A new analysis of hit songs suggests that pop lyrics have gradually moved away from themes of care, loyalty and trust since the 1960s, and toward words linked with harm, cheating and rebellion. The researchers say this does not mean music has become "worse"; rather, it may reflect broader changes in how people express emotion and identity through art.
The study, led by researchers at Queen Mary University of London, examined more than 377,000 songs from the WASABI music dataset, covering 1960 to 2010, along with 5,580 Billboard Year-End chart songs from 1960 to 2023. Using machine-learning tools based on Moral Foundations Theory, the team tracked five moral dimensions in lyrics: care versus harm, fairness versus cheating, loyalty versus betrayal, authority versus subversion, and purity versus degradation.
What the analysis revealed
Across the larger dataset, the strongest increases appeared in the "vice" categories. Degradation rose by 52.25 percent, Harm by 49.13 percent, Cheating by 47.99 percent and Subversion by 40.91 percent. At the same time, Care fell by 24.38 percent, Purity by 12.48 percent and Loyalty by 11.26 percent.
The Billboard sample showed a similar direction into the 2020s. Cheating increased by 70.92 percent, Degradation by 62.14 percent, Subversion by 50.07 percent and Harm by 36.34 percent, while Care dropped by 30.4 percent and Purity by 21.45 percent.
The researchers note that lyrics associated with Care and Loyalty often aligned with love, connection and positive sentiment, while Harm, Cheating, Subversion and Degradation were more closely tied to anger, sadness and darker emotional tones. They also found genre patterns: R&B and soul/funk leaned more toward Care, religious music toward Purity and Authority, and metal toward Harm and Degradation.
Lead author Dr. Vjosa Preniqi said the findings suggest a gradual shift in popular music's moral language, while senior author Dr. Charalampos Saitis described lyrics as a powerful lens for understanding cultural change. The study was published in Scientific Reports.
As music continues to evolve with society, large-scale lyric analysis may become an increasingly useful tool for reading the emotional and cultural direction of the future.
