Golden age of pop died in 1999, admit millennials

EVEN millennials admit the best pop music was made before the year 2000, a study has found.

The 643 participants, aged 18 to 25, were easily able to recognise chart hits released between 1960 and 1999. There was a steep drop- off for songs released between 2000 and 2015 – when the millennials were growing up.

Dr Pascal Wallisch, of New York University, said: ‘The 1960s to 1990s was a special time in music, reflected by a steady recognition of pieces of that era – even by today’s millennials.’ The researchers added that songs topping the charts then were far more varied than between 2000 to 2015, or the 1940s and 50s.

Hits that tested highly for recognition included When a Man Loves a Woman by Percy Sledge (1966) and Blondie’s The Tide is High (1980). There was also a strong link between the likelihood of recognising a song and its popularity on internet music service Spotify, the study in journal Public Library of Science One found.