Pop Country Lyrics Score at a 3rd Grade Level According to New Study
We hypothesize often that the lyrics of popular country songs and other popular hits are slowly becoming more simplified and dumbed down, but now there is a study that puts data behind this hypothesis. Andrew Powell-Morse of Seat Smart recently took 225 different songs compiled in 4 separate genre datasets from 2005 to 2014, and analyzed them according to Readability Score, which uses writing analysis tools like the Flesch-Kincaid grade index and others to create an average of the U.S. reading level of a piece of text.
By selecting #1 songs that spent at least three weeks topping Billboard’s Pop, Country, Rock, and R&B/Hip-Hop charts, and inputting the lyrics into the Readability Score index, the study resulted in 2,000 individual data points that Seat Smart them broke down by artist and genre.
So where did country music land? According to the Seat Smart study, country music averages at a grade 3.3 reading level. In other words, it’s what you can expect your 3rd grader would be assigned to read as homework.
But surprisingly, this actually scored slightly better than Pop, Rock, and R&B/Hip-Hop. How did country fare so well? “Country music is full of words like Hallelujah, cigarettes, hillbilly, and tacklebox. Add to that long place names like Cincinnati, Louisville, Mississippi, and Louisiana, and Country has a serious advantage over the competition,” Seat Smart explains. Still, a 3rd grade competency level is not something to brag about.
And what about individual country music artists? Where did they fare? Carrie Underwood came in first place with an average grade score for her songs of 3.72. No surprise Florida Georgia Line brought up the caboose, grading 2.93 on the Song Smart chart. Brad Paisley and Blake Shelton also scored higher, while Rascal Flatts came in second to last.
In other genres, Eminem came in first in hip-hip, Mariah Carey scored top honors in pop, and Nickelback believe it or not was the top rock act. Who was the worst overall? Ke$ha in the pop category scored an embarrassing 1.5 grade.
Overall the study determined that regardless of artist or genre, popular music is truly getting more simple in lyrical structure in the last 10 years. The study also found no significant difference between the lyrics of male and female artists—they were all in decline. As the author Andrew Powell-Morse points out though, the study “doesn’t touch on the meaning of a song, the metaphors, how the words connect with the artist’s personal story, etc. to create deeper meaning,” so just because a song uses big words, doesn’t mean it’s more intelligent or may have a deeper impact on the listener.
But humans think with words, and vocabulary is the gateway to knowledge and understanding. If popular music continues to decline in its vocabulary, there’s no question this decline could have reverberations throughout society beyond the music people listen to.
See the Full Seat Smart Lyric Intelligence Study
Bob Loblaw
May 19, 2015 @ 10:33 am
Mariah Carey always shoehorns giant words into her lyrics. It is the best thing in pop music.
John Wayne Twitty
May 21, 2015 @ 5:29 pm
She sings like a slide whistle. I didn’t know she was still releasing songs until I saw this. I guess that’s a perk of not listening to the radio.
Sam Jimenez
May 19, 2015 @ 10:51 am
“If popular music continues to decline in its vocabulary, there”™s no question this decline could have reverberations throughout society beyond the music people listen to.”
This always cracks me up. And it’s only said by people who obviously never heard anything from the 1950s/early 60s. As senseless as the FGL and equiv drivel might be – they look like a couple of Harvard grads whan you compare it to something like ♫ “Here she comes just-a-walking down the street, singing doo-wah ditty ditty dum ditty do” ♫ or ♫ “Lollipop, lollipop, la la la lollipop” ♫. Most of that 50s/60s pop stuff is right out of really low-end, factory-second children’s books – the unedited editions.
Then there’s the “good music”. Obviously subjective, but I love James Brown. That’s some damn good music. But I’m guessing he would land pretty damn low on the goofy Lyric IQ chart there.
SteveG
May 20, 2015 @ 3:57 pm
I agree. Country music has long been an expression of populism or the perspectives of the everyman/woman. That doesn’t necessarily mean that country music and flowery prose have always been mutually exclusive, but many icons of the genre would fall very low on the grading scale. Songs like “Choices” and “Folsom Prison Blues” convey a very powerful sentiment or state of being without grandiose language.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
May 19, 2015 @ 10:52 am
If FGL or Kesha used big words, their fans wouldn’t understand them.
