The research, led by Professor David Henard from North Carolina State University, involved computer analysis of the lyrics to nearly 1000 songs from Billboard magazine's "Hot 100" song list between January 1960 and December 2009. The researchers used computer programs to run textual analysis of the lyrics for all of those songs and analyzed the results to identify key themes.
The influential words found in the analysis of Billboard #1 songs by decade were:
In the 1960s: Love, quantity, baby, female name, time, man, good, girl, heart, night
In the 1970s: Love, quantity, girl good, baby, man, night, way, time, eye
In the 1980s: Love, quantity, baby, time, night, heart, man, eye, way, life
In the 1990s: Quantity, baby, love, way, man, time, girl, dance, life, night
In the 2000s: Quantity, baby, girl, way, man, time, good, nigga, love, boy
"These themes overwhelmingly reflect emotional content, rather than rational content," Henard says. "It reinforces the idea that communications centered on emotional themes will have mass audience appeal."
Below is a list with examples of songs and commercials that represent these key themes as well as their keywords and associated descriptors.
According to the research, the aspiration theme was quite popular in the 1980s and declined in the 1990s with a slight increase in the 2000s.
Associated Descriptors: Out of love, loss, separation, goodbye, person-specific
Keywords: Waiting, time, leaving, tear, goodbye, lonely
A hit song like Toni Braxton’s, “Un-Break My Heart” and the Yellowbook ad, “Break Up” with Alexandra Daddario express the break-up theme.
The “breakup” theme appears to be used regularly and with less fluctuation across decades than the other themes. This could either indicate that, outside of the 1960s and 1970s “breakup” is a relatively under-represented lyrical theme or that it is a theme that is constantly represented among commercially successful lyrics and not as subject to temporal or environmental fluctuations as are the other primary themes.
Associated Descriptors: Pain, mixed emotions, in the moment, sadness, change, goodbye
Keywords: Bad, good, goodbye, kiss, moment, woman
A song like "Pain" by Three Days Grace and the television commercial for the Dove's, "Patches" campaign are examples of the pain theme.
The "pain" theme was almost non-existent before the 1980s and declined in the 1990s. It is presently the most popular theme, along with "desperation" in the 2000s.
The song “Cry Me a River” by Justin Timberlake and the Nissan LEAF “Polar Bear” commercial express the desperation theme.
The “Desperation” theme generally is underrepresented until the 2000s, where it dominates. This is reminiscent of the patterns exhibited by the primary themes of “Pain” and “Desire” and could track closely to the post-9/11 social environment.
Associated Descriptors: Fantasy, escape, ecstasy, love as a drug, sex,
The escapism theme appeared in the 1990s with the desperation theme following in the 2000s. It could be that those periods of time where individuals are searching for escape and fantasy are followed by periods where they feel trapped and helpless.