News The most iconic classic rock songs of all time, according to science
Like all creative realms, music is a matter of subjectivity: if your grandfather shakes to his Jimmy Reed records but you prefer to get down and dirty to the latest Lizzo groove, nobody is right, and nobody is wrong. In one person’s world, ‘Baby What You Want Me to Do’ is the greatest song of all time, while in another’s, it’s all about ‘Juice’. Therefore, there’s no need for science or intergenerational fisticuffs – until the family kitchen disco, of course.
Subjectivity aside, scientists and mathematicians often like to impose their absolute measurements on the arts. Artists will often acquiesce to studies and measurements but understand that such things must be taken with a pinch of salt. If a song doesn’t enter the charts or surface in some scientific study, that doesn’t mean it’s not artistically virtuous. In fact, often, the inverse is truer.
All the same, we avert your eyes with an air of insincerity towards a study conducted by the London-based scientist Dr Grierson. As Professor and Research Leader at the UAL Institute for Creative Computing, Dr Grierson busies himself with all manner of musical quandaries, large and small.
In 2015, he compiled multiple “all-time best song” lists from various reputable sources to create an aggregated hierarchy. Dr Grierson then used analytical software to study the songs’ various parameters, including lyrical composition, beats per minute and chord structure.
After studying the attributes of the ideal pop song, the tracks were arranged into a final hierarchy. The list included pop songs dating back to the early 1960s, spanning most major genres from soul to rock and roll. Nirvana’s ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ took the top spot as the song that appears frequently on “best song of all time” lists and is most consistent with popular attributes.
Dr Grierson found that 80 per cent of “iconic” songs are in the major key, and their average tempo is 125 BPM. Furthermore, he noted that chord changes were minimal, with high timbral dissonance, dynamic melodies and an abundance of repeated buzzwords like “Baby”, “Feel”, and “Love”.
Of the 50 most iconic songs of all time, 17 were what we would deem the classic rock period. For some, classic rock means roots rock ‘n’ roll from the 1950s, but we’re including entries from rock artists up to the mid-1970s, just before the emergence of punk.
See the full list and follow the playlist below.
The most iconic classic rock songs:
‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ – Queen
‘Hey Jude’ – The Beatles
‘Imagine’ – John Lennon
‘Like A Rolling Stone’ – Bob Dylan
‘I Can’t Get No Satisfaction’ – Rolling Stones
‘Waterloo Sunset’ – The Kinks
‘Stairway To Heaven’ – Led Zeppelin
‘Life On Mars?’ – David Bowie
‘Heartbreak Hotel’ – Elvis Presley
‘Born To Run’ – Bruce Springsteen
‘Purple Haze’ – Jimi Hendrix
‘Johnny B. Goode’ – Chuck Berry
‘Good Vibrations’ – The Beach Boys
‘A Day In The Life’ – The Beatles
‘Gimme Shelter’ – The Rolling Stones
‘God Only Knows’ – The Beach Boys
‘My Generation’ – The Who
