2009
DOI: 10.1177/0261927x09335259
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The Language of Lyrics

Abstract: The lyrical content of Billboard No. 1 songs for each year from 1955 to 2003 was investigated across changes in U.S. social and economic conditions. Consistent with the environmental security hypothesis, popular song lyrics were predicted to have more meaningful themes and content when social and economic conditions were threatening. Trends for more meaningful, comforting, and romantic lyric ratings were observed in more threatening social and economic times. Using Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software, s… Show more

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Cited by 63 publications
(35 citation statements)
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“…In an investigation where listeners rated Billboard pop songs of the year, Pettijohn and Sacco (2009b) found songs that were popular in threatening social and economic conditions are longer, slower, more meaningful, more comforting, and more romantic-perhaps because these tunes console threatened listeners. A lyrical analysis conducted using LIWC and the GHTM finds during bad social and economic times, Billboard pop songs of the year use more words per sentence and focus more on the future and social groups (Pettijohn & Sacco, 2009a). A quantitative analysis of these Billboard pop songs of the year also reveals in threatening social and economic conditions, songs have less beats per minute and are more likely to be in key signatures that are somber and serious sounding (Pettijohn, Eastman, & Richard, 2012).…”
Section: Socioeconomic Trends and Musicmentioning
confidence: 99%
See 1 more Smart Citation
“…In an investigation where listeners rated Billboard pop songs of the year, Pettijohn and Sacco (2009b) found songs that were popular in threatening social and economic conditions are longer, slower, more meaningful, more comforting, and more romantic-perhaps because these tunes console threatened listeners. A lyrical analysis conducted using LIWC and the GHTM finds during bad social and economic times, Billboard pop songs of the year use more words per sentence and focus more on the future and social groups (Pettijohn & Sacco, 2009a). A quantitative analysis of these Billboard pop songs of the year also reveals in threatening social and economic conditions, songs have less beats per minute and are more likely to be in key signatures that are somber and serious sounding (Pettijohn, Eastman, & Richard, 2012).…”
Section: Socioeconomic Trends and Musicmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…While previous studies uncover lyrical trends in popular music (DeWall et al, 2011;Hobbs & Gallup, 2011;Pettijohn & Sacco, 2009a;Rothenbuhler & Dimmick, 1982), analysis of country music lyrics finds the trials and tribulations of life in culturally and religiously conservative small towns have been a constant theme since the genre's inception (Ellison, 1995;Hortsman, 1986;Peterson & DiMaggio, 1975;Rogers, 1989). Thus, because the genre historically focuses almost exclusively on a small number of traditional themes, we expect that unlike popular music where lyrics about different social processes (home, money, religion, death, leisure, work, sex, and family) vary, Billboard country songs of the year will not vary according to the larger social and economic conditions.…”
Section: Lyrical Themesmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Lyric is a component in song. Pettijohn & Sacco (2009) describe that lyric tell stories and communicate with listeners in a manner similar to how people have conversations with each other. Based on the explanation above, it can be concluded song is a poem that uses music and uses the figurative language in its lyrics, and lyrics is a component on song which like a stories or conversation between people.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…This song commercialization is inseparable from how the lyrics are made. Lyrics can be used to predict personalities [1]. Hence, one's personality can be used to identify a genre and song classification, and vice versa.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%
“…Song writing is basically following the current social situation [1]. From time to time, they have changed relatively according to the social situation and the economic condition of the society.…”
Section: Introductionmentioning
confidence: 99%