Tuesday, September 12, 2017

What We Like, as told in #1 Songs


There is a lot you can tell about a person through his or her taste in music.  As an experiment, I was curious to see what our musical taste as a society said about us.  I looked at the Top Billboard Song every year for the past 37 years (from 1980 – 2016), separated them into a few categories that I thought would be interesting – Gender, Race of the artist, Themes; and tried to see if there were any trends.  Interestingly enough, there were.

Overall, judging by our preference in songs, we’ve gotten more male, less white, less invested in love, and more focused on having fun. 

That’s the topline.  But if you want to dive a little deeper, read forth at your own risk:

Gender
We have gotten increasingly more male over the years, looking at the #1 songs over the last 37 years:
Past 37 years (1980 -2016): 62% Male
Past 20 years (1997-2016): 65% Male
Past 10 years (2007-2016): 70% Male

·      The 80s and 90s were the MOST female decade, where 50% of the top songs were sung by female artists
·      The oughts had 3 female artists (Faith Hill, Mariah Carey, Beyonce), and everything post 2010 dropped – only 2 female artists – Kesha and Adele.  The Black Eyed Peas had Fergie, and they had the top song in 2009 with Boom Boom Pow, so I guess that kind of counts

Post 2011 – the year Adele reigned with “Rolling in the Deep”, things went on a very interesting, if not rocky, trajectory for female artists:
·      2012 saw an abundance of close calls and trade offs with male artists, with half of the top 10 songs coming from females:
o   Carly Rae Jepsen at #2 with Call Me Maybe, Ellie Goulding with Lights at #5, Kelly Clarkson at #7, Rihanna at #8, Nicki Minaj at #9
·      2013 had an allergic reaction to 2012, and swung very male in the top 10:
o   Thrift Shop – Macklemore and Ryan Lewis was #1
o   Blurred Lines – Robin Thicke was #2
o   Radioactive – Imagine Dragons was #3
o   Harlem Shake – Baauer was #4
o   Katy Perry was the only girl on the list, barely cracking the top 10 with Roar
o   Pink’s Just Give me a reason was #7 (but she sang it with Nate Ruess)
o   For some other gals, they picked up the latter parts of the charts, as Taylor Swift, Lorde, and Miley were in the teens.
·      2014 was a little better with female representation, but these girls had help:
o   Pharell took the top spot with Happy
o   Katy Perry paired up with Juicy J for Dark Horse, at #2
o   Girl powers Iggy Azalea and Charli XCX had Fancy at #4
o   The single gals rounded out the top - Meghan Trainor at #8, Ariana Grande at #9.
·      2015 yo-yo’ed back to more males: There were no female artists in the top until Taylor Swift with Blank Space at #7.  She was much loved - having three songs in the top 20 (Bad Blood, Shake it Off).
o   She was also only one of three females in the top 20 (Ellie Goulding at #13, and Rachel Platten at #20).  Although, Ellie Goulding’s song, Love Me Like You Do, was greatly helped by being featured in the widely loved Fifty Shades of Grey - hugely successful at the box office – the 17th highest grossing film of that year, taking in over $166 Million.
·      2016 continued the trend with a more male-dominated top chart, with Rihanna taking over as 2015’s Taylor, having 3 songs in the top 20, but two of them were collaborations with men:
o   Rihanna//Drake’s Work was #4 (#13 – Needed Me and #17 – This is What You Came For with Calvin Harris)
o   Adele had Hello at #7
o   Fifth Harmony was #16 with Work From Home, but this featured a male artist - Ty Dolla $ign.
o   The only other true “Female” artist, with no collaborations, was Pink at #33 with Just Like Fire, and then Ariana Grande at #36 with Dangerous Woman.

