Hip-hop hailed as pinnacle of popular music’s development

Scientific study identifies three breakthrough years – 1964, 1983 and 1991

For some it was the unforgettable tunes of the Beatles, for others the intricate “prog rock” arrangements of Yes or the thunderous melding of blues and folk that was Led Zeppelin.

But no. According to a new scientific study, the pinnacle of popular music evolution was the emergence of hip-hop.

And while 1991 – when rap rose up from the streets and went mainstream – marked the biggest revolution in chart culture, 1986 was the year it progressed the least.

The research, led by teams from Queen Mary, University of London and Imperial College, found chart diversity was in the doldrums in the mid-1980s, chiefly due to the spread of drum machines, synths and samplers.

But the scientists also rejected claims pop music was becoming homogenised and creatively stifled today.

Assisted by music website Last.fm, the researchers analysed 30 second long segments of around 17,000 songs that appeared in the US Billboard Hot 100 chart between 1960 and 2010.

Computer software was used to group the songs according to their musical properties, incorporating the kinds of instruments used, chord patterns, tonal character, and genre.

The study identified three key music “revolutions”– in 1964 when the Beatles and Rolling Stones led the “British invasion” of the US; 1983 (marked by the “new wave” blend of synth-based pop and post-punk rock; and 1991.

Of the three, hip-hop’s big entrance into the charts in 1991 was said to be the most far-reaching. Perhaps strangely, punk rock itself was not rated as a major force for change. 1991 was, in the US at least, the year that punk finally broke as grunge bands like Nirvana swept the charts.

But the real musical revolution was taking place in hip-hop and rap music.

By 1991 rap had grown from people chanting over a breakbeat mixed by a DJ into a sophisticated art form built over an esoteric mix of samples.

Public Enemy– who once described their work as “music’s worst nightmare” – were the biggest rap group around but their militant take on hip-hop was soon eclipsed by less political fare.

Lyrically, gangster rap may have been a cocktail of misogyny, violence, naughty words and nihilism but it found a huge mainstream audience.

Trainers, tracksuits, bling: all were gifted to the world by a hiphop culture that now commanded a global audience.

Hip-hop itself moved towards the mainstream with club-friendly tunes taking everyone from Busta Rhymes to Missy Elliot to the top of the charts.

Meanwhile, the world’s top producers, such as Timbaland and the Neptunes, all now come from a hip-hop background.

Whereas it used to be possible to define music by strict terms such as hip-hop, r‘n’b and pop, now such labels are pretty much meaningless – and rappers like Eminem, Jay-Z and Kanye West have become household names and brands in their own right.

It may not be everyone’s cup of Ice-T but there’s no doubt that hiphop is the dominant musical culture of the day.

Picture: Rex Features. Public Enemy perform in the 1990s.