Using computers to track the changing sound of bands

Professor Nick Collins from our Department of Music has used a computer to try and find the answer to this by analysing rhythm, harmony, and sound quality (known as timbre).

The answer is, of course, not that simple.

Sound of music

In the study, Radiohead were consistently more diverse than Coldplay harmonically, but not necessarily timbrally.

Overall, R.E.M. were generally the least adventurous in their musical style with Coldplay becoming increasingly part of the pop mainstream over time.

It is often believed that the older a musician gets, the more they start producing slower, more mellow material, but this is not what this study found. Variations in sound and rhythm continued to occur at different stages of the artists’ music careers.

Evolution of music

The research looked at the actual audio from songs — not just lyrics or sheet music — to find patterns in rhythm, tempo, percussion, keys and chords.

It also included music from Patsy Cline, Buddy Holly, and Kirsty MacColl for comparison.

This research is part of a growing field called computational musicology, where computers are used to study music in new ways. By analysing sound files directly, researchers can get a better understanding of how artists grow and change.

In the future, even bigger studies could help us learn more about how music evolves — and what that says about the artists and the times they lived in.

Find out more

• You can read the full research in Royal Society Open Science.
• The study was conducted by Professor Nick Collins from our Department of Music.
• Our Department of Music is ranked first in the UK in the Complete University Guide 2026. Visit our Music webpages for more information on our undergraduate and postgraduate programmes.

Picture credit: Carlos Mario Ríos (@carlosmariorios) via Wikimedia Commons