A Framework for an Empirical Evaluation of Popular Music

ABSTRACT Popular music criticism often includes ratings where reviewers ascribe a number out of ten or a number of stars or something similar. In addition, institutions such as the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame or music magazines such as Rolling Stone select and grade artists and songs they deem exemplary. The process by which critics and institutions evaluate music is not founded on any transparent, established objective metrics, so personal tastes and other biases likely play a significant role in their critical ratings. The present research examines whether academic reviewers can consistently assess songs by evaluating specific features. The findings suggest that the process of judging music quality through approaches that are not replicable and not operationalized is unreliable due to the absence of any methodology, and that assessments of academic reviewers are largely consistent, whereby a more reliable and less biased approach to rating popular music can be implemented.