You are not getting old, the songs are actually getting worse, new study finds
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The study adds to previous studies which showed lyrics have become less positive, and joyful over the last decades.
A new study has revealed that song lyrics are getting simpler and repetitive over time, and are becoming angrier and self-obsessed. The research, published Thursday (Mar 28) in the journal Scientific Reports, was carried out after analysing more than 12,000 English-language songs across several genres, including rap, country, pop, R&B and rock from 1980 to 2020.
According to experts, lyrics are a “mirror of society,” indicating a change in the society’s cultural values, emotions and preoccupations.
Senior researcher Eva Zangerle, an expert on recommendation systems at Austria’s University of Innsbruck, stopped short of pointing fingers at an individual artist for simple lyrics but highlighted a general trend.
“What we have also been witnessing in the last 40 years is a drastic change in the music landscape – from how music is sold to how music is produced,” Zangerle said. “Across all genres, lyrics had a tendency to become more simple and more repetitive,” Zangerle summarised.
Decrease in positive, joyful lyrics
The study adds to previous studies which showed lyrics have become less positive, and joyful over the last decades. They have also become more self-obsessed, frequented with words like “me” or “mine”.
The number of repeated lines rose most in rap over the decades, Zangerle said – adding that it obviously had the most lines to begin with.
“Rap music has become more angry than the other genres,” she added.
Old is gold for rock fans
In line with the trend of degradation in lyrics, most rock fans still look up to older songs rather than new ones.
According to the research, rock has climbed down the charts in recent years, indicating that people are liking older songs more.
It further highlights that the way of consuming songs has also changed over the years. People tend to listen to music more in the background these days, Zangerle added citing previous research.
(With inputs from agencies)