Are the Most Popular Songs About the Same Topics?
There are many factors that contribute to a song’s popularity, but it has been a long-held assumption that the song lyrics (essentially the topic of the song) were not particularly high on this list. In fact, lyrics are such an important factor that one analysis shows that lyrics can be an incredible predictive factor with over 70% accuracy for whether a song could have a spot on the Hot 100 List. While more research is needed to see if lyrics play a role in things like jingles for advertising it is still an impressive find.
A study conducted at North Carolina State University tells an interesting story. By looking at the most popular songs starting from 1960 and working their way forward in till’’ 2000 they noticed that the most popular songs tended to be about breakups, with variations being about regret and uncertainty. What this may indicate is they humans may be drawn to sad topics and also that emotional pain is something many of us can relate to (no surprise there).
Research may have to be conducted to see if this trend still holds true today or if there has been a shift in lyrical preferences in the past few decades. Spotting musical trends are beneficial for both advertisers and those involved in the musical industry. However, you need to look at more than just lyrics, there are many things to consider such as genre, instruments, catchiness, and so much more.
Music is a fantastic tool that can indicate the wellness of an entire population’s mindset. As we can see in years past generally speaking many people were in emotional pain. Let’s hope that as time progresses we can start singing more about love and happiness as opposed to pain and loss. And with that change in topics, it would be wonderful if we felt and lived out that change as well.