Abstract
To examine changes in the diversity of popular songs over time, I have analyzed the lyrics of 99% of all songs sung in English that have appeared on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart from 1956 up to and including 2016 (n=27.108). I have found the number of songs that reached the Hot 100 per year more than halved between 1966 and 2002, which indicates a loss in diversity. I have also found that the variation of valence (or level of pleasantness) in the songs’ lyrics and the variation of a sampled Type Token ratio (an indicator for lexical complexity) decreases over time. This indicates that lyrics of popular songs become more similar and again signify a loss of diversity.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Number of pages | 12 |
| Journal | Digital humanities quarterly |
| Volume | 13 |
| Issue number | 4 |
| Publication status | Published - 1-Dec-2019 |
Keywords
- lyrics, pop music, songs, billboard