When words matter: A cross-cultural perspective on lyrics and their relationship to musical emotions

Abstract

Several studies have investigated emotional reactions to instrumental music. However, studies on the effect of lyrics on emotions are limited. Previous studies suggest that the importance of lyrics may vary cross-culturally. The aim of this study was twofold: to investigate the effects of lyrics on aroused emotions and psychological mechanisms with music and to explore whether these differ cross-culturally. Fifty participants from Portugal and Sweden listened to six musical stimuli based on two songs, one representing each culture. These were presented in three versions each: the original, an instrumental, and the instrumental version with lyrics on the screen. The Portuguese and Swedish participants differed notably: the presence of lyrics did not affect listeners’ happiness in neither group as predicted, but did increase sadness, albeit only in the Portuguese group. Lyrics also increased nostalgia for the Portuguese listeners as predicted and surprise-astonishment for the Swedish listeners. Regarding the mechanisms, lyrics increased the activation of episodic memory in both groups, and the activation of evaluative conditioning, contagion, and visual imagery in the Portuguese group. The present study indicates that lyrics have an effect on musical emotions and mechanisms which vary between groups of different cultural backgrounds.

Popular music lyrics and the COVID-19 pandemic

“…In offering this suggestion, however, it is also important to keep in mind that listeners vary in their listening style (Greenberg & Rentfrow, 2015), including for instance how listeners prioritize their focus on musical versus lyrical content (Frith, 1989) and how listeners may not always understand song lyrics (Condit-Schultz & Huron, 2015). In addition, Barradas and Sakka (2021) found that lyrics substantially influenced feelings of sadness and nostalgia for Portuguese participants but that Swedish participants were not similarly affected. Instead, lyrics influenced feelings of surprise-astonishment for the Swedish group, and researchers suggest that they are generally less concerned with lyrics (Barradas & Sakka, 2021).…”

“…Additionally, Barradas and Sakka (2021) found that lyrics substantially influenced feelings of sadness and nostalgia for Portuguese participants, but that Swedish participants were not similarly affected. Instead, lyrics influenced feelings of surprise-astonishment for the Swedish group and researchers suggest that they are generally less concerned with lyrics (Barradas & Sakka, 2021). Thus, cross-cultural differences in listeners' degree of interest in lyrics and the types of emotions aroused by lyrics may be important factors to consider within future research.…”

“…Study 1 considered the prevalence of references to interpersonal relationships in the lyrics of top-5 charting songs in the United Kingdom and United States during two periods, namely, the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic from March to August 2020 and March to August 2015–2019. In the light of research indicating cross-cultural differences in music listeners’ degree of concern with lyrics and responses to them (e.g., Barradas & Sakka, 2021), the United Kingdom and United States were considered separately. The study tested two hypotheses.…”

Mind-Wandering during Personal Music Listening in Everyday Life: Music-Evoked Emotions Predict Thought Valence

“…Stimuli were selected based on their capability to induce positive and relaxing emotions as well as mind-wandering and visual mental imagery. Instrumental music was chosen over music with lyrics in order to keep the design as simple as possible because lyrics have been found to have effects on listeners’ emotion and imagery [ 60 , 61 ], which would have been difficult to tease apart from the music per se . It is nevertheless important for future work on this topic to extend the stimulus set to encompass music with lyrics.…”

A Constructionist Approach to Emotional Experiences with Music

“…Most research has focused instead in their effects on the perception of emotion (e.g., Ali & Peynircioglu, 2006;Thompson & Russo, 2004), or in their social effects (Anderson, Carnagey, & Eubanks, 2003;Fischer & Greitemeyer, 2006;Guéguen, Jacob, & Lamy, 2010). Two important exceptions are the studies by Mori and Iwanaga (2014) and Barradas & Sakka (2021). The first one, used happy-sounding songs with sad lyrics in a foreign language, in three conditions: listening to the music without understanding the lyrics, reading to the translation of the lyrics without music, and listening to the music while reading the translation.…”