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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