Abstract
Research shows that sensational news stories as well as popular romance novels often feature themes related to important topics in evolutionary psychology. In the first of four studies described in this paper we examined the song lyrics from three Billboard charts: Country, Pop, and R&B. A content analysis of the lyrics revealed 18 reproductive themes that read like an outline for a course in evolutionary psychology. Approximately 92% of the 174 songs that made it into the Top Ten in 2009 contained one or more reproductive messages, with an average of 10.49 reproductive phrases per song. Although differences in the frequency of different themes between charts were found, further analyses showed that the most popular/bestselling songs contained significantly more reproductive messages. An analysis of the lyrics of opera arias and art songs also revealed evidence for many of the same embedded reproductive messages extending back more than 400 years.
“Every breath you take, every move you make, every bond you break, every step you take, I'll be watching you” (from Every Breath You Take, by Sting and Andy Summers, copyright 1983).
Introduction
Sensational news stories and popular romance novels often feature themes related to important topics in evolutionary psychology. Davis and McLeod (2003) analyzed frontpage news stories from a cross section of different countries over a period of 300 years. Prominent news items tended to feature stories about crime (stealing, murder, and physical assault), injury, death, altruism, abandonment, reputation, harm to children, and rape. Rankings of the content of sensational news stories showed substantial consistency across different time periods. Davis and McLeod concluded that the appeal of sensational news is a byproduct of human predispositions to attend to information that has reproductive/adaptive value.
More recently, Cox and Fisher (2009) analyzed the titles of contemporary romance novels to determine if their popularity might be related to evolutionary themes that would be expected to have widespread appeal when it comes to some of the unique and recurrent reproductive issues that women confront. The five most common words featured in romance novel titles were love, bride, baby, man, and marriage, in that order. Common themes extracted from these titles included commitment, reproduction, masculine/high ranking suitors, and resources. Because the costs of reproduction are so much higher for women than men, because women have a strong vested interest in the other 50 percent of the genes being carried by their children, and because of their need for protection and provisioning, these themes have high reproductive relevance for females. Cox and Fisher conclude that because women who read romance novels are “voting with their money,” these results have real world relevance.
In the present series of studies, we analyzed the lyrics in popular songs in an attempt to identify the existence of embedded reproductive/evolutionary messages. Being the first of their kind, these were largely descriptive studies.
The adaptive value of music eluded scientists for a long time. While Pinker (1997) has been quick to dismiss music as “auditory cheesecake,” Darwin (1871) suggested that music may have evolved as a form of courtship display by means of sexual selection. Following Darwin's lead, there is now growing interest in the origins of music (e.g., Mithen, 2006; Wallin, Merker, and Brown, 2000). Research conducted by music psychologists has identified connections between music and social behavior, and shows that music preferences are related to an array of interesting personality dimensions (Rentfrow and Gosling, 2003). But rather than addressing music per se, our research focused on the written lyrics that comprise popular songs.
Study 1
The initial study consisted of a content analysis of the lyrics contained in the top ranked 2009 songs in three popular music genres: Country, Pop, and R&B (Rhythm and Blues).
Materials and Methods
Table 1 contains a list of the reproductive categories that we extracted from a content analysis of the written lyrics in the initial sample of 174 songs that made it into the Billboard Top Ten for Country, Pop, and R&B charts during 2009. These genres were chosen so as to capture a wide cross section representing mainstream American music.
Coding categories with lyric exemplars
Billboard tracks the popularity of songs through a number of different charts which are published weekly on their website: http://www.billboard.com. Using the individual charts for Country Songs, Pop Songs, and R&B/Hip Hop Songs, we examined the charts published in the first week of every month for the year 2009 and analyzed the Top Ten songs from each of these individual charts.
For purposes of deriving/identifying categories, references having to do with courtship, sex, pair-bonding, parenting, fidelity, mate guarding, and provisioning were initially targeted, along with themes related to long-term as well as short-term mating strategies. In the process of attempting to code the lyrics it became apparent that emotional expressions could be partitioned into different action references. For instance, “love” could either convey commitment, fidelity assurance, or a non-specific state. “Love” represents commitment when sung as “I love you.” It represents fidelity assurance when coined as “Do you love me?” And it is rendered non-specific when used in phrases like “I would love to go to the park with you.” In this way, our coding system transformed subjective emotions into objective actions. As shown in Table 1, we were able to distill most of the reproductive messages into 18 specific categories, along with one additional default category for those that were reproductively relevant but did not fit the other categories (e.g., incest).
