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Music

Song Lyrics Have Become Simpler and More Repetitive Over the Last Five Decades 143

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Abstract of a paper on Nature: Music is ubiquitous in our everyday lives, and lyrics play an integral role when we listen to music. The complex relationships between lyrical content, its temporal evolution over the last decades, and genre-specific variations, however, are yet to be fully understood. In this work, we investigate the dynamics of English lyrics of Western, popular music over five decades and five genres, using a wide set of lyrics descriptors, including lyrical complexity, structure, emotion, and popularity.

We find that pop music lyrics have become simpler and easier to comprehend over time: not only does the lexical complexity of lyrics decrease (for instance, captured by vocabulary richness or readability of lyrics), but we also observe that the structural complexity (for instance, the repetitiveness of lyrics) has decreased. In addition, we confirm previous analyses showing that the emotion described by lyrics has become more negative and that lyrics have become more personal over the last five decades. Finally, a comparison of lyrics view counts and listening counts shows that when it comes to the listeners' interest in lyrics, for instance, rock fans mostly enjoy lyrics from older songs; country fans are more interested in new songs' lyrics.
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Song Lyrics Have Become Simpler and More Repetitive Over the Last Five Decades More

Song Lyrics Have Become Simpler and More Repetitive Over the Last Five Decades

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  • It's not really a surprise (Score:3)

    by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Monday April 15, 2024 @02:10PM (#64395948)
    there's been decades of focus group testing and refinement to determine what's going to sell. Also music is much, much less popular because it has to compete with other forms of entertainment (VHS cassettes, computers, video games and now streaming and podcasts) so that's going to narrow the market substantially resulting in less complex and experimental music.

    Before everyone jumps in no, it's not that people are getting dumber, it's that businesses are smarter about what will or will not sell. Big Data means they don't need to throw nearly as much at the wall to see what sticks. And it means that the occasional pop star that's more complex and nuanced has less chance of making it through. You're not gonna get a Kate Bush in today's market. Not enough room and the focus group's will shut her down long before she does something as crazy as "Babushka" or "There Goes a Tenner".

    • Re:It's not really a surprise (Score:4, Insightful)

      by ctilsie242 ( 4841247 ) on Monday April 15, 2024 @02:53PM (#64396050)

      The watershed was in the late 1990s and early 2000s where record labels stopped signing bands, and started making bands with some dude making the lyrics, and just getting people who were good looking, and could sing/play whatever was thrown in front of them. Pretty much all music genres except rap, this was done, effectively making music something where the average musician would never make it big, but someone who could get plastic surgery and look cool on stage could always just follow orders and rake in the dough until they got a big head and were tossed aside. These days, you will never get a band with actual talent signed, because the great singers and players may be too ugly physically.

      Plus, with AutoTune, nobody really cares about vocal range, and everyone essentially sounds the same.

      The big labels know that good looking people singing simple, dumb stuff gets the sales. Yes, people can mock that, but what is popular doesn't mean what is good. For example, 100 years from now, we will have some musicians regarded as good, while the WAP song will be some trivia question of what was popular for the time period, but otherwise forgotten about.

      The fix? As a person, BandCamp. For bands, always sell LPs and CDs. I always buy physical media when I can, because something material is nice to have.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Sique ( 173459 )
        Casted boy groups were nothing new in the 1990ies. There are examples of those going back at least 100 years. At latest with the widespread availability of recorded music, the marketable boy group was born.

      • Plus, with AutoTune, nobody really cares about vocal range, and everyone essentially sounds the same.

        You don't know what AutoTune does, and doesn't, do.

        • Vocoders are sick.

          • Vocoders are sick.

            Vocoders and AutoTune are entirely different things.

            • Yes. That's why I mentioned them.

              • Yes. That's why I mentioned them.

                But, one of them (Vocoder) "reads" the "phonemes" of a spoken voice (human, dog, ?) (by following the energy in several narrow audio Frequency-Bands), and then "Processing" some other signal (fixed-frequency oscillators, organs/keyboards, et CETERA!) by allowing the same amount of the same "Followed" frequency-bands of that Signal out to the Output. The result is "Talking (fill-in-the-blank)".