Eric
May 19, 2015 @ 10:53 am
No surprise here. Vocabulary in general declines over time. One needs to look no further than the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence to observe the evidence for this shift.
Sam
May 19, 2015 @ 7:15 pm
Seems like a spurious conclusion to me. Those two documents were written by some of the most educated folks of the time. So modern lawyers and such don’t now use vocabulary similar to that every day?
Eric
May 22, 2015 @ 1:42 pm
Even among the best educated, the vocabulary level used today is simpler, although the concepts have not changed in complexity. It is just that society has learned how to express ideas in more accessible language.
Here’s the Preamble from the US Constitution, written in 1787:
“We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.”
And here is the Preamble from the Alaska Constitution, written in 1956:
“We the people of Alaska, grateful to God and to those who founded our nation and pioneered this great land, in order to secure and transmit to succeeding generations our heritage of political, civil, and religious liberty within the Union of States, do ordain and establish this constitution for the State of Alaska.”
Eric
May 19, 2015 @ 11:16 am
I also disagree that vocabulary is the gateway to knowledge. Part of the evolution of language over time has been in explaining concepts of the same complexity using simpler and more accessible words. For example, replacing “henceforth” with “from now on” does not destroy any information, nor does replacing complex Norman-derived Latin words like “discover” with simpler Germanic equivalents like “find”.
It’s actually ironic that I am defending the use of stripped-down vocabulary. Even among some of my VERY high-intelligence colleagues, I am sometimes mocked for using too many big, old-fashioned words. I guess the point of this anecdote is that the popularity of vocabulary correlates more strongly with era than with individual levels of knowledge.
Sam Jimenez
May 19, 2015 @ 11:43 am
I’m with you. I tailor my speech to the occasion. I know words that have as many as 5,6, even 7 letters. But as a songwriter, I want to say the biggest things possible with the smallest words possible. That’s why they’re songs – not books. I don’t want my listeners to have to bring a thesaurus to my shows. I want the people standing outside smoking and yapping to be able to know what the song is about – even though they’re not really listening. There’s a hell of a lot more challenge in that, than in writing songs with big words.
Derek
May 19, 2015 @ 11:37 am
I would love to see this same study over the last three years alone for country music.
Andrew
May 19, 2015 @ 11:54 am
This is just silly. Using a thesaurus doesn’t make a song better. Do you think the great songs in history are at a significantly higher reading level. Take the lyrics to “He Stopped Loving Her Today” for example. “Preyed” is the only word there that might not be quickly understood by a third grade kid. He might not quite grasp the meaning of the song, but that’s not what’s being measured here.
This study is basically meaningless and trying to say the supposed reading level of the lyrics has any connection to quality is a major leap.
Fuzzy TwoShirts
May 19, 2015 @ 12:20 pm
Andrew, go listen to Peter Ostroushko’s “You Don’t Know What Lonely Is” or practically anything from a Maury Yeston musical and you’ll see a direct link between complexity and quality.
Andrew
May 19, 2015 @ 12:56 pm
Go listen to Waylon Jennings and you’ll see that correlation isn’t causation.
John Wayne Twitty
May 21, 2015 @ 5:31 pm
Frankly, it’s demeaning to 3rd graders to say Florida Georgia Line’s “music” is to their level.
Noah Eaton
May 19, 2015 @ 11:58 am
The difference between Ke$ha and Florida Georgia Line comes down to self-awareness.
It has been well-reported that Ke$ha actually has a high intelligence quotient and also achieved a near-perfect score of 1500 on her SATs in her drive to attend Columbia University to study psychology., ad only reconsidering after she decided to pursue her music career. She has also stated in interviewsthat the intention behind a number of her songs including “Blah Blah Blah” was to invert the binary and challenge the double standard of debauchery in popular music (i.e. males engaging it are “rock stars”, females are “whores” and “sluts”).
As for Florida Georgia Line………………….well, I’m open to theories as to how it’s all for show with them too. I certainly haven’t seen a convincing argument yet. 😉
CountryKnight
May 19, 2015 @ 12:39 pm
Either way, it is the same result of poor lyrics flooding the minds.
