Krause, Amanda, Putter, Kaila, and Vidas, Dianna (2022) Examining a Crowd-Sourced COVID-19 Pandemic Playlist. In: [Presented at the 2022 Society for Music Perception and Cognition Conference]. From: SMPC 2022 Conference, 4-7 August 2022, Portland, OR, USA.

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Abstract

An examination of charting popular music before and during the first six months of the COVID-19 pandemic indicated that popular music lyrics during turbulent socioeconomic conditions had more negatively valenced words. However, the use of chart data cannot speak to what individuals are listening to against the backdrop of COVID-19. The present mixed-methods study examined a crowdsourced, collaborative, publicly available playlist (n = 55 songs) created by Australian residents who were currently experiencing extended lockdown in September-October 2021 in order to continue to develop our understanding of how music can influence our well-being. Qualitative analysis of the song lyrics of the chosen music expresses a sense of uncertainty, loneliness, and resilience, as well as references to hygiene and illness, community, perseverance and a will to survive. Quantitative analyses were performed to compare the chosen ‘pandemic playlist’ songs to charting songs during the first six months of the pandemic in 2020 and the same period in 2021 (n = 28 and 26 songs respectively). Analyses considered the musical features (using data scraped using the Spotify API) and the lyrical content (using Diction). Findings indicated that the songs included in the ‘pandemic playlist’ differed significantly from the charting songs in 2020 and 2021 by being higher in energy and less acoustic. Additionally, the lyrics of the songs in the ‘pandemic playlist’ had significantly more positively valenced words. These findings broaden our understanding of music listening behaviours and well-being in the context of significant global events, such as extended lockdowns to combat COVID-19.

Item ID:	75675
Item Type:	Conference Item (Poster)
Keywords:	social and applied psychology; social and applied psychology of music; music psychology; psychology of music; COVID-19; coronavirus; pandemic; lyrics; everyday listening; music charts; well-being
Date Deposited:	19 Sep 2022 21:54
FoR Codes:	52 PSYCHOLOGY > 5205 Social and personality psychology > 520505 Social psychology @ 60% 36 CREATIVE ARTS AND WRITING > 3603 Music > 360399 Music not elsewhere classified @ 40%
SEO Codes:	28 EXPANDING KNOWLEDGE > 2801 Expanding knowledge > 280121 Expanding knowledge in psychology @ 60% 13 CULTURE AND SOCIETY > 1301 Arts > 130102 Music @ 40%
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