As with other areas surrounding human activity, music too has undergone a drastic change over the years. The way music, lyrics and the mood are perceived now is very different from what it was a few years back.
World over the music industry is big business. Different genres like popular music, rock, jazz, classical etc have dominated the scene from time to time, giving us immortal music to listen to.
From band popularity to individual records, the liking and bent has swayed with time. But one thing, that we have not studied or analysed till now, is the kind and tonality of music that has changed over the years.
Latest research shows that popular music has changed over the years, and the music of 2019 is strikingly different from the music of the previous eras. One of the ways to differentiate this, is to identify the changes in the lyrics.
Data scientists, Kathleen Napier and Lior Shamir, at Lawrence Technological University in Michigan used quantitative analytics to study the change in lyrics of popular music over seven decades, from the 1950s to 2016. The results bought forward a surprising revelation. They showed that expressions like anger and sadness have increased aggressively over time, with joy and happiness on a decline.
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In a research paper published in the most recent issue of the Journal of Popular Music Studies, Kathleen Napier and Lior Shamir analysed the lyrics of over 6000 songs of the Billboard Hot 100, over the years. These are the most popular songs followed by fans all over the world and reflect the music preferences of people.
In the past the songs were ranked by record sales, radio broadcasting and jukebox plays, but in recent times, it is based on several other indicators such as streaming and social media.
Process of analysis –
The tones expressed in each song were analyzed by applying automatic quantitative sentiment analysis. Automatic sentiment analysis associates each word or phrase in the song with a set of tones that they express. The combination of the tones expressed by all words and phrases of the lyrics determines the sentiment of that song. The sentiments of all Billboard Hot 100 songs in each year are averaged, and the average of each year allows to measure whether the expression of that sentiment increased, decreased, or remained constant.
Analysis results –
1950’s –
Songs released during the mid-1950s were the least angry. Joy was a dominant tone.
1960’s to 1970’s –
The songs were milder, though the anger tone was marginally increasing. However, in mid 1970s, the joy expressed in lyrics increased sharply.
1980’s to 1990’s –
Songs released between 1982-1984 were less angry compared to any other period, except for the 1950s. In the mid-1990s, songs became angrier, as compared to other years.
The expression of sadness, disgust and fear also increased over time, although the increase was milder compared to the increase in the expression of anger. Disgust increased gradually, but was lower in the early 1980s and higher in the mid and late 1990s.
Popular music lyrics expressed more fear during the mid-1980s but this trend decreased in 1988. Another sharp increase in fear was observed in 1998 and 1999, but by 2000, it had started the decline again.
Post 2000 –
Anger expressed in lyrics has increased gradually and peaked in the year 2015. The lyrics of songs now a days are more gloomy, angrier and show signs of depression and frustration. This wasn’t the case earlier on.
“The change in lyrics sentiments does not necessarily reflect what the musicians and songwriters wanted to express, but is more related to what music consumers wanted to listen to in each year,” says Lior Shamir.