Like a rolling stone: A mixed-methods approach to linguistic analysis of Bob Dylan’s lyrics.

Abstract

The work of American musician and songwriter Bob Dylan is an intriguing theme of research for the social psychology of music because his songs are widely believed to have reflected and influenced social movements. The objective of this mixed-methods study was to analyze the content of Dylan's song lyrics from his 29 original studio albums , selecting only songs written by him (n ϭ 241) in order to determine whether and how they evolved over the course of 50 years of his career. First, the text analysis software Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count (LIWC2007; Pennebaker, Booth, & Francis, 2007) was used to perform a quantitative analysis of song lyrics. Second, a general inductive method was used to perform a qualitative analysis of Dylan's work. Quantitative results showed that the most pronounced changes in Dylan's lyrics throughout his career included an increase in words indicative of cognitive complexity, religious content, and collective focus, but also a decrease in words indicative of social referents. Qualitative analysis revealed that Dylan's song lyrics gravitated around social themes that primarily consisted of hardships, romance, religion, family, politics and law, as well as oppression. Findings are discussed within Dylan's musical work and biography, and provide theoretical and empirical directions for future research.

“And you don't like, don't like the way I talk”: Authenticity in the language of bruce springsteen.

“…A focus on the present is consistent with reviewers who paint him as an advocate for social justice (Pareles, 1985). It is again noteworthy that The Beatles similarly focused their time orientation primarily in the present, and in this case, so too does the music of Bob Dylan (Czechowski et al, 2016;Petrie et al, 2008). The only period in which Springsteen's music was not focusing on the present was during his first album and in his most recent album, both of which emphasize the past.…”

Song Translation Analysis as a Means for Intercultural Connectivity

“…Qualitative analysis is particularly useful for identifying idiosyncratic and subtle meanings within texts, such as in the case of locating meaning in music and lyrical texts. Qualitative analysis has been used effectively in analysing song texts (Czechowski et al, 2016). The primary purpose of the inductive approach is to allow research findings to emerge from the frequent, dominant, or significant themes inherent in raw data, without the restraints imposed by structured methodologies.…”

The relationship between pop music and lyrics: A computerized content analysis of the United Kingdom’s weekly top five singles, 1999–2013

“…While the nascency of corpus-level work concerning music aesthetics means that the literature is inevitably disparate, three themes have emerged to date. These concern respectively content analyses that attempt to illustrate the psychological features of a given musical corpus (e.g., de Clercq & Temperley, 2011;Czechowski, Miranda, & Sylvestre, 2016;Everett, 1999;Gauvin, 2015;Kreyer & Mukherjee, 2009;Jackson & Padgett, 1982;Petrie, Pennebaker, & Silverstein, 2011;Van Sickel, 2005); attempts to predict the commercial success of music based on characteristics of the music and musicians (e.g., Bradlow & Fader, 2001;Giles, 2007;Hong, 2012;Pettijohn II & Ahmed, 2010); and consideration of the relationship between particularly pop music and various social psychological and socioeconomic indicators (DeWall, Pond, Campbell, & Twenge, 2011;McAuslan & Waung, 2018;Neuman, Perlovsky, Cohen, & Livshits, 2016;Pettijohn II, Eastman, & Richard, 2012;Pettijohn II & Sacco Jr., 2009;Zullow, 1991).…”