What contributes to an artist's melodic "signature?"?

Question

Studying the vocal melodies in recorded pop music, from a theoretical perspective, I have the impression that there are certain musical characteristics that make up the melodic"fingerprint" of an artist, genre, or time period -- such that it's possible to tell, independent of the arrangement/performer, the artist/genre/period that gave rise to a particular melody. Can anyone offer suggestions about how to conduct this kind of analysis? Which melodic features are worth focusing on? Is there any systematic research that's been done on this already, as it relates specifically to pop vocal melodies? As an example of the kind of thing I mean: Ben Folds often ends phrases by falling from scale degree 5 to 3, then back up to 6. I'm looking for other examples of such signatures, and for general methods of discovering them.

Answer 1

This is an excellent question, and one I've thought about as well! I think the melodic rhythm is equally important as the notes chosen — for example, Motown melodies have very characteristic rhythmic sensibility. Looking at the melodic syncopation in Motown songs will yield at least as much information as examining the notes. I'm not aware of any studies that have been done on this subject, but I think you're on to something really interesting here!