Summer post: Dark Side of the Moon is a rough draft of Wish You Were Here. Prove me wrong.

I see a great deal of debate online about whether Dark Side of the Moon or it’s follow-up, Wish You Were Here, is the better album. The debates are fierce and extended. I have seen little discussion though, of just how similar they are to each other in structure and content. I see them as…

Outline of an evolutionary history of the title track on popular music albums 1966-1990

Abstract I counted the proportion of popular music albums per year that have a title track between 1966 and 1990 (inclusively). A title track is a piece of music that has exactly the same title as the album on which it is found.  I compared the change in frequency of albums with title tracks between…

Is band name scarcity a myth? A quantitative approach, revised and expanded

While there has been little empirical study of the phenomenon, it is a widely held belief among aspiring musicians that 'all the good band names are taken' (multiple anonymous informants, pers. comms). Given that there is also a belief that a good band name is important (Indie Professor, 2011), there is significant 'band name anxiety'…