
Are Pop Lyrics Getting More Repetitive? - bpierre
https://pudding.cool/2017/05/song-repetition/index.html
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apsec112
Dupe:
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14323762](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=14323762)

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biswaroop
More on the "scrollytelling" they used here:
[https://pudding.cool/process/how-to-implement-
scrollytelling...](https://pudding.cool/process/how-to-implement-
scrollytelling/)

I personally found it a great way to tell the story. It didn't interfere with
my reading experience at all.

~~~
sofaofthedamned
Yup. It doesn't make my scrolling janky or slow, it just works. Not tried on
mobile yet, however.

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rmellow
Works just great on iOS 10.

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cubano
I think Rihanna's _Umbrella_ takes repetitiveness to its endgame pretty
thoroughly...

I wouldn't immediately blame artist dumbing-down for this phenomenon, if it
exists at all, but I think it's more a producer thing where looping and
morphing cool lyrical snippets, along with deep rhythmic beats, creates a
satisfying modern musical experience.

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creaghpatr
Rihanna pushes the boundary even farther in "work". I think there might even
be a level of snarky self-awareness with the way she just dissolves that one
word into a group of repeated noises.

The production is the legacy of max Martin and dr. Luke they have it down to a
science.

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flycaliguy
Repeating the word "work" does has a more poetic utility as a depiction of
working. Even allowing the pronunciation to devolve can be interpreted in this
way.

I think you are right that it is self aware. It can get quite meta if you read
it as her depicting the mundane nature of work as her... work.

Thanks for making me think about that!

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habosa
Clicked on this not expecting much ... wow. Detailed analysis and an
absolutely beautiful format for the information. I'll definitely be
bookmarking this site.

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peterlk
This is a fun analysis. One of the flaws with comparing only lyrics is that
there are some songs for which lyrics are not the source of diversity​ in the
music. For example, Send Me On My Way is very repetitive in its lyrics but has
lots of non-lyrical diversity in the vocals. Turn Down for What is very
repetitive in its lyrics, but the vocals aren't the melody. This analysis
speaks to the following trend in music: how simple are the lyrics?

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empath75
I don't think you should think of dance music vocals as lyrics in the
traditional sense. They're as much about sound and texture as they are about
meaning.

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Nerdfest
Nor rap, as it doesn't generally have a verse/chorus structure. Claiming it's
not music aside, fans tend to describe it more as poetry, which is generally
non-repetitive.

I'm guessing it would be extremely repetitive for poetry though.

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watwut
Would be interesting to know whether repetitiveness of lyrics affects
international sales vs English speaking ones.

I would expect native speakers to be more sensitive about lyrics complexity
then others - and international people might even prefer simpler lyrics due to
them being easier to understand.

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kapauldo
What a great, refreshingly non lazy article.

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notyourwork
Presentation was exceptionally well done, I would pay for more content like
this!

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prawn
Hit their index for lots more great stuff. This is at least the third of their
pieces I've come across and I've been impressed each time.

[https://pudding.cool/](https://pudding.cool/)

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danielsf
repo is here: [https://github.com/polygraph-cool/song-
repetition](https://github.com/polygraph-cool/song-repetition)

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galfarragem
Maybe some change is coming ... this song just won Eurovision (European Pop
music competition) yesterday:

[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qotooj7ODCM](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qotooj7ODCM)

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DonaldFisk
This confirms research done by Joan Serra et al., reported in
[http://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-music-
idUSBRE86P0R...](http://www.reuters.com/article/us-science-music-
idUSBRE86P0R820120726) (original paper:
[http://mtg.upf.edu/system/files/publications/srep00521.pdf](http://mtg.upf.edu/system/files/publications/srep00521.pdf)).

Both analyses show that the music of 1967 was the most varied of the period
studied.

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ericjang
For those interested in this topic, I highly recommend "The Song Machine", by
John Seabrook. Music is no longer written by single songwriter-singer, it's
manufactured on an assembly line to optimize for 'hits'. Hits are to record
labels as unicorns are to VCs :)

[https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/books/review/the-song-
mac...](https://www.nytimes.com/2015/10/18/books/review/the-song-machine-by-
john-seabrook.html)

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securingsincity
Another classic from this site from a few years ago which showed the range of
lyric vocabulary in hip hop.

[https://pudding.cool/2017/02/vocabulary/](https://pudding.cool/2017/02/vocabulary/)

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grandalf
Would it be possible to assess the musical repetitiveness by doing this type
of analysis on midi versions of the songs?

I'd also be curious which songs were the least repetitive for each decade.

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peterlk
You can do this, but probably not with midi because it would be hard to find.
Check out Echonest. There are ways to pull immense amounts of audio
information out of songs...

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crispywalrus
So the only thing I see lacking in this is props to Knuth. His intuition seems
to have been right on the mark.

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bdcravens
Interesting that they only go back to the 60s - lyrics in the 50s were very
simple and repetitive.

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ZenoArrow
I don't think it really matters which decade is looked at, as the underlying
principals are the same... Music to dance to is almost certainly going to have
simpler lyrics. That was just as true with the Rock And Roll in the 50s as it
was with the Pop-Dance tracks of today.

You can pick popular tracks to dance to from any decade with simple lyrics:

50's: Tutti Frutti - Little Richard
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F13JNjpNW6c](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F13JNjpNW6c)

60's: Cold Sweat - James Brown [https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8f4s9fm-
CE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p8f4s9fm-CE)

70's: Rock and Roll - Led Zeppelin
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bv_ALKkTjQ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bv_ALKkTjQ)

80's: I Feel For You - Chaka Khan
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX9E44mClKs](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hX9E44mClKs)

90's: Tubthumping - Chumbawamba
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCkmIyC6v00](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KCkmIyC6v00)

00's: As The Rush Comes - Motorcycle
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGH8rnraxoE](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGH8rnraxoE)

10's: Get Lucky - Daft Punk
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5EofwRzit0](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5EofwRzit0)

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pgodzin
Wow this presentation is great. Anyone know what visualization libraries are
used here?

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aisofteng
I would expect an n-grams approach to be a better measure.

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throwaway18917
I can't be the only one that finds it hilarious that there is a duplicate
article about repetitive pop lyrics.

