If Song Lyrics Sound Almost Foreign To You These Days, You’re Not Alone

It’s a trope as old as popular music itself. One generation maintains a connection to the music of its collective youth while eschewing the next generation’s tunes as objectively worse.

And while that’s clearly still an issue as Gen Z artists start to take over the Billboard charts, there’s a little more to it … as a team of Innsbruck University have recently revealed.

All about the lyrics

Regardless of the genre, most songs have typically involved verses, choruses, and refrains in some fairly structured pattern. And the words themselves often told a relatable story or reflected a familiar emotion. But as a new Scientific Reports study shows, lyrics have evolved significantly over the past several decades to the point that many modern songs bear little resemblance to those from not that long ago.

“Just as literature can be considered a portrayal of society, lyrics also provide a reflection of a society’s shifting norms, emotions, and values over time,” the researchers concluded.

That can be seen in the fact that modern-day lyrics are not only simpler and more repetitive, but also more emotional and personal.

Exploring the data

Researchers took a scientific approach to analyzing the lyrics from popular songs from various genres.

Some of the most notable evidence presented in the study included an increased use of personal pronouns — particularly within the genres of rap and pop music — than in lyrics from previous decades.

Depictions of strong emotion were more prevalent in country and R&B songs than they were in similar genres years ago. And across the board, negative emotions were more common while positive emotions declined.

And with social media dictating the next big thing in music at a faster pace than ever before, we can expect these changes to continue for the foreseeable future.

Chris Agee April 16th, 2024

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