Song lyrics have become simpler and more repetitive over the last five decades

[–] [email protected] 7 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

🎵... ... ... ... ... ... ... Tequila!🎵

[–] foggy 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Girl, shake dat laffy taffy

That laffy taffy

Shake that laffy taffy

That laffy taffy

Girl, shake that laffy taffy

That laffy taffy

That laffy taffy (candy girl)

That laffy taffy

Girl, shake dat laffy taffy

That laffy taffy

Shake that laffy taffy

That laffy taffy

Girl, shake that laffy taffy

That laffy taffy

That laffy taffy (candy girl)

That laffy taffy

[–] PunnyName 6 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (1 children)

You show us everything you've got
You keep on dancin' and the room gets hot
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You say you wanna go for a spin
The party's just begun, we'll let you in
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'

I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day

You keep on saying you'll be mine for a while
You're lookin' fancy and I like your style
You drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You show us everything you've got
Baby, baby that's quite a lot
And you drive us wild, we'll drive you crazy
You keep on shoutin', you keep on shoutin'

I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day
I wanna rock and roll all night and party every day

Kiss "Rock and Roll All Nite" 1975

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 months ago

Yeah but that's KISS

[–] jeffw 5 points 10 months ago* (last edited 10 months ago)

Two things stand out to me:

This implies that the structure of lyrics is shifting towards containing more choruses than in the past, in turn contributing to higher repetitiveness of lyrics

The two main data sources for our investigation are last.fm and Genius. Given the nature and history of these platforms, in particular last.fm, the studied LFM-2b dataset is affected by community bias and popularity bias.

So, what we're really looking at is that popular songs (those that withstood the test of time, not necessarily popularity on release) of yesteryear were more complicated. So, this basically just confirms that we only care about the good music from the past and we forget the boring and repetitive stuff. And not even necessarily more complicated, just fewer repetitions of the chorus. I'd care more about a comparison that controls for chorus repetition and chart position/popularity

[–] RedEyeFlightControl 4 points 10 months ago

Hard to see, ooh
The hang ups we have today
Said we need to strive for more liberty
Lift yourself upon your feet, let's get it on
Lift yourself up on your feet, let's get it on
Lift yourself upon your feet, let's get it on
Lift yourself upon your feet, let's get it on
Lift yourself upon your feet, let's get it on
Lift yourself upon your feet, let's get it on
Lift yourself upon your feet, let's get it on
The hang ups we have today
Said we need to strive for more liberty
Lift yourself upon your feet
Lift yourself upon your feet
Lift
Lift your, lift your, lift yourself
Lift, lift your, lift your, lift your, lift your, lift, lift
Hard to see, ooh
The hang ups we have today-ay-ay
But they don't really realize, though
This next verse, this next verse though
These bars
Watch this some shit, go
Poopy-di scoop
Scoop-diddy-whoop
Whoop-di-scoop-di-poop
Poop-di-scoopty
Scoopty-whoop
Whoopity-scoop, whoop-poop
Poop-diddy, whoop-scoop
Poop, poop
Scoop-diddy-whoop
Whoop-diddy-scoop
Whoop-diddy-scoop, poop

[–] [email protected] 3 points 10 months ago

For many songs the lyrics are completely irrelevant and are simply used as another instrument. So there's not much point measuring how repetitive lyrics are because music itself is repetitive.

Not every song has to be a lyrical masterpiece, or as two wise robots once said:

Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock

Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock

Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock

Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock

Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock

Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock

Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock

Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock

Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock

Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock 
Rock, robot rock

Music