Some say that every time in the past has been better. This can be applied to gastronomy, sports, cinema and, of course, music. This is exactly what a team of scientists from the University of Innsbruck, led by Eva Zangerli, did. And his conclusion is that In the past forty years, music has become simpler and more repetitive.
To reach these conclusions, Published in Scientific Reports, analyzed the lyrics of 12,000 English rap, country, pop, R&B and rock songs (2,400 songs per genre) released between 1980 and 2020. Zangerli's team found that lyrics in general became simpler and easier to understand over time and the number of different words used in songs increased It especially fell between rap and rock songs.
The general increase in lyrical repetition across multiple genres has made lyrics generally simpler. The authors speculate that the trend toward simpler letters could do this Reflects changes in music consumptionsuch as increasing the number of songs played as background music for different events or locations (hotels, shopping malls, hospitals, etc.).
The results also indicate that words have become more emotional and personal over time. The use of emotionally positive and negative words in rap songs increased, while… The use of emotionally negative lyrics has increased in R&B, pop, and country songs. In addition, all genders showed an increase in the use of words associated with anger.
Further analysis of 12,000 song lyrics views on online lyrics platform Genius (similar to Spotify) revealed that lyrics of old rock songs They tend to stand out more than those found in newer rock songs, but the lyrics of newer country songs tend to stand out more than the lyrics of newer rock songs. This may indicate that rock listeners prefer older lyrics, while country listeners may prefer more modern lyrics.
The results provide more information about The evolution of music over the past forty years. Understanding evolution as something that is always moving forward, but this does not mean that it is for the better. The limitation of the study is that Music analysis in English only It is not known whether the same thing happens with other languages, such as Spanish or French, to give some examples.
