Washington: Have you noticed that popular music has changed over the years? Songs of 2019 are noticeably different from the music of the 1960s or 1970s. If you listen closely, it is not just the music that has changed, but also the lyrics.
A new study, conducted by data scientists at Lawrence Technological University in Michigan saw them using quantitative analytics to study the change in lyrics of popular music over seven decades, from the 1950s to 2016.
The results showed that the expression of anger and sadness in popular music has increased gradually over time, while the expression of joy has declined.
The research paper, published in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, saw Kathleen Napier and Lior Shamir analyse the lyrics of over 6,000 songs of the Billboard Hot 100 in each year.
The study saw the tones expressed in each song being analysed by applying automatic quantitative sentiment analysis.
The sentiments of all Billboard Hot 100 songs in each year were averaged, and the average of each year allowed to measure whether the expression of that sentiment increased, decreased, or remained constant.
Related stories
Subscribe
- Never miss a story with notifications
- Gain full access to our premium content
- Browse free from up to 5 devices at once
Latest stories