Race
We’ve started to become more diverse, as the top song each year has been represented more and more by multicultural artists:

Past 37 years (1980 -2016): 73% White
Past 20 years (1997-2016): 55% White
Past 10 years (2007-2016): 40% White

·      The 80s only had two black artists – Prince and Dionne Warwick.
·      The 90s was the most diverse – 50% of the top songs were helmed by MC singers, with Los Del Rio capturing the love of America with Macarena in 1996 (There is hope for Despacito!).
·      The aughts were just as diverse – 50% of the top songs were from black artists (50 Cent, Usher, Lil Jon, Ludacris, Beyonce, Flo Rida, T-Pain, Black Eyed Peas).
·      The 2010’s were a bit more Caucasian – we’ve had two non-white artists – Pharell and Bruno Mars, in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Topic
To quote one of our chart toppers, Olivia Newton-John, we like to love and let live: love is the most sang-about topic in the past 37 years: 20 out of 37 songs.  As far as the rest goes - 10 are about fun/partying, and 8 are just random.

Love as a topic is pretty timeless – through the last 37 years, it was consistently the most sung-about topic throughout each decade – averaging 4-5 spots each decade.  Although, the 80s was the most lovey dovey just by a smidge – 1 more song than the 90s or the oughts.  Everything post-2010 focused on fun and were less about love – we’ve only had 3 songs about love since then, but we’ve got 3 more years left so there is hope yet.  Although, the #1 song this year so far has been Despacito, continuing with the fun streak.

However – when breaking it down to the actual sentiments about love, most of these love songs are pretty sad.  Only 6 out of the 20 songs were definitively happy:
·      Call Me – Blondie (1980)
·      Every Breath You Take – The Police (1983)
·      Everything I Do, I Do It For You – Bryan Adams (1991)
·      I Will Always Love You – Whitney Houston (1993)
·      Breathe – Faith Hill (2000)
·      Hanging by a Moment – Lifehouse (2001)

5 were mixed or bittersweet:
·      When Doves Cry – Prince (1984)
·      Faith – George Michael (1988)
·      End of the Road – Boys II Men (1992)
·      Irreplaceable – Beyonce (2007)
·      Love Yourself – Justin Bieber (2016)

…and the rest -45%- of all love songs were complicated feelings, most often expressing sadness, disappointment, anger, or regret:
·      Careless Whisper – Wham! (1985)
·      Look Away – Chicago (1989)
·      Foolish Games – Jewel (1997) *this was technically the second most popular song of 1997, the #1 that year was Candle in the Wind, its popularity was mostly driven by its association to the loss of Princess Diana, which was an outlier that rocked the purposes of this analysis, therefore I’ve taken that data point out.
·      Believe – Cher (1999)
·      How You Remind Me – Nickleback (2002)
·      We Belong Together – Mariah Carey (2005)
·      Rolling in the Deep – Adele (2011)
·      Somebody that I Used to Know – Gotye ft. Kimbra (2012)

The 80s and 90s mostly oscillated between happy love songs and sad love songs – 36% were happy or supportive, 27% were mixed, and 27% were very sad.  1997, especially, saw a lot of heartbreak, with the deaths of beloved cultural icons Biggie and Princess Diana, tribute songs ended up on the top 10 list – at #1 was Candle in the Wind for Princess Diana, and #3 was Diddy’s I'll Be Missing You for Biggie.  Mother Teresa also passed that year, although arguably no tribute song would be able to contain sentiments the world felt for her.  As for the rest of the list – it was littered with more sad songs – #4 was Unbreak my Heart, #9 was How do I Live, and #11 was Quit Playing Games with My Heart.

Since then, we seem to have lost hope in love, “Hanging by a Moment” by Lifehouse was the last happy love song, in 2001.  Since then, there has been a string of pain and regret – How You Remind Me in 2002, We Belong Together by Mariah Carey (2005), Irreplaceable by Queen Bey (2007), Back to back sentiments of “what ifs” and disappointment followed a few years later (Adele’s Rolling in the Deep in 2011, Somebody that I Used to Know in 2012), and most recently, Justin Bieber’s Love Yourself in 2016.  All in all, in the last 15 years, no one has found many good things to say about love.