DarthBadGuy
May 19, 2015 @ 1:27 pm
Yeah, it’s interesting, but I’m not really buying how complex vocabulary relates especially to great songs, or even great lyrics. I mean, pretty much the only reason that Blake Shelton song scored top honors on the study was because he uses the word “concoctions” in the chorus (though I admit that I did like the way that particular lyric worked). Which is also not to say that you should be as simplistic as possible; it’s telling that songs from Ke$ha and Robin Thicke scored at the bottom; but lyrical quality is not based on how sophisticated the words you use are, it’s more in how you use them.
Trigger
May 19, 2015 @ 5:06 pm
The author of the study pointed that out, as did I in the article. This isn’t a fail safe study, it’s just an interesting perspective. Either way, you can gauge that the complexity of words in popular music is in decline, and that would corroborate with anecdotal takes that many have on pop music’s direction, and other more scientific studies that say the same thing with different data points.
DarthBadGuy
May 19, 2015 @ 5:18 pm
That’s fair. I myself was surprised to see how low the grade levels of each genre were overall, so I get the basic point of the study. I guess I just also had the reflex reaction that… it’s country music, in the end. There’s no requirement to be the next James Joyce.
I agree with other commenters that if the author was willing to put the time in I’d be really interested to see a bigger retrospective taken with this study. Take a look at the lyrics of, say, “A Whiter Shade of Pale,” for a totally random older song. I could see that getting an eighth grade rating, which isn’t super-high, but would really speak to the contrast.
Eric
May 19, 2015 @ 5:30 pm
Just checked the lyrics for that song. The readability score is 9.6.
Eric
May 19, 2015 @ 5:39 pm
Out of curiosity, I decided to check out Frank Sinatra “Come Fly with Me”, an even older song. The score comes out as 11.5.
Henry Dunkle
May 19, 2015 @ 2:25 pm
Hey guys I just ran my lyrics through their site and scored a 12.1 grade level. Here’s a link to my video. Guess that’s what it takes to get big.
https://vimeo.com/122263906
Clovis
May 19, 2015 @ 2:40 pm
I’d like to see this same study done on the music of the 60’s, 70’s, or 80’s. I have some doubts that this is necessarily a new thing in popular music.
Trigger
May 19, 2015 @ 4:59 pm
The decline has been graphed by a few different studies going back that far. Here’s one:
https://www.savingcountrymusic.com/the-science-behind-why-pop-music-sucks
Eric
May 19, 2015 @ 5:06 pm
That’s a study of sonic diversity, not lyrical vocabulary.
pete marshall
May 19, 2015 @ 3:06 pm
2012 was doomsday for country music. maybe even earlier than that at best or worst.
wellofsong
May 19, 2015 @ 3:23 pm
If Cincinnati, Louisville, Mississippi, and Louisiana show a serious advantage over the competition, imagine what Tuscon, Tucumcari, Tehachapi, and Tonapah would do! 🙂
Tunesmiff
May 20, 2015 @ 2:26 am
Show me a sign, and I’ll be willin’~
🙂
Kevin
May 19, 2015 @ 3:27 pm
Too bad there’s no comparison for artists we support. I tried copy pasting all of the lyrics from Sturgill’s Metamodern into https://readability-score.com/. It gave the following results, not sure if it’s a comparable methodology though. I also entered the entire album as one piece, not each song individually.
Readability Formula Grade
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 17.7
Gunning-Fog Score 20.5
Coleman-Liau Index 6.1
SMOG Index 8
Automated Readability Index 20.1
Average Grade Level 14.5
brian spradlin
May 19, 2015 @ 7:11 pm
TRIG!!! Please please please please review this new Luke Bryan song ASAP! Wow! Some real garbage.
Sam
May 19, 2015 @ 7:29 pm
Trigger, while in no way saying any of these artists’ lyrics are worth a damn, complexity of the words used in music may be degenerating, but readability formulas (whichever one is used) tell us very little about the actual substance of text. Of Mice and Men generally has an index of third to mid-fourth grade, which doesn’t actually reflect the true meaning of the book. The complexity of text is more than just its syntax. I appreciate what I think you’re trying to do, but don’t invest too much in a poor metric.
