Song lyrics have become angrier since the 80s, study shows

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Song lyrics have become angrier over the previous 4 many years, a study suggests.

The phrases in rap, nation, pop, R&B, and rock songs have additionally become easier and extra repetitive, based on analysis revealed in the journal Scientific Reports.

Rap songs confirmed the most profound improve in anger and detrimental feelings whereas nation songs had the lowest rise, the researchers mentioned.

Eva Zangerle, an assistant professor at the University of Innsbruck’s division of laptop science in Austria, mentioned anger-related phrases might have become extra widespread as a result of music – as a mirror of society – “reflects more general changes in society and culture”.

Prof Zangerle and her colleagues analysed the lyrics of 12,000 English-language songs launched between 1980 and 2020.

They additionally checked out the web page views of those lyrics on the on-line tune lyric platform Genius.

The crew discovered that, on the whole, lyrics have become easier and simpler to grasp over time.

Analysis additionally confirmed the variety of completely different phrases used inside songs has decreased, notably amongst rap and rock songs.

The crew speculate this can be due to the modifications in how music performed, akin to will increase in songs being performed as background music.

Prof Zangerle added: “In the last 40 years, we have witnessed a change from buying records in the store to being able to choose from hundreds of millions of songs on streaming platforms on the phone.

“This has also changed the way music is consumed.”

The researchers additionally discovered that lyrics have become extra emotional and private over time, with a rise in each optimistic and detrimental phrases in rap songs.

R&B, pop and nation songs have additionally seen an increase in the use of emotionally detrimental lyrics.

When analysing the web page views on Genius, the crew discovered that older rock songs have been seen greater than these of newer ones, however the reverse was true for nation songs.

This may point out that rock listeners desire lyrics from older songs, whereas nation listeners might desire lyrics from newer songs.

Commenting on the general findings, the authors wrote: “This suggests that for rap, rock, and country, lyrics play a more pronounced role than for other genres and that listeners’ interest in lyricsgoes beyond musical consumption itself.”