                AutoTune is software or hardware that applies minor, generally a semitone or less, (usually) subtle Pitch Shifts ori

                • Sure they're different. But my vocoder gives me 81 key range, like the original poster seemed to think Auto Tune does.

                  • Sure they're different. But my vocoder gives me 81 key range, like the original poster seemed to think Auto Tune does.

                    You still don't get it.

                    Your "Vocoder's" built-in tone source has an 81-key range. The actual circuitry/software that makes it a "Vocoder", rather than a cheezy combo organ, make no sound whatsoever.

                    I'l bet that your "Vocoder" has an "External Audio Input" that allows you to apply the "Vocoding" Effect to any signal you wish; proving my point. "Talking" Guitars, "Barking" Organs, "Singing" Keyboard-Choirs; those are the products of Vocoders.

                    Hear, also, Beethoven's 9th, 4th Movement, "Ode To Joy" from the "A

                    • I actually DO get it. I'm unclear what part you don't get though. I can sing into a mic and use the keys to set the pitch to whatever I want. I do actually understand what formants are and why you can't simply change the frequency of the sample like you do with - say - a single sample instrument.

      • It's nothing new, there were manufactured groups in the 60's for gods sake, the Monkeys spring right to mind and there were a few rock and R&B groups also

      • Plus, with AutoTune, nobody really cares about vocal range, and everyone essentially sounds the same.

        Or, in metal, that applies even without AutoTune.

      • Goes way back though. Boney M was a created band. Iâ(TM)m sure we can go back even further.

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by Revek ( 133289 )
      It was allowing a few companies buy all the radio stations that killed the music industry. It only got worse as the internet took over that niche. They no longer care about what is popular seeking to manufacture hits and the resulting by committee crap has resulted.
      • w/o those monopolies you wouldn't have just a few mega corps deciding what everybody listens to.

        There was a little bit of a break with mp3.com but they saw the threat and came down *hard* on it.

        • There is plenty of indie music to be found. You don't have to listen to what's on the radio. In fact, we have more choice now then at any previous time in history. Who cares what's "popular" unless you are more interested in fitting in with some clique as opposed to finding and enjoying music that you like.

      • That's odd for me to read because most of the music I listen to these days is stuff I can buy from bandcamp or a CD from the artist. All my favor artists do live shows, etc. I don't even know if they are on radio but that matters very little to me.

        PS. Mostly listening to reggae and there is a pretty wide sound difference between enough of them that's it is a fun genre to follow.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by AmiMoJo ( 196126 )

      It was a combination of many things. For example, samplers got cheap in the late 80s and so the 90s was full of music with lyrics sampled and repeated over and over.

      A lot of lyrics were little more than filler anyway, it's just that back in the 70s you had to have a band playing the music.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      I diagree. Music often can be played in places where other forms of entertainment is inappropriate.

      For example, background music is often present everywhere because it only uses your sense of hearing, while you're doing other things. It's extremely difficult to read a book and drive, for example (though many people try), or to watch TV and read a book at the same time. But listening to music and driving, or reading a book, or doing other things like shopping, happens all the time.

      It's one of those things th

    • You're not gonna get a Kate Bush in today's market. Not enough room and the focus group's will shut her down long before she does something as crazy as "Babushka" or "There Goes a Tenner".

      Not enough room? There are 7 billion people on this planet. If 100 million of them like a "star", that is considered a resounding success. Methinks the industry is only interested in money, not the art itself. There is plenty of room, but not if you get your music through profiteering channels.

  • German's listening to pop music (Score:3)

    by jfdavis668 ( 1414919 ) on Monday April 15, 2024 @02:11PM (#64395952)
    My Neice ended up going to a high school in Germany. She spoke English but quickly picked up German. One of the friends she made asked her one day what it was like actually understanding the lyrics of the songs they listened to. To them it was just a bunch of pleasant-sounding gibberish. So you can enjoy the songs without knowing the words.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by pjt33 ( 739471 )

      A Spanish exchange partner once asked me to translate Wonderwall by Oasis. I can calque it, but I'm not entirely sure whether "You're my wonderwall" is supposed to have an objective meaning.