Results
To determine the reliability of applying these categories to specific song lyrics, two observers independently classified the reproductive themes present in written versions of the reproductively relevant phrases extracted from a representative sample of the Pop, Country, and R&B songs. The number of phrases containing reproductive messages ranged from 2 (“White Horse” and “Second Chance”) to 29 (“Baby By Me”) for a total of 219 reproductive phrases, with an average of 8.76 different reproductive references per song. Most songs included a few phrases that were judged to contain several (2–3) reproductive messages for a total of 269 reproductive references summed across all songs. There was complete agreement between the two observers in classifying 237 of the 269 reproductive phrases, resulting in a respectable inter-rater agreement of over 88%.
The initial sample contained 174 Top Ten songs taken from the 2009 Country, Pop, and R&B charts compiled by Billboard magazine and published on their website. Printed copies of the lyrics for each of these songs were downloaded for analysis. Figure 1 represents a distribution of the different reproductive categories found in the lyrics of these songs. A one-way ANOVA applied to the number of reproductive categories was significant, F(2, 173) = 17.21, p ≤ .0001. Bonferroni's Multiple Comparison Test showed that there were significantly more reproductive categories in R&B songs in comparison to Country (p ≤ .0001) and Pop (p ≤ .001). However, the differences between Country and Pop were not significant.
Distribution of reproductive themes for 2009 songs as a function of song type
The number of reproductive references/phrases for the songs in this sample ranged from 0 to 48, with 160 of these songs, or 92% containing one or more reproductive references. Reproductive phrases that were repeated within a song (such as a chorus) were only counted once. For the 57 Country songs there were a total of 340 reproductive references, for an average of 5.96 different reproductive references per song. For the 59 Pop songs a total of 513 reproductive references were identified, with an average of 8.69 references per song. For the 58 R&B songs there were 973 reproductive references, resulting in a mean of 16.77 reproductive references per song. A one-way ANOVA of the number of reproductive references was significant, F(2, 173) = 33.60, p ≤ .0001. Bonferroni's Test showed that there were significantly more reproductive references in R&B songs in comparison to both Country (p ≤ .0001) and Pop (p ≤ .0001). And again, the differences between Country and Pop were not significant. See Appendix 1 for a list of the songs used in Study 1.
As shown in Figure 1, there were differences between charts in reproductive themes, and the frequency with which the reproductive categories were mentioned differed between charts as well. The four most frequent reproductive categories contained in the lyrics of Country songs were commitment, parenting, rejection, and fidelity assurance, in that order. For Pop songs the most frequent reproductive categories were sex appeal, reputation, short-term strategies, and fidelity assurance. For R&B songs, sex appeal, resources, sex act, and status constituted the most frequent themes. Whereas 46 out of the 58 parenting themes came from Country songs, only four appeared in R&B songs. In contrast, references to resources were featured 106 times in R&B songs, but appeared only six times in Country songs. It is also interesting to note that while there is some overlap between the top four reproductive themes across the charts (fidelity is one of the top four for both Country and Pop, and sex appeal is featured in the top four for Pop and R&B), no theme was common to the top four in all three charts.
Study 2
In the second study an attempt was made to determine whether there might be a relationship between reproductive messages and the popularity/sales of recorded contemporary songs. This was accomplished by measuring the number of reproductive messages in 30 randomly selected songs from each of the three charts that made it into the Top Ten in 2009 and also appeared in albums. As a control condition, we measured the number of reproductive messages in randomly selected songs from the same album by the same vocalists that did not make it into the Top 10. As a result, each of the 30 songs we chose that appeared in the Top Ten was matched with another control song by the same singer and released on the same album, but did not make it into the Top 10. See Appendix 2 for a list of the songs we used in these different categories.
Results
Country Songs
Figure 2 depicts the average number of different reproductive messages for the Country songs we selected that made it into the Top Ten and those that did not. For the songs selected from the top rankings in 2009 there were more reproductive messages per song (M = 7.2, SD = 4.74) than for those by the same vocalist (in the same album) that did not appear in the top ten (M = 4.3, SD = 3.08). A paired t-test showed that this difference was significant, t(29) = 2.879, p = .0074.
Average number of reproductive messages for 2009 Country, Pop, and R&B songs that made it into the Top Ten and control songs that did not
Pop Songs
Figure 2 shows comparable results for Pop songs. For those selected from the top songs in 2009 there were more reproductive messages per song (M = 10.73, SD = 6.47) than for songs by the same vocalists that did not make it into the Top Ten (M = 5.8, SD = 4.50), and this was significant, t(29) = 4.449, p <.0001.
R&B Songs
Figure 2 also depicts the results for R&B songs. For the selected top ranking songs in 2009 there were also almost twice as many reproductive messages per song (M = 18.07, SD = 16.91) compared with those that did not appear in the Top Ten and were included in the same albums by the same vocalist (M = 9.13, SD = 8.32). This difference also reached statistical significance, t(29) = 4.453, p ≤ .0001.
