Analysis of 50 years of hit songs yields tips for advertisers
Summary:
Researchers have analyzed 50 years’ worth of hit songs to identify key themes that marketing professionals can use to craft advertisements that will resonate with audiences. The researchers used computer programs to run textual analysis of the lyrics for all of the selected songs and analyzed the results to identify key themes. The researchers identified 12 key themes, and related terms, that came up most often in the hit songs. These themes are loss, desire, aspiration, breakup, pain, inspiration, nostalgia, rebellion, jaded, desperation, escapism and confusion.
As the researchers say, there’s no guarantee of a marketing success with particular music but you may be able to better you odds.
David H. Henard and Christian L. Rossetti. All You Need is Love? Communication Insights from Pop Music’s Number-One Hits. Journal of Advertising Research, 2014 (in press) DOI: 10.2501/JAR-54-1-000-000.
You may have noticed that the DOI looks broken (because it is). So, grab a copy of the paper here.
You will have a lot of fun reading this article, particularly the tables of words and themes.
It doesn’t mention Jimi Hendrix so now you know why I don’t work in marketing. 😉