Songs have become more repetitive and angry since the 1980s, according to a new study, delving into studies suggesting songs have become shorter, easier and more negative over the years due to points such as incentives from streaming services and the rise of short-form videos. on TikTok and other people who prefer to pay attention to background music.
A collection of 12,000 rap, pop, country, rock and R songs.
According to the researchers, this may simply be due to more people playing songs in the background while performing other tasks.
However, song lyrics become more non-public and emotional over time: all genres have a higher use of anger-related words, while positive and negative lyrics are more prevalent in rap, and emotionally negative lyrics are more prevalent in R songs.
The study analyzed studies on the music platform Genius and found that lyrics to older rock songs tend to be noticed more by listeners, while lyrics to newer country songs are noticed more than older songs, and concluded that listeners would likely prefer lyrics from older rock songs and newer country songs.
Rap listeners care the most about the lyrics, followed by R listeners
The study noted that song lyrics have been used culturally as a form of literary work, with the use of poetic devices such as metaphors and images. Bob Dylan won the Nobel Prize in Literature in 2016 for “creating new poetic expressions within the wonderful culture of American song. ” A separate 2021 study analyzed music from 1958 to 2016 and found that the songs that entered the Billboard charts have become simpler over time. and easier songs discovered good luck and reached higher positions. According to the 2021 study, this could be due to an accumulation of new music available seamlessly to listeners, making popular songs easier. According to researchers at Lawrence Technical University, expressions of anger, sadness, disgust, and worry have increased in popular music, while joy has decreased since the 1950s. However, because researchers only tested popular music, their effects suggest that listeners’ preference for music with more negative connotations has been increasing. that more artists generate negative music.
Studies also found that songs become shorter as the years go by. The average length of songs on the Billboard Hot Hundred has fallen from 4 minutes in the 1990s to around 3 minutes in the 2020s, according to a Washington Post report. Streaming facilities are possibly to blame, as platforms like Apple Music pay artists based on streaming, and some facilities like Spotify have a minimum period of time that a song must be played in order for it to count toward a payout. . About 24% of Spotify listeners skip songs within the first five seconds, while almost 50% skip them before they’re even finished, according to data from Paul Lamere, director of network development at Echo Nest, the platform. of intelligence and musical knowledge from Spotify. Streaming services surpassed virtual downloads as the music industry’s top revenue source for the first time in 2015, at 34. 3%, according to data from the Recording Industry Association of America. This figure increased to 75% in 2018. Social platforms like TikTok may also be to blame, as users are accustomed to using and listening to short snippets of songs in videos, Billboard reports.