    • Re:German's listening to pop music (Score:5, Interesting)

      by DesScorp ( 410532 ) on Monday April 15, 2024 @02:29PM (#64396002) Journal

      My Neice ended up going to a high school in Germany. She spoke English but quickly picked up German. One of the friends she made asked her one day what it was like actually understanding the lyrics of the songs they listened to. To them it was just a bunch of pleasant-sounding gibberish. So you can enjoy the songs without knowing the words.

      Decades ago, there was an Italian music star named Adriano Celentano that came out with a song called "Prisencolinensinainciusol". The lyrics were nonsense. He wanted to make a song that showed how English sounded to the Italian ear. It was his biggest hit.

      • Radio gaga, radio googoo.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by PPH ( 736903 )

        The lyrics were nonsense. He wanted to make a song that showed how English sounded to the Italian ear.

        Sometimes the lyrics are equally unintelligible to an American ear. As others have pointed out [genius.com].

      • The idea that there are English speakers who don't listen to anything non-English is pretty sad. The world of music is a big, vibrant place. If you stock your ear out of the country every once in a while, I think most people would find tons of stuff that is not like American/Brit music.

    • Re:German's listening to pop music (Score:4, Insightful)

      by gtall ( 79522 ) on Monday April 15, 2024 @02:39PM (#64396022)

      I am the same way with Spanish tunes...although they need to be rock for me. If I ever learn Spanish, I won't enjoy them as much.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by pjt33 ( 739471 )

        There are some songs, particularly ballads, which have beautiful poetic lyrics that enhance and are enhanced by the music. Not the most hodiern examples, but Cruz de navajas by Mecano or Un beso y una flor by Nino Bravo fall into that category for me. There are other songs where I wish I didn't understand the lyrics because I enjoy the music and the meaning of the lyrics detracts from it. Without giving specific examples because I want to avoid earworms, there are some where I think it's the songwriter's in

    • Einsturzende Neubauten. To me they sound better when I don't know the lyrics.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by g01d4 ( 888748 )

      So you can enjoy the songs without knowing the words.

      Opera and art song [wikipedia.org] have demonstrated this for quite some time. Especially if you have the music on in the background. In my stepmother's singing day they would often sing foreign operas in English and I never thought they sounded as good. Even sung in English, songs are not always easy to understand [google.com].

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by twosat ( 1414337 )

      There are also songs in foreign languages that are popular in English-speaking countries e.g. https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com] and https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dargaud ( 518470 )
      Even stranger is learning english, when suddenly you understand lyrics of songs you've heard since you were a kid...

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by antdude ( 79039 )

      For me, I don't care about the lyrics as long as I like the song. I have poor hearings.

  • Deniz Pop & Max Martin to blame (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Midnight_Falcon ( 2432802 ) on Monday April 15, 2024 @02:14PM (#64395964)
    They didn't start it, but they solidified it: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org] and his successor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

    Basically he wrote Britney Spears' songs (e.g. hit me baby one more time) in crummy Scandanavian-Simple-English. As it turns out, this works for a global audience..and even the low end of the native english speaking audience...the simple, repetitive lyrics and simple melodies are understandable and relatable by a huge amount of people.

  • Anything that is being broadcast on the radio, on popular channels.

    I use Spotify, and found a whole lot of bands which don't fall under this umbrella, and who take care to write good texts.

    Heavy metal, hardrock, stoner rock, in their broadest sense and with all their variations, form a multidimensional space that has intelligent music, but not "popular".

    If you look at the amount of listeners that some of these bands have (e.g. Gods & Punks, 250 listeners/month), a whole lot of them do it because they

    • Draconian, Nanowar of Steel, Sirenia, Can Bardd, Be'Lakor, Cradle of Filth, Forest of Shadows, Babymetal, Moonspell, Amorphis, Dark Tranquility, ...

    • One of my favorite bands, My Dying Bride, have been performing for decades, they've released a dozen albums, but the band members have to take off work from their day jobs to tour (the singer is an engineer for Toyota, for example).

      The idea that bands have to be millionaires to be successful is stupid af.

