Experiencing Dylan: The Effect of Formal Structure and Performance on the Popularity and Interpretation of Two Dylan Songs

Schotanus, Yke

doi:10.1007/978-3-030-85543-7_3

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 30 publications

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“…In conjunction, findings such as these indicate the need to consider different forms of processing fluency when studying artistic products and suggest that different measures of processing fluency may give rise to different relationships with popularity. Similar arguments are made by Schotanus (2021) concerning analysis of the popularity of two Bob Dylan songs.…”

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confidence: 56%

Song popularity and processing fluency of lyrics

Melvill-Smith

Krause

North

2022

Psychology of Music

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Several studies show that a concept or object is more popular when it is easier to process. The present research applies this notion of processing fluency to the lyrics of all 271 top 5 songs on the United Kingdom chart for each week from 1999 to 2014. The processing fluency of the lyrics was computer scored for readability, presence of rhyme, and complexity, and popularity was assessed in terms of peak chart position and duration of tenure on the chart. After controlling for the energy of the musical component of the song, analyses showed that factors relating to the processing fluency of the lyrics predicted peak popularity but not duration of chart tenure. Significant relationships were observed between peak popularity and both rhyme saturation and basic lyric readability properties.

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supporting

confidence: 56%

Song popularity and processing fluency of lyrics

Melvill-Smith

Krause

North

2022

Psychology of Music

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Freewheelin’ with Adorno down Highway 61: Bob Dylan’s Transformative Electric Turn

Wee

2021

Words, Music, and the Popular

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“There’s no one as honest as those in pain”: The language of Tom Petty’s song lyrics

Kalichman,

Smyth

2024

Psychology of Music

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Tom Petty’s songs are among the most recognized and influential in rock music. One aspect of Petty’s songs that contributes to his popularity is his use of language in his lyrics. The current study performed two sets of analyses: (a) to examine linguistic features of Petty’s song lyrics over the course of his songwriting career; and (b) to investigate similarities and differences between Petty’s lyrics and the earlier and contemporaneous lyrics of an artist widely assumed to have influenced him, Bob Dylan. Results of analyses using a standard textual program, Linguistic Inquiry Word Count (LIWC), showed that Petty reduced his references to social relations and reduced his focus on future time orientations over his songwriting career. There were also rises and declines in expressions of authenticity as well as increases in analytical thinking. In analyses comparing Petty to Dylan using a time-lagged approach, Petty’s songs remained shorter in number of words than Dylan’s songs and there was an increase in indicators of analytical thinking in Petty’s later work reaching levels that are characteristic of Dylan’s songs. Further research is needed to trace the influences on prolific songwriting and other aspects of music beyond lyrical expression.

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Experiencing Dylan: The Effect of Formal Structure and Performance on the Popularity and Interpretation of Two Dylan Songs

Cited by 3 publications

References 30 publications

Song popularity and processing fluency of lyrics

Song popularity and processing fluency of lyrics

Freewheelin’ with Adorno down Highway 61: Bob Dylan’s Transformative Electric Turn

“There’s no one as honest as those in pain”: The language of Tom Petty’s song lyrics

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