Not all is lost though, we have perhaps transferred that energy from loving to partying.  Since 2000, we have seen the most songs on the top chart spot about having a good time, this topic was 50% of all top songs in 2000’s:
·      In Da Club – 50 Cent (2003)
·      Yeah! – Usher/Lil Jon/Ludacris (2004)
·      Low – Flo Rida/T-Pain (2008)
·      Boom Boom Pow – Black Eyed Peas (2009)
·      Tik Tok – Kesha (2010)

…judging by the titles of these songs, we also seem to correlate simple or non-word-sounding-words with Fun as well.

In the last 5 years, we kept the party going with Happy in 2014 and Uptown Funk in 2015.  As mentioned above, we took a break with “Love Yourself” in 2016, but are right back on track with Despacito so far this year.

Let’s also throw in some honorable mentions about how random we all are.  Humans are unpredictable, so when songs like “Walk Like An Egyptian” (1987) ends up on the this list, I throw up my hands.  Macklemore & Ryan Lewis’s Thrift Shop also captured everyone’s attention in 2013, who knew a song about visiting an old smelly shop could be so relatable.  Keep America weird!

Despite our strangeness, our love of Jack, Johnnie, Captain Morgan, and our propensity to put it all out there for love – and then regret and bristle afterwards, we are, at the core of it, still human, defined by our unique ability to empathize.  Over the past 37 years, there were a few shining stars about supporting friends, or selflessly helping each other out: “That’s What Friends Are For”, “Hold On” (Wilson Phillips), and “Bad Day”, wholly focused on the other person, felt the love of America in 1986, 1990, and 2006.  We are multi-faceted, we are deeply layered, we are different, we are the same, we love and we hate and we dance.  Music is the transcendent string that runs through all of us, it defines and binds us, giving all of us a reason to connect and emote, the one true catharsis in life.



Source: Billboard Music

Year
Song
Singer
1980
Call Me
Blondie
1981
Bette Davis Eyes
Kim Carnes
1982
Physical
Olivia Newton John
1983
Every Breath You Take
The Police
1984
When Doves Cry
Prince
1985
Careless Whisper
Wham!
1986
That's What Friends Are For
Dionne and Friends
1987
Walk Like An Egyptian
Bangles
1988
Faith
George Michael
1989
Look Away
Chicago
1990
Hold On
Wilson Phillips
1991
Everything I Do, I Do It For You
Bryan Adams
1992
End of the Road
Boys II Men
1993
I Will Always Love You
Whitney Houston
1994
The Sign
Ace of Base
1995
Gangsta's Paradise
Coolio
1996
Macarena
Los Del Rio
1997
Candle in the Wind
Elton John
1997
Foolish Games
Jewel
1998
Too Close
Next
1999
Believe
Cher
2000
Breathe
Faith Hill
2001
Hanging by a Moment
Lifehouse
2002
How You Remind Me
Nickleback
2003
In Da Club
50 Cent
2004
Yeah!
Usher/Lil Jon/Ludacris
2005
We Belong Together
Mariah Carey
2006
Bad Day
Daniel Powter
2007
Irreplaceable
Beyonce
2008
Low
Flo Rida/Tpain
2009
Boom Boom Pow
Black Eyed Peas
2010
Tik Tok
Kesha
2011
Rolling in the Deep
Adele
2012
Somebody That I Used to Know
Gotye ft. Kimbra
2013
Thrift Shop
Macklemore & Ryan Lewis
2014
Happy
Pharell Williams
2015
Uptown Funk
Mark Ronson/Bruno Mars
2016
Love Yourself
Justin Bieber



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What We Like, as told in #1 Songs

There is a lot you can tell about a person through his or her taste in music.   As an experiment, I was curious to see...