Pop music really ain’t what it used to be – officially
If you’re forever thinking that music was better in your day, you may be right.
New research has revealed that pop music lyrics really have been dumbed down over the last 40 years.
The words in English-language tracks have become ‘simpler’ and ‘more repetitive’ since 1980, say scientists.
Dr Eva Zangerle and her colleagues analysed the lyrics of 12,000 English-language rap, country, pop, R&B, and rock songs released between 1980 and 2020. They looked at 2,400 songs from each of the five genres.
Their findings, published in the journal Scientific Reports, show that, in general, lyrics have become ‘simpler’ and ‘easier to understand’ over time.
The team also found that the number of different words used within songs has decreased, particularly in rap and rock songs.
However, they also discovered that the number of words with three or more syllables has increased in rap tracks since 1980.
Dr Zangerle, from the University of Innsbruck, Austria, said: ‘While the use of longer words has increased in rap songs, general increases in the repetitiveness of lyrics across multiple genres has led to lyrics becoming simpler overall.’
The research team suggest that the trend towards simpler lyrics could reflect changes in music consumption, such as increases in songs being played as background music.
They also found that lyrics have tended to become more ’emotional’ and ‘personal’ over time.
‘Use of emotionally positive and negative words increased in rap songs, while the use of emotionally negative lyrics increased for R&B, pop and country songs,’ said Dr Zangerle.
‘Additionally, all genres showed an increase in the use of anger-related words.’
Further analysis of the views of the 12,000 song lyrics on the online song lyric platform Genius revealed that the lyrics of older rock songs tend to be viewed more than those of newer ones.
But the lyrics of newer country songs tend to be viewed more than those of older ones.
‘This could indicate that rock listeners prefer lyrics from older songs, while country listeners may prefer lyrics from newer songs,’ she said.