March 29, 2024
If you’ve listened to modern pop music recently and thought to yourself that pop music was better when you were young, you are apparently right.
In a study published in the journal Scientific Reports, researchers analyzed the lyrics of 12,000 English-language rap, country, pop, R&B, and rock songs released between 1980 and 2020, looking at 2,400 songs in each of the five genres. Their conclusion? Pop music lyrics really have been dumbed down over the last 40 years; the words in English-language tracks have become both “simpler” and “more repetitive.” Moreover, the number of different words used within songs has decreased, particularly in rap and rock songs.
Goo goo ka choo.