Trigger
May 19, 2015 @ 7:53 pm
Sam,
As I explained above in the article, and I quote:
“As the author Andrew Powell-Morse points out though, the study “doesn”™t touch on the meaning of a song, the metaphors, how the words connect with the artist”™s personal story, etc. to create deeper meaning,” so just because a song uses big words, doesn”™t mean it”™s more intelligent or may have a deeper impact on the listener.”
This istudy was simply an illustration. When combined with other metrics, including more scientific ones, it seems to refer to a pattern of the gradual simplifying of American music.
“I appreciate what I think you”™re trying to do, but don”™t invest too much in a poor metric.”
This is not my study, and I haven’t really invested anything in it. I just thought it was interesting and decided to share its conclusions with my readers to stimulate a discussion. We can go back and forth about the merits and such, and that’s fine, but I’m not betting the future of this website on these findings or anything.
Banner
May 19, 2015 @ 10:12 pm
I see it as an improvement. Remember Clay Walker singing 12 buckle my shoe, 34 shut the door? So radio country has progressed from preschool all the way to the third grade. Congratulations, radio country. By the way, that particular song was what led me to TURN OFF my radio. It’s been off ever since, so I guess I missed out on Florida Georgia and the boys.
Eric
May 19, 2015 @ 10:13 pm
Upon further evaluation, I have realized that there is something wrong with the numbers in the chart.
In particular, I was surprised by the low ranking for Taylor Swift. I decided to run analyses on the songs from “Speak Now” (since that is her median album and the one album that she penned entirely by herself). I found the average for all the songs to be 8.45, way higher than the 3.40 that the study here shows. Even her radio singles from that album average at 7.95.
This makes me wonder how SeatSmart derived the numbers.
Eric
May 19, 2015 @ 10:24 pm
Turns out I slightly miscalculated the average score for “Speak Now”. It is actually 9.05, not 8.45.
Adrian
May 20, 2015 @ 10:13 pm
Eric, do you think her recent albums may have pulled the average score down?
What surprises me is how much she has been able to re-brand herself. A few years ago I would never have imagined that she would say that misogyny is ingrained in people from the time they were born (see: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/people/taylor-swift-changes-her-stance-on-feminism-misogyny-is-ingrained-in-people-from-the-time-they-are-born-10260143.html).
In her early years her target audience was rural/suburban 12-18 year old females. Her new persona seems to be designed to appeal to an urban 18-25 female audience. The public change in attitude and image has been quite stark, as if a politician had changed parties. It is also interesting to note that many members of Congress held fundraisers at her shows in 2010-2011 and the vast majority were Republicans. I read that several members of Congress are holding fundraisers at her shows this year, and most of them are Democrats (see: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/in-the-loop/wp/2015/05/08/members-of-congress-raise-money-off-taylor-swift/).
Trigger
May 19, 2015 @ 11:10 pm
It didn’t do the average of all Taylor Swift songs, or all Taylor Swift songs from one album, or the Taylor Swift singles from one album. What the study says is it did all the singles that topped the charts for at least 3 weeks over a 10 year period. Taylor Swift wasn’t even singled out. It just happened to be that she met the criteria of the study.
pete marshall
May 19, 2015 @ 10:25 pm
I don’t listen to radio much anymore.
Eric
May 19, 2015 @ 10:57 pm
Ah, I just realized that the way that the phrases are punctuated serves as the primary factor in determining the score. Given how lyrics are meant to flow like poetry rather than form sentences like prose, I think that the numbers in the study should be dismissed altogether.
Trigger
May 19, 2015 @ 11:08 pm
From the study:
“I plugged in song lyrics (punctuation added by me, since most songs lack it altogether)”
Punctuation and flow don’t seem to really be a factor. It’s more about the complexity of the words.
Eric
May 19, 2015 @ 11:31 pm
The locations of the periods and blank lines are the biggest factor. Chris Young’s “The Man I Want to Be”, for example, is scored at only 2.1 by the study. However, when the song is entered without punctuation, the score turns out to be 6.8.
