134 studio albums containing a total of 1,497 songs.
While listening to the songs on Spotify, they typed in the number of beats per minute (BPM) into an app and entered the number into a database.
By plotting the data in graphs, the researcher found that each performer’s tempo generally decreased over time.
Regardless of the calendar year in which an artist released an album, the pace of his/her output declined as he/she aged.
The effect was especially noticeable in Michael Jackson, but also in artists such as Elvis Presley, Lil Wayne, Eminem and Whitney Houston.
It was less strong – though still significant – for the likes of Elton John, Madonna, Mariah Carey and Shania Twain.
These graphs show the overall decline in tempo over the age of each artist. Note that the effect was particularly pronounced for Michael Jackson, but much less so for Elton John
It was also strong for Lil Wayne and Whitney Houston, but less pronounced — though still significant — for the likes of Madonna and Mariah Carey
The findings are “striking” because the “clear effect of age” is visible across artists of different genders and genres, the author said.
The results are consistent with the hypothesis that tasks become slower as we age, with the speed at which tasks are performed decreasing as a result of cognitive decline.
If a musician releases slower songs as he ages (compared to songs he made earlier in his career), this could indicate “neurobiological decline.”
“Timing is a crucial aspect of musical performance, intimately linked to the dynamics of biological motion,” Luck writes in his paper.
He admits that “external factors” can influence the tempo of songs, including changing trends in listener preferences or “other market forces.”
Pictured are the general 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 long enough to reveal possible age-related effects on tempo
But overall, the findings have “important implications” for the music industry and cognitive skills research.
“Commercial recordings, millions of which are instantly accessible via various streaming platforms, may provide profound insights into a fundamental and understudied aspect of human functioning across the lifespan,” the article said.
‘These results have implications for the extent to which artists can shape their compositions and engage their audiences.’
The new study has been published as a pre-print on the website. bioRxiv server, meaning it still needs to be peer-reviewed.