Working Paper: NBER ID: w13308
Authors: David Galenson
Abstract: Irving Berlin, Cole Porter, and other songwriters of the Golden Era wrote popular songs that treated common topics clearly and simply. During the mid-1960s Bob Dylan, John Lennon, and Paul McCartney created a new kind of popular music that was personal and often obscure. This shift, which transformed popular music from an experimental into a conceptual art, produced a distinct change in the creative life cycles of songwriters. Golden Era songwriters were generally at their best during their 30s and 40s, whereas since the mid-'60s popular songwriters have consistently done their best work during their 20s. The revolution in popular music occurred at a time when young innovators were making similar transformations in other arts: Jean-Luc Godard and his fellow New Wave directors created a conceptual revolution in film in the early '60s, just as Andy Warhol and other Pop artists made painting a conceptual activity.
Keywords: popular music; songwriters; creative life cycles; conceptual revolution
JEL Codes: J01
Edges that are evidenced by causal inference methods are in orange, and the rest are in light blue.
| Cause | Effect |
|---|---|
| conceptual revolution (O33) | change in creative life cycles of songwriters (O39) |
| conceptual revolution (O33) | change in age of significant work production (J26) |
| golden era songwriters (B31) | peak in 30s and 40s (J26) |
| conceptual era songwriters (L82) | peak in 20s (J26) |