Researchers analyzed lyrics in best-selling songs from the 1950s to 2016 to find expressions of anger and sadness had increased, while words about joy had dropped.
The US study team looked at lyrics of more than 6, 000 songs from Billboard Hot 100 in each year. These are the most popular songs in the US each year as chosen by music fans.
In the past songs were ranked mainly by record sales, radio and jukebox plays, but more recently it is based on other popularity indicators (指标) such as streaming and social media to reflect changes in music consumption. Tones expressed in each song were analyzed using 'automatic quantitative sentiment (动量化情绪) which looked at each word or phrase in the song with a set of tones they express. The combination of the tones expressed by all words and phrases of the lyrics determines the sentiment of that song.
The sentiments of all Billboard Hot 100 songs in each year are averaged and the average of each year measured whether the expression of that sentiment increased, decreased or remained the same." The analysis showed the expression of anger in popular music lyrics has increased gradually over time. Study coauthor Lior Shamir, of Lawrence Technological University in Michigan, said: The change in lyrics sentiments does not necessarily reflect what the musicians and songwriters wanted to express, but is more related to what music consumers wanted to listen to in each year!
