Listening to great pop songs can bring about a unique sense of relief. From Prince’s emotional Nothing Compares 2 U, or Sinead O’Connor’s raw rendition, music can provide an outlet for emotional expression or confusion that is immensely pleasurable.
Studies reveal an upswing in songs focusing on themes of sadness, despair or anger since 1950.
The rise of emo-rap
Internet culture has given birth to a new breed of artists whose moody bedroom confessionals and melancholic melodies have cast a melancholy hue over pop music. Much like Lana embodied Tumblr culture, these new artists are tapping into our emotions with vulnerability – pushing boundaries of mainstream charts while making 21st-century sadness part of their identity.
Emo-rap has emerged as a compelling development within this trend. It blends aggressive rap beats with emotional lyrics of emo rock to produce an innovative style of music that manages to be both refreshingly vulnerable yet undeniably catchy; artists like Lil Uzi Vert, Yung Lean, Trippie Redd and Iann Dior have found immense success with this genre, using lyrics to express feelings of heartbreak, depression and loss they are dealing with daily.
Gen-Z has taken to this style in droves. Amidst an ever-evolving landscape of social media platforms, cathartic meme culture and political unrest, connecting with your emotions through music provides the perfect release. What could be better than experiencing that cozy embrace than through song?
Although emo-rap had existed for some time before Juice WRLD and X arrived on the scene, their debut is when this genre truly took off. Both artists created songs that touched many listeners’ hearts more intensely – tracks like “XO Tour Llif3” and “Lucid Dreams” reaching Billboard Hot 100’s top 10. Tragically both artists met tragically in 2022 but left a lasting legacy that resonates today with modern listeners.
Fats’e and Arson Green Nostalgia have taken this movement forward with an innovative take on nostalgic music, featuring trap beats, autotuned emo vocals and twinkly guitar reminiscent of days gone by. Their music provides the perfect fusion between two genres that have always appealed to similar audiences – creating something which appeals equally well to both rappers who also want an emo side as well as those looking for new influences in rapping styles like theirs.
The rise of streaming
At present, streaming playlists are the primary avenue for emerging pop artists to make an impression in pop music culture. As technology has progressed, some critics have noted how this has fostered and entrenched an emerging music culture centered around mood-driven listening – as Paul Rekret described ’21st Century Pill-Pop’ where songs “wash over you with softness and steadiness like wallpaper or muzak”, (2019). Others bemoaned “Streambait Pop”, in which songs deliberately slow and bland to appeal to listeners seeking soothing and relaxing tunes (2019).
Though chart-topping hits sometimes defy this trend, a study by the University of California in 2015 discovered that, on average, pop music from 1985 was 20% more depressing. Their research looked at lyrics and features of rhythm such as tempo and mode (major or minor), as well as whether songs were emotionally ambiguous – songs with unambiguously happy lyrics like Abba’s Waterloo seemed childish today; songs in fast tempo minor mode like XCX’s Whip Your Neck offered sadness while remaining danceable.
Researchers conducted an analysis on song lyrics dating from 1951 to 2016 and concluded that, on average, pop songs have grown increasingly angrier and fearful over time. Furthermore, happy songs tend to feature faster tempos with major modes while sadder ones may feature slower ones with minor modes.
Spotify’s algorithms have also begun rewarding tracks with shorter, punchier intros and earlier choruses, shifting intros shorter and choruses starting earlier than ever before in pop music songs. Because streaming payouts are relatively low, flash-in-the-pan tracks that burn bright and fade quickly are less lucrative than ever; songs will therefore need to be mixed and mastered with greater restraint in order to ensure they hit with listeners.
The rise of social media
Pop music has always been an accessible form of expression – from listening on TikTok and car speaker systems, to streaming services and algorithmic magic to personal bedroom confessionals and genres such as emo-rap and sad-pop that have taken hold. But that is just the tip of the iceberg; young people’s music consumption habits have also evolved drastically in recent years; now rising stars and viral sensations can emerge from seemingly nowhere thanks to platforms such as Tumblr, YouTube and TikTok. As our world becomes more digitalized, millennials are starting to feel it deeply. Constantly being fed messages about anxiety, depression and self-doubt seems like our favorite pop songs reflect this mood among a generation.
Longtime older generations have bemoaned that modern pop songs no longer sound as upbeat as they used to, and new research conducted by Glenn Schellenberg and Christian von Scheve suggests this could be true. Their study of over 1,000 Billboard top 100 hits found that popular songs since 1960 have gradually become more melancholic sounding. By analyzing lyrics and melodies of each hit to analyze its tempo and mode (major or minor), they found songs with lyrics expressing sadness, desperation and conscientiousness have increased while songs with joy, happiness openness or confidence have decreased.
These findings are in line with other studies which have investigated the changing moods of pop music over time. It’s important to keep in mind that songwriters may have different motivations for writing the songs analyzed here; multiple writers on a track may write songs which fit with current mood zeitgeist rather than exploring individual emotions in depth.
Another cause may be that many songwriters collaborate on projects with multiple collaborators, which leads them to express a more collective perspective than individual experience. This phenomenon is especially apparent in C-pop, where its lyrical ambiguity embodies Liu Bai’s Chinese art philosophy of leaving blank space so viewers can fill it in according to their individual experiences.
The rise of Gen-Z
From Lana Del Rey’s teenage angst-fueled lyrics to Charlie XCX’s moody bedroom confessions, Gen Z has enthusiastically taken to sad-pop and emo-rap music. Bolstered by streaming services and algorithms, Gen Z artists can release songs that tap into their personal emotions while tapping into those of their audience at large.
But is today’s music becoming darker? A 2019 study by researchers Charlotte Brand, Alberto Acerbi and Alex Mesoudi examined lyrics of over 160,000 popular songs written between 1965 and 2015 and found an increase in words associated with emotions such as sadness or despair while those that represent positive ones like joy or confidence decreased significantly.
However, they also discovered that song tempo and mode (major or minor) had an effect on its overall mood; faster tempos with major modes tended to create happier sounds while slower tempos in minor modes could produce sadder-sounding tones.
Batt suggests this trend may be attributable to how songs are now written. Since more songs now tend to be composed by teams of writers instead of individual songwriters, their compositions tend to express an overall communal mood rather than reflect individual experiences. Therefore, when multiple writers notice that life around them seems melancholy or upbeat respectively, this could have an impactful result in terms of creating music.
Songs that invoke powerful emotions have proven particularly helpful for helping individuals process negative events in their life and cope more easily with difficult experiences – known as catharsis – by releasing deep emotion through art. Demi Lovato and Michelle Williams who have spoken openly about their addiction, depression, and anxiety struggles have used these songs as forms of self-healing through music like Sombre pop.
At a time when society seems ever-more complex, Gen-Z are striving to leave their mark. Liberal, diverse and socially aware, Gen-Zers care deeply about mental health issues, higher education access, racial equity and civic engagement – issues with which Gen-Z has an overwhelming interest.