Have you ever thought to yourself, "How is it that I can remember every word to every song on the radio but can't seem to remember this simple definition?" Often, especially on long nights of studying, I think the same thing. Often times, I think that there seems to be a song to fit every situation.
Although I have spent quite some time thinking about the prevalence of songs and importance of music in my life, I never have looked at the general sweeping trends in terms of songs. This study in the Journal of Happiness Studies looked at song lyrics, presidential speeches and blogs to determine if some time segments were more happy than others.
I found the coding for the study especially interesting, as they used a ANEW coding scheme which found a SD of common reactions to the given word. Words scoring high were coded as positive and low scoring words were negative. In order for this study to work, the researchers had to be sweeping through large amounts of texts. The songs and blogs were of particular interest to me because they're things that I deal with daily.
The findings show that the happiness of songs decreased continually starting in the 60's but ever since 2005 blogs have been getting continually more happy.
This article begs the question "are we a product of the environment we live in or are we creators of the environment?"
At times, I think we are both.
Dodds, P., Danforth, C. 2009. Measuring the Happiness of Large-Scale Written Expression:Songs, Blogs and Presidents. Journal of Happiness Studies. 11:441-456
Hmmmmm, that is interesting, but when i think about it, it's true. Music now compared to music from even just 10 to 20 years ago seems way more violent/vivid then it used to. Before there were lots of songs like Aerosmith's, but now there are lots of songs like Lil Wayne's. Having to do with blogs, i don't read them too often, but I do notice that currently most blogs are focused on happy times/hobbies. In the end, I think I can say we are more the creators of the "environment".
ReplyDeleteI've definitely wondered why I can remember every lyric to a song I heard years ago but can't remember something I've studied for hours during an exam! Music is a very big part of my life so I found your summary of this article really interesting. It doesn't surprise me that happiness of songs have decreased since my parents always complain how sad and angsty the music I listen to is compared to what they used to listen to. I agree with you that we are both creators and products of the environment we live in.
ReplyDeleteThis was a really interesting article; I just might have to look it up for myself.
ReplyDeleteI was surprised to hear that music has become increasingly sadder, madder than it has been. When I think of the songs I listen to, they are mostly upbeat or happy but there are definitely some that are not.
When i think back to the songs I know from other times, I don't think they are much happier than the ones I listen to now. There are plenty of oldies that are about death, depression, or losing a loved one.
What do you think the reason for this increase in unhappiness is due to?
The blogs increasing in happiness makes sense to me because the blogging is becoming a more normal activity, not one left for only lonely or angry individuals.
I think the real difference from the 60s to today is the amount of variety and different music genres available to us now. I think there are still the same amount, if not more, "happy" songs, but there are also so many different genres like grunge that tend to have depressing lyrics. I agree with R that there were definitely depressing songs in the the 60s and 70s, and I'm pretty sure 99% of songs written in the 70s were about drugs which is frowned upon today. And everyone knows the best music came from the 80s.
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