Just for kicks, I tried to run Bob Dylan’s “Like a Rolling Stone”, which is often called the greatest song of the 20th century. Even with very generous punctuation (counting several run-on phrases as full sentences), the algorithm yielded a score of 4.4, below Taylor Swift’s “We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together” and Katy Perry’s “California Gurls”, and well below Blake Shelton’s proto-bro party anthem “All About Tonight”. I think this illustrates the ridiculousness of the study’s methodology.
Trigger
May 20, 2015 @ 7:49 am
Let’s understand that the point of the study was to see if there was a decline in the complexity of lyricism, not to compare artists or songs. The fundamental takeaway is the downward trend. Nobody is saying it’s a perfect, scientific study.
Eric
May 20, 2015 @ 4:30 pm
Given the manner in which the score is calculated, the trend could also reflect a shift away from run-on sentences. The point is that the punctuation effects result in more variables than just complexity of vocabulary.
Dave
May 20, 2015 @ 5:19 am
I’ve completely disregarded this study after seeing that Nickelback was the highest scoring rock artist, scoring well above Foo Fighters. Of course we all know that Pop Country and pop music in general is terrible, but I can’t say these results prove that. Nickelback has some of the most terribly written songs I’ve ever heard. I could absolutely see them going on tour with GA/FL Line in a couple of years when the Bro Country movement has mercifully started to die out.
Trigger
May 20, 2015 @ 7:41 am
Have the Too Fighters had any big hits lately that would qualify them for this study? Remember you need songs that have been at #1 for 3 weeks to qualify. That said, it’s an imperfect study. It’s more of an illustration.
Charlie
May 20, 2015 @ 9:00 am
Theory: Simpler songs appeal to a wider audience.
As our propensity for mediocre songwriting consolidates (meaning opportune songwriters successfully strive for the carrot of big royalties from a wide demographic), then simplistic songs are irrevocably forthcoming.
‘Discerning’ music listeners/audiophiles ergo shall evermore necessarily succumb to this egregious mediocrity. LCD (Lackadaisical Country Drivel?) henceforth shall be on offer for the foreseeable future.
Readability Formula Grade:
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level 14.9
Gunning-Fog Score 18.5
Coleman-Liau Index 21.7
SMOG Index 12.1
Automated Readability Index 14.8
Average Grade Level 16.4
Boo-yah! Suck it y’all!!
An I hain’t even used no dickshunerry!!!
Wez
May 20, 2015 @ 6:46 pm
If you put a hemingway story into this algortihm it comes up with about the same results. Just sayin…
Noisegate
May 21, 2015 @ 7:52 am
I worked with a fella that went to Nashville to attend a songwriter’s symposium featuring top industry professionals. The biggest thing he learned from these people is to write songs that a 3rd grader can understand – something they actually told him. Obviously, they take their own advice. Of course, the mainstream is aiming for the lowest common denominator anyway. It’s what happens when the music industry is controlled by monopolies – the bean counters decide what you’re gonna hear. If it ain’t gonna make lotsa cash, it’s not gonna be on the radio, which is controlled by a completely different monopoly. If they think polka-rap-bulgarian women’s choir-free jazz country is the next big thing, then by golly that’s what they’re gonna force down yer throat… at a 3rd grade level.
markf
May 21, 2015 @ 10:04 am
The lyrics to most pop tunes these days are written for simpletons.
The fact that sales are so crappy demonstrates that there aren’t as many simpletons around as the music business thinks. Maybe they can figure this out sometime.
The other thing is the melodies are close to non existent, completely forgettable, and all the same, song after song. good for chanting along to in an arena I guess.
There’s lots of pop music being written and played hat has good, sometimes outstanding lyrics and melodies. Maybe more than ever.
Just not anything in the mainstream.
That’s probably the biggest difference between today’s pop music charts, and the sixties. Not that the good stuff from then was so much better, (although lots of people would argue that it is) than today’s good music, but that
In the sixties there was room on the hit parade charts for good music as well as the crap. And there were successful labels that concentrated on putting something out that was good, like Atlantic records. And were still able to make large amounts of money.