A growing body of research suggests listening to music has a positive impact on our health and wellbeing. We use music in at least seven different ways to regulate our emotions, including for entertainment, comfort or reflection. And it’s not just feelgood tracks; we also turn to music to sit with feelings of grief, sadness or frustration
One of the more powerful ways we connect with music is through song lyrics. Sometimes, the lyrics of a song can feel like they’re reaching into the very depths of our soul. They can help us feel seen or inspired, or pick us up when we’re feeling down
How lyrics facilitate emotion regulation was the question at the heart of our recent research, published in Psychology of Music. Even a casual listener of pop can tell you songs of love and loss frequently top the charts (à la Taylor Swift). But not every song is about a love story or a breakup
We wanted to understand what it is within popular songs that so many of us are connecting with
Basic psychological needs
Richard Ryan, one of the most cited living psychologists, and his colleague the late Edward Deci, assert that humans have three basic psychological needs: autonomy, competence and relatedness. To put it simply, we want to feel in control of our choices, confident in our abilities, and connected to others
We are typically motivated to engage with things that support these needs, which in turn has a positive impact on our mental health and wellbeing
We set out to examine whether themes of autonomy, competence and relatedness might be present in popular song lyrics
To do this, we analysed the top ten songs from the Australian Recording Industry Association (ARIA) charts over a 35-year period from 1988 to 2023 (360 unique songs in total)
Combining theory-driven content analysis with a custom-built AI tool called MuseAI, we found themes of human connection (relatedness) were the most frequent to appear in the song lyrics
In fact, 73% of the chart-topping songs contained this theme, including Dua Lipa’s Levitating (“I got you, moonlight, you’re my starlight”) and John Legend’s All of Me (“Cause all of me loves all of you”)
Furthermore, lyrics about the satisfaction of these needs (47%) – such as getting together with a love interest – were more common than lyrics about having those needs frustrated (25%) — such as sitting in the heartbreak of love lost
We also found many songs with themes of autonomy (15.6%) – think Miley Cyrus’ Flowers (“I can take myself dancing and I can hold on my own hand”) – and competence (11.4%), such as Lizzo’s About Damn Time (“I’m not the girl I was or used to be, b*#ch, I might be better”)
Early findings from our follow-up research suggest the frequency of themes and valence likely vary by genre. For example, our preliminary findings suggest hip-hop lyrics include more frequent themes of competence satisfaction, such as in Chris Brown’s Look At Me Now
Interestingly, Australia’s Triple J Hottest 100 demonstrates a strong lean towards themes of relatedness frustration. It’s possible this reflects young people’s use of music as a way to navigate experiences such as heartbreak or betrayal (think Oli
Music for mental health
Our ongoing research is focused on teasing apart precisely how our connection to certain themes in song lyrics can impact our mental health. We’re particularly interested in understanding why some listening sessions help us process emotions and work through difficult feelings, while others leave us ruminating on our frustrations
People intuitively turn to music in times of need. As we deepen our understanding of how this process works, music listening could function as an accessible and low-cost tool to support mental health
The development of smartphone apps such as MoodyTunes – which aims to support wellbeing in young people through music – offer exciting opportunities to harness music as a therapeutic resource
In the words of US singer Dobie Gray, “give me the beat boys and free my soul, I want to get lost in your rock and roll”
