Music as a mirror?: popular music lyrics and the COVID-19 health pandemic

Putter, Kaila, and Krause, Amanda E. (2020) Music as a mirror?: popular music lyrics and the COVID-19 health pandemic. In: [Presented at the Music & Psychology Research Conference]. From: Music & Psychology Research Conference: virtually together, 9 October 2020, Online Event.

[img]
Preview
PDF (Abstract Only) - Accepted Version
Download (463kB) | Preview
 
69


Abstract

Research on the relationship between significant global, socioeconomic developments and lyrical themes in pop music have indicated that deteriorating conditions are associated with an increase in negative emotional content and reproductive themes. The present research considers the presence of lyrical themes in charting pop music during the COVID-19 pandemic. We hypothesise that top-ranked weekly singles on the USA, UK and Australian charts throughout the COVID-19 pandemic would contain more negatively valenced lyrics than the charting songs during corresponding periods in previous years. Diction 7.0 software, a text analysis program designed to analyse content of a wide variety of social discourse, was used to analyse the song lyrics. A dataset was created based on the song lyrics of the top 5 weekly songs in the USA, UK and Australia from March-August 2020 and the songs charting between March-August of 2015-2019. Results from statistical analyses that consider the hypotheses will be discussed in the presentation. The findings are expected to broaden our understanding of the relationship between significant global events (i.e., health pandemics) and trends in popular music. Moreover, implications concerning how people use music as a comforting tool will be considered.

Item ID: 65177
Item Type: Conference Item (Abstract / Summary)
Keywords: COVID-19; pandemic; song lyrics, pop music; Diction
Related URLs:
Date Deposited: 18 Jul 2021 23:55
FoR Codes: 17 PSYCHOLOGY AND COGNITIVE SCIENCES > 1701 Psychology > 170113 Social and Community Psychology @ 60%
19 STUDIES IN CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING > 1904 Performing Arts and Creative Writing > 190499 Performing Arts and Creative Writing not elsewhere classified @ 40%
SEO Codes: 97 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 970117 Expanding Knowledge in Psychology and Cognitive Sciences @ 60%
95 CULTURAL UNDERSTANDING > 9501 Arts and Leisure > 950101 Music @ 40%
Downloads: Total: 69
Last 12 Months: 6
More Statistics

Actions (Repository Staff Only)

Item Control Page Item Control Page