  • Beatles Love me do (Score:3)

    by ardmhacha ( 192482 ) on Monday April 15, 2024 @02:21PM (#64395984)

    Love, love me do
    You know I love you
    I'll always be true
    So please, love me do
    Whoa-oh, love me do

    Love, love me do
    You know I love you
    I'll always be true
    So please, love me do
    Whoa-oh, love me do

    Someone to love
    Somebody new
    Someone to love
    Someone like you

    Love, love me do
    You know I love you
    I'll always be true
    So please, love me do
    Whoa-oh, love me do

    Love, love me do
    You know I love you
    I'll always be true
    So please, love me do
    Whoa-oh, love me do

    Yeah, love me do
    Whoa-oh, love me do
    Yeah, love me do

    • In their defense (and I'm not a big fan) that's early pop Beatles, their music became much more complex in time. They started off as an early 60s pop band in suits playing for screaming young girls on Ed Sullivan; and ended as a hippie mainstay. Yellow Submarine is way different than the early Beatles.
      • American Pie consists of 14 English sonnets.

      • In their defense (and I'm not a big fan) that's early pop Beatles, their music became much more complex in time.

        Complex, deep lyrics - like "Why don't we do it in the road."

        • I mean that's a 1.5min banger made-for-radio track that appears on a long album that includes the more-intelligent classic "While my Guitar Gently Weeps." It's a world away from 1963 beatles.

        • A friend once observed this: The Beatles went from I want to Hold Your Hand to I am The Walrus in about 3 years. Thatâ(TM)s quite a change.

    • Compare that to just the first verse of Modern Major General from Gilbert and Sullivan in 1879 and you can see how far we have simplified things:

      I am the very model of a modern Major-General
      I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
      I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
      From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical
      I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical
      I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
      About binomial theorem I am teeming with a lot o' news
      W

      • Compare that to just the first verse of Modern Major General from Gilbert and Sullivan in 1879 and you can see how far we have simplified things:

        I am the very model of a modern Major-General
        I've information vegetable, animal, and mineral
        I know the kings of England, and I quote the fights historical
        From Marathon to Waterloo, in order categorical
        I'm very well acquainted, too, with matters mathematical
        I understand equations, both the simple and quadratical
        About binomial theorem I am teeming with a lot o' news
        With many cheerful facts about the square of the hypotenuse

        Or, Lord Chancellor's Nightmare Song. Another sublime piece of Gilbert & Sullivan, brought back to life in 1974 by Todd Rundgren:

        https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=... [youtube.com]

        (Lyrics are in the video's Description)

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by sjames ( 1099 )

      Don't mistake a statistical trend for a universal truth. There were simple songs earlier on as well, but there were also more meaningful and complex songs. Think of the early Beatles as paying their dues to the record company suits.

    • That's a nice cherry picked song. But let's compare

      There's 17 unique words. The phrases are only repeated 5 times in total. Let's look at a pop song released significantly later: Fatboy Slim - Right here Right now:
      There's 11 unique words. The phrases are repeated 24 times, and it was release 30 years after the Beatles so it fits the study's narrative ;-)

      I would post the lyrics here but they are so repetitive the Slashdot won't allow it.

    • How about The Wall?

      Same general timeframe. Very different complexity. Now... where is the hip-hop version of that album? The techno/trance/synthwave/darkcore/urbtempo/prog-thump equivalent?

      Yes, half of those are made-up genres. I think.

      • > where is the hip-hop version of that album

        maybe Prince Paul - A Prince Among Thieves, or The Streets - A Grand Don't Come For Free ? first couple thoughts from the top of my head

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by twosat ( 1414337 )

      That reminds me of this Beatles parody band that I stumbled upon recently https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]

    • Bad example. That was written in a hurry to emulate the popular "Rutland Sound". They were lucky not to be sued.

  • they used to tell stories in songs, what Gen Z person would listen to that?
  • Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?

  • or concept albums where the lyrics actually tell a story. Most modern music is so bland.

    • or concept albums where the lyrics actually tell a story. Most modern music is so bland.

      There are entire genres of great concept albums coming out these days. In fact, some bands take the concept so far that they've developed entire careers around their concepts. Check out Haken or Caligula's Horse for modern progressive rock versions, and from there the rabbit hole should open for you.

