Pop Songs Are Getting Sadder

Source: Saurav Sen / Pexels

Years ago, every song in the Eurovision song contest was simple, sunny, and catchy. 'Congratulations', sang Cliff Richard, 'Boom Bang a Bang', sang Lulu, and 'Ding-a-Dong' was the Dutch 1975 entry. More serious songwriters, like John Lennon for instance, asked us to imagine a better world, while both Carole King ('You've got a friend') and Paul Simon ('Bridge over troubled waters') reminded us of the value of friendship. There were plenty of songs about love and heartache, of course, but also about the joy of being alive, or about civil rights.

The second half of the twentieth century was a period of unprecedented change and economic prosperity in the western world. There were also enormous challenges and threats, such as the Cold War, but young people rightly felt that the world belonged to them and that it was their responsibility to celebrate it and perhaps to change it. There was a feeling of general optimism in the air and anything seemed possible, particularly in the arts.

Things are different now. So far the 21st century has brought us the 9/11 attacks, the financial crisis, COVID, climate change, and the war in Ukraine. Young people struggle to get a mortgage and many don't feel that the world belongs to them anymore.

Interestingly, this has coincided with a change in tone in popular music. An article published in the Journal of Advertising Research some years ago found that themes of love are less prominent in modern songs; instead, 'desperation' seems to feature quite frequently. A more recent study, published in the Journal of Popular Music Studies, also shows that contemporary songwriters are inspired by sadder themes than their predecessors. The authors of this study conclude that themes like 'anger, disgust, fear, sadness, and conscientiousness have increased significantly, while joy, confidence, and openness expressed in pop song lyrics have declined'.

At the same time, different sources have reported that hit songs are more likely to be written in a minor key nowadays, something almost unthinkable some years ago. Minor keys are often used to express sad, nostalgic, or introspective states of mind, the exact opposite of those chirpy old Eurovision tunes.

I think it is safe to assume that any cultural expression is the product of the times in which it is created. The sad tone of many successful modern songs suggests that current young music consumers favor sad themes, probably because these melancholic songs are more in tune with their own state of mind than the happier alternatives. This may perhaps be the result of the difficult socio-economic conditions in which young people have to plan their future nowadays.

Let's hope that in time we will be able to restore some of the social optimism that baby boomers enjoyed in the last century. That will surely call for a drink and a happy song.