Researchers have found that within the unfolding trends in pop culture, both pop music and the artists who perform pop songs vary predictably according to socioeconomic conditions. Popular songs are longer, slower, more lyrically meaningful, and in more somber sounding keys during difficult social and economic times. Furthermore, male and more mature-looking pop music performers are more successful during difficult economic times. In the current study, we assess the musical and lyrical properties along with the sex and age of the artists who recorded the 63 songs to reach No. 1 on the Billboard Annual Country Charts between 1946 and 2008. In contrast to findings on pop songs, country songs of the year are lyrically more positive, musically upbeat, and use more happy-sounding major chords during difficult socioeconomic times. While older country musicians are more popular in difficult socioeconomic times, unlike pop performers, the country artists of the year are more likely to be females when the social and economic environment is threatening. We hypothesize these differences exist because unlike the middle-class audiences who consume sadder popular songs because they match their affective mood in times of recession and social threat, the more marginalized working-class listeners of country music use happier sounding songs from comforting female figures, like the wives and mothers portrayed in country songs, as a catharsis in difficult socioeconomic times.
Previous research shows songs on the Billboard charts and the artists who create them vary according to social and economic conditions. However, only country and pop charts have been analyzed thus far. In the current study, we assess the music and lyrics along with the sex and age of the artists who recorded 65 Billboard R&B/Hip-Hop songs of the year between 1946 and 2010. Mirroring both country and pop artists, after the introduction of MTV in 1981, audiences gravitated toward more mature and therefore more comforting artists when the economy is sour and social problems are more prevalent. However, unlike pop stars but like country artists, female R&B/Hip-Hop artists are more likely to place songs atop the Billboard charts in difficult social and economic times. Still, like songs atop the Billboard Pop charts (but unlike country Billboard hits), when social and economic times become difficult, R&B/Hip-Hop songs are less likely to have lyrics about leisure or fun, and they are more likely to be longer, slower, and therefore sadder sounding. We hypothesize trends in the R&B/Hip-Hop charts are closely aligned to the pop charts because “black music” is, and always has been, more influential on pop than the more folk-oriented country music.
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