When It Comes To Lyrics, Sex Sells
September 12, 2011 No Comments
Have you ever actually listened to the lyrics of a song? Most of the time, I find myself focused on the beat or the instrumental genius, throwing the lyrics aside. But when you actually take a listen to the lyrics of most songs today, it becomes rather clear how they became hits.
Going through countless hits from three genres, looking for general themes found in the lyrics ranging from “genitalia” to “reproduction” to “infidelity,” and categorizing all of the mini chart-topping masterpieces, led SUNY Albany professors Gordon Gallup and Dawn Hobbs to understand the hit-making phenomenon themselves.
So, what did they find overall? Country singers sang about “achy breaky” hearts and commitment, parenting and rejection while pop singers went with sex appeal and reputation, and R&B singers tended to soulfully go with resources and sexual intercourse.
Overall, they found that a song’s success was almost always linked to the amount of reproductive messages. Country songs averaged 5.96 reproductive messages, pop was at 8.69 and R&B really loves the idea at a huge 16.77 per song. Apparently, people love hearing about the circle of life. And sex. Kind of a no-brainer.
Obviously, there are plenty of factors that could go into the success of a song, ranging from age and sex of the performer and listeners to even the menstrual status of women listeners. Either way, we officially know what we always though: sex sells. In a big way.
Contact the author here: crazycolleen@morningquickie.com
