We discuss the merits of today popular music compared to the hits of the past – largely a matter of taste. But regardless of your opinion on the matter, one thing is clear: pop music objectively darker and more intense than ever.
Convincing statistics are outlined in a study by psychologists at the University of Vienna, recently published in the journal. Scientific reports. After compiling every weekly Billboard Hot 100 chart from 1973 to 2023, the team used standard preprocessing techniques to parse the lyrics of 20,186 songs. They then fed those lyrics into a special algorithm that rated the songs based on their positive or negative sentiment.
As they predicted, the researchers found “a significant increase in stress-related and negative language” over the past five decades. Additionally, hit lyrics in the United States seem to have been steadily simplified over the years. According to the study's authors, these findings correlate with increased reports of depression and anxiety, as well as past research on increased negativity in both the media and fiction.
However, there were some unexpected discoveries in the team's review. First, they didn't find any clear link between increasingly dark and intense songs and changes in median household income. Secondly, major traumatic social events, including the events of September 11, 2001. COVID-19 pandemic it didn't lead to even darker songs. On the contrary, these crises seem to have led to a rise in the popularity of more positive, lyrically complex pop songs.
“Surprisingly, social disruptions such as Covid-19 have coincided with a weakening rather than a strengthening of these tendencies, indicating a preference for incongruent emotional music,” he said. the team wrotealthough they were unable to directly link the two.
“Although the study takes a quasi-experimental approach using interrupted time series to examine changes associated with major social events, the analysis remains observational in nature,” they added. “Thus, any observed differences before and after events such as 9/11 or COVID-19 represent temporary associations rather than definitive causal effects.”
Regardless of the subject or complexity, the researchers believe their findings highlight the importance of music in society, especially its ability to help listeners perceive and navigate an often complex world.