      If you expect pop to ever satisfy the musical itch when you're looking for anything more than, "I could sing along to that," you may be looking in the wrong cupboard.

  • From the Blues Brothers (John Landis, 1980):

    Elwood: "What kind of music do you usually have here?"

    Claire: "Oh, we got both kinds. We got country *and* western."

    Has anyone looked into the correlation between lyrics getting simpler & more repetitive & the rise in popularity of Country & Western music?

    However, my guess is that effect may well be overwhelmed by the dominance of Reggaeton. Please save us, someone, please.

    • TFS alluded to that... Pop music is getting dumber and country fans prefer more modern lyrics. Most of the so-called "country" music played on the radio today is pop rock with more acoustic-sounding guitars and a twangy accent. It has nothing in common with the country music that came before except for the way words are pronounced, and nationalism.

  • Do you think the average age of this paper's authors is above or below 60?

  • Some like repetition, others like variety. Some like philosophical depth, others like mindlessness

    My opinion is that today's pop music is artless, mercenary, industrial product, constructed by skilled teams of composers, arrangers, lyricists, engineers, producers, studio musicians, marketoids, choreographers, fashion designers, trendmongers and other assorted weasels, then tested on focus groups to make sure it sounds good in the first few seconds. The only reason it exists is to make money

    I prefer an artis

  • This is one of the reasons I only listen to Japanese rock/metal music, the lyrics are more complex and so is the music. U.S. music is crap and just getting worst.

    • This is one of the reasons I only listen to Japanese rock/metal music, the lyrics are more complex and so is the music. U.S. music is crap and just getting worst.

      Yep, I can attest the same about the richness of Japanese rock/metal music and how US pop music has become crap (and as a Latino, I can say Spanish-language pop music is even worse - simpler and vulgar.)

      I would say that American and British rock varieties still have a richness of lyrics, though.

  • Obviously black metal was not part ot the sample (Score:3)

    by Rujiel ( 1632063 ) on Monday April 15, 2024 @04:03PM (#64396304)
    That genre is teaching me new words all the time.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by dargaud ( 518470 )
      Currently reading Classical Antiquity Heavy Metal Music [amazon.com], and that's a heavy read.

  • And modern music is no exception. Some songwriters have more of a way with words. "Around The World" is one extreme to great effect - it's a neat song. Then there's song verses like:

    Dive bar on the East Side, where you at?
    Phone lights up my nightstand in the black
    Come here, you can meet me in the back
    Dark jeans and your Nikes, look at you
    Oh damn, never seen that color blue
    Just think of the fun things we could do...

    You Know Who at her (IMHO) best. The notion that the only good music was performed in

  • Seriously, some of it, esp. the early stuff is interesting. A lot of words, poetry. Now? Just junk with a lot of cuss words esp the n-word, and is just garbage.

  • Nobody is laughing about the movie "Idiocracy" now, as it has become the most accurate piece of science fiction that was ever published.

    It is almost a documentary now.

    And you will find that in the most diverse cities of the West, Spotify will list the simplest possible songs as popular in the area. Imagine Maslow's pyramid. And you're at the bottom, forever.

  • Rhyming aurora borealis was probably the lyrical peak.

  • And (Score:2)

    by zkiwi34 ( 974563 )
    Far more profane/violent. In all this the degree of literacy and ability to use language has decreased markedly.

  • Yes, I'm old.
    The 60s had the best music. Actual lyrics, etc.
    I still prefer to listen to "classic rock" over anything else.
    This article is confirmation of what I have been thinking. There is no good new music.

  • Here's the lyrics to a fairly typical, average kinda tune:

    We used to swim the same moonlight waters
    Oceans away from the wakeful day

    My fall will be for you - My fall will be for you My love will be in you If you be the one to cut me I will bleed forever
    Scent of the sea before the waking of the world
    Brings me to thee
    Into the blue memory

    My fall will be for you - My fall will be for you My love will be in you If you be the one to cut me I will bleed forever
    Into the blue memory

    A siren from the deep came to me
    San

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