Pop Lyrics Grow More Anxious as Sadness Declines
A Michigan State University study tracks emotional language across 230 acts and 38,467 songs from 1947 to 2024.
Updated on Nov. 1, 2026 in Pop
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Michigan State University researchers analyzed emotional language in 38,467 songs by 230 acts, spanning Elvis Presley to Taylor Swift. The study, published in Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity, and the Arts, found sadness declined over artists' careers while anxiety-related language increased.
Why it matters
The findings suggest shifts in how popular musicians express emotion over time, with newer artists writing less sadness but more anger than those who debuted decades earlier. The study offers a measurable view of changing emotional themes in mainstream music for listeners across Michigan and beyond.
The analysis covered 3,531 studio album records released between 1947 and 2024, drawn from six all-time greatest lists. The extraction does not indicate how the trends would apply to songs outside these selected acts.
The players
Michigan State University
A public research university in East Lansing, Michigan, whose researchers conducted the study.
The details
Researchers used a word-counting program to track emotional language across each artist's career, including every studio album by each included act. Words reflecting positive and negative emotions dropped at similar rates, while mentions of family and friends declined with artists' age.
Timeline
1947: Earliest studio album in the analysis released.
1973: Cheating-related language in Billboard hits measured as up 71 percent since this year.
2024: Latest studio album in the analysis released.
November 1, 2026: Study findings reported.
Track Record
The study builds on an earlier Scientific Reports analysis of nearly 400,000 songs from 1960 to 2023, which measured cheating-related language rising 71 percent in Billboard hits since 1973. This work narrows the lens to individual artists' careers, tracking how emotional themes shift as performers age and as newer acts debut.
Listeners interested in the songs analyzed can find the artists' studio albums through their usual music platforms. The extraction does not describe changes to how or where these recordings are available.
The takeaway
Listeners who want a clearer sense of an artist's emotional arc can compare early and recent albums to see how themes like sadness and anxiety have shifted over time. The study suggests that career-level patterns in lyrics are measurable rather than purely impressionistic.
Further reading
Explore more coverage in Pop for context on how the genre's lyrics and artists are evolving.
Source note: This article includes information reported by Nysun.
Live Poll
Do you think today's popular music sounds angrier and more anxious than it used to?
