Why Popular Music Is Becoming Less Emotional and More Distant Over Time

Tracing the Emotional Evolution of Popular Music Over 75 Years

A comprehensive analysis of nearly 40,000 song lyrics reveals a distinct shift in how popular music has communicated human experience since 1947. Researchers examining the evolution of lyrical content have identified a long-term trend toward less emotional and socially oriented expression, both across the broader music industry and within the individual careers of legendary performers.

Published in the journal Psychology of Aesthetics, Creativity and the Arts, the study represents the most extensive investigation of its kind. By auditing the discographies of 230 artists, researchers tracked how lyrical themes have shifted from 1947 through 2024. The massive dataset, which required manual verification by a team of 30 research assistants, allowed investigators to differentiate between evolutionary changes in the music industry and the personal trajectories of individual songwriters.

“A lot of previous work has asked whether music changes across decades, but much less has examined whether the same artists change across the course of their careers,” explained Jan Brascamp, an associate professor in the psychology department at Michigan State University and coauthor of the research. “By looking at both at once, we can begin separating changes that happen within artists from broader shifts in culture and the music industry.”

A Shift Away from Relational Themes

The findings indicate that as decades have passed, popular music has moved away from explicit emotional storytelling. References to family and friends have become increasingly sparse, and both positive and negative emotional markers have shown a steady decline. While sadness-related terminology has decreased, the data shows an uptick in language linked to anxiety.

When researchers compared artists across different eras, they found that historical, industry-wide shifts were more pronounced than the stylistic changes made by artists as they aged. This was an unexpected result for the research team, who initially hypothesized that musicians would follow a natural psychological trajectory of emotional maturation.

“People often become more emotionally regulated and invest more in meaningful relationships as they age, so we might expect that lyrics become more positive or relational across an artists’ career,” said lead author and MSU research associate Logan Gibson. “Instead, positive emotions and social references declined. That suggests song lyrics may be strongly shaped by artistic, cultural, or industry-level forces.”

Genre-Defining Differences

The study highlights a vast spectrum of emotional expression across genres. Classic soul and early rock artists, such as The Supremes and Marvin Gaye, consistently ranked among the highest for social connection and positive sentiment. Conversely, genres characterized by a more countercultural stance, such as those represented by the Sex Pistols or Nine Inch Nails, were typically positioned at the lower end of those metrics. Older blues and country stalwarts, including Patsy Cline and Hank Williams, were found to have a disproportionate representation of sadness and negative emotional categories.

The implications of the study extend beyond musicology. The researchers view lyrics as a valuable cultural barometer, offering a window into how society processes identity, connection, and self-regulation.

“Music is not just entertainment. People use songs to regulate their emotions, understand themselves, develop their identities, and feel connected to other people. That makes lyrics an interesting record of what artists—and potentially the audiences and cultures around them—are choosing to talk about,” noted coauthor William Chopik. “So, when we see large-scale declines in emotional and social language, it raises interesting questions about whether the way we express feelings and relationships has changed more broadly.”