What Changes in Pop Music Tell About Us

Researchers from the University of Vienna studied some 260,000 songs from the weekly  Billboard Hot 100 charts from 1973 to 2023.  They analyzed them with computer algorithms designed to assess the emotional content of language and to detect patterns and redundancy.

Here are some of the findings as reported by John Anderer in his article for StudyFinds entitled Pop Music Has Grown Darker And More Stressed Over 50 Years, Tracking With America’s Rising Distress:

Researchers at the University of Vienna examined five decades of chart-topping hits from 1973 to 2023 and found a stark transformation in what Americans listen to. Stress-related language (as measured by a standard dictionary tool) appeared with increasing frequency, while positive sentiment steadily declined. . . .

The researchers observed that stress-related language, negativity, and lyrical simplicity increased over the past five decades. The correlation was strong enough that stress-related language showed an 81% correlation with time, meaning the trend was consistent and pronounced across the entire period.

The researchers suggest a correlation between these negative emotions and the increase in depression, anxiety, and psychological distress that has been documented over this period, especially in teenagers and young adults.  The study said it is unclear whether their music contributed to those mental problems or merely reflect it.

I would argue that the effects simply demonstrate the state of mind of the mostly young artists who create the music and, more importantly, the state of mind of the mostly young audiences that propels the music to the Hot 100 charts. They buy and listen to the music that speaks to how they feel.  So I think this study of popular music is very telling about the state of young people over the last half century.

I was especially interested in the other set of findings in the study:  “At the same time, songs became structurally less complex, featuring more repetition and simpler vocabulary.”

Structurally simpler songs with more repetition and less linguistic variety dominated charts increasingly over time. . . .

Researchers measured complexity using the LZ77 compression algorithm, which identifies redundant patterns in text. Songs with lower compression ratios contain more repetition and predictability, while higher ratios indicate greater structural complexity. The data showed a steady increase in compressibility over time, meaning lyrics became progressively simpler.

Why would this be?  “The researchers noted that the decreasing complexity aligns with recent drops in IQ and PISA test scores, though they emphasized this represents correlation rather than proven causation.”  And why would that be?  I would suggest that the long decline in education, due to postmodern educational theories, have played a role in that.

The study did note some fascinating exceptions.  Years of particular stress caused a temporary reversal of the trends.  After 9/11, the emotion in the music actually became more positive.  During the COVID shutdown, negative and stress-related language declined.  “This pattern suggests that during extreme collective stress, people actively seek music for emotional relief rather than reflection of their distress.”

Between 1973 and 2023, the economy grew and Americans’ income shot up.  And yet our mental state kept getting worse.  The study found no relationship between the economic condition of the country and what the music reflected, with one exception:  There was a strong correlation between rising median income and stress-related language.

Also, in years with lots of stress-related language, the music actually became more complex.  “This counterintuitive relationship suggests that during particularly stressful periods, audiences may prefer more cognitively demanding music rather than simpler, more accessible content.”

When I read that music was becoming more simplistic and formulaic, my first thought was to wonder whether the researchers corrected for music written by AI, but then I realized that this was not really an issue between 1973 and 2023.  But since recent music would be what AI has been trained on, it’s no wonder listeners sometimes have trouble distinguishing between AI music and human music.

If today’s music tends to be dark, depressing, and simplistic, I can report a counter-trend.  My sister tells me that her 20-something son, my nephew–who is arguably the coolest and most in-touch member of our family–and his friends are listening to what’s called Yacht Rock.  It’s the soft rock of the 1970s-1990s:  Steely Dan, Kenny Loggins, Fleetwood Mac, etc., along with contemporary groups trying to sound like them.

Says Wikipedia quoting some experts:

In 2014, AllMusic‘s Matt Colier identified the “key defining rules of the genre:”

• • “keep it smooth, even when it grooves, with more emphasis on the melody than on the beat”
  • “keep the emotions light, even when the sentiment turns sad (as is so often the case in the world of the sensitive yacht-rocksman)”
  • “always keep it catchy, no matter how modest or deeply buried in the tracklist the tune happens to be”

Orlofsky has argued that the genre’s resurgence is partly due to its function as an antidote to the negativity of the post-Obama era in the US just as in its original context, when yacht rock created “the perfect soundtrack for listeners trying to ignore Watergate and Vietnam” it now again represents “a defiant, fingers-planted-firmly-within-ears disregard of any and all political unrest”.

Sounds healthy to me, a reaction against the music and emotions uncovered in the Vienna study.

Illustration:  Rock Band Logos by Superbrogio via Deviant Art, CC by ND 3.0