Study 3
To examine the stability of reproductive messages and themes over time, the third study featured a content analysis of the lyrics contained in the annual list of the Top Ten songs for the years 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009 for Country, Pop, and R&B charts. The list of Top 10 Country songs for the years 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, and 1999 were taken from “Hot Country Songs” (Whitburn, 2008). The list of Pop songs for these same years was taken from “A Century of Pop Music” (Whitburn, 1999), and the list of R&B songs for these years was taken from “Top R&B/Hip Hop Singles” (Whitburn, 2004). The 2009 Top 10 songs of the year for all genres were taken from the Billboard magazine website: http://www.billboard.com.
Results
As shown in Figure 3, the number of reproductive messages in top ranked popular songs has remained relatively stable over the past six decades. The one exception is the recent increase in reproductive messages contained in songs that rise to high ranking positions on the R&B charts. A 3 (charts) × 6 (decades) ANOVA revealed a significant main effect of song type, F(2, 162) = 10.852, p ≤ .0001, a significant main effect of decade, F(5, 162) = 10.743, p ≤ .0001, and as illustrated in Figure 3, a significant interaction between charts and decade, F(10, 162) = 4.478, p ≤ .0001. Using the Bonferroni correction, pairwise comparisons between decades showed that songs in 1999 and 2009 had significantly more reproductive references (p ≤ .05). Corrected pairwise comparisons based on song type also showed that R&B songs contained significantly more reproductive messages (p ≤ .001) than Country and Pop, while differences between Country and Pop were not significant.
Mean number of different reproductive messages per song for the Top Ten songs at the end of each decade for all three charts over the past sixty years
Study 4
To determine if the presence of reproductive messages is a long term, enduring feature of song lyrics, the fourth study was based on a content analysis of the lyrics contained in a sample of representative art songs and opera aria dating back as far as 1597. Arias are usually a melodic segment set within the context of a larger composition called an opera. Though arias are often performed independent of the full opera, they derive much of their meaning from the framework of the surrounding composition. In contrast, Art songs are smaller scale compositions that are meant to be performed by themselves. Notable Arias and Art songs were chosen for analysis because they are analogous to popular current songs. Art songs have the advantage of bridging a time gap when composers no longer wrote operas but other genres of popular music had not yet emerged.
Method
To identify a representative sample of art songs we used a combination of books, websites and sheet music anthologies (Walter, 2009) and tried to find matches for those songs in other art song anthologies. If a song appeared in more than one book it was included on the list. The list of art songs chosen for analysis contains songs that date back as far as 1597. See Appendix 3 for a compilation of these songs.
The arias were taken from the Metropolitan Opera Archives, which lists the frequency of aria performances. To identify noted arias we also consulted Wikipedia and an opera anthology (Batta, 1999). In addition, we searched for operas in standard opera song literature books for singers. The final list included opera arias that date back to 1642. See Appendix 4 for a list of the opera arias.
To take into account changes in the meaning of different words/phrases over time, assistance with the content analysis of the opera arias and the art songs was provided by Melanie L. Shank, an opera singer who studies and performs songs from these eras.
Results
There was complete agreement among two independent raters in classifying 327 reproductive messages out of a total of 362 references taken from a representative sample of the opera and art songs, which represents an inter-rater agreement of over 90%.
Figure 4 depicts the results. A t-test failed to demonstrate a significant difference in the number of reproductive categories between the opera and art songs, t(104) = .6098, p = .5433. While the frequency of some of the themes differ, these findings clearly show that the same reproductive categories derived from the content analysis of our initial sample of 2009 contemporary songs map surprisingly well onto the lyrics from opera and arts songs dating back hundreds of years.
Distribution of reproductive themes for opera aria and art songs sampled over the past 414 years along with those in Study 1
Discussion
Whereas short-term sexual relationships are rarely featured in female romance novels (Cox and Fisher, 2009), promiscuity and brief sexual liaisons are common, recurring themes in many popular songs - particularly R&B and Pop (see Figure 1). Although the typical romance novel contains several hundred pages, contemporary songs in the charts we sampled last for only a few minutes and contain a relatively small number of often repetitive verses. Yet despite their limited scope, most popular songs contain a high incidence of reproductive messages.
Since the position of songs on the Billboard charts is driven in part by sales, our study represents a significant advantage over the Cox and Fisher (2009) analysis of romance novels where sales figures were not available. The same market factors that appear to affect the title of romance novels also impact the lyrics of songs on different charts (see Figure 1). For example, Country and Western listeners are thought to represent a higher proportion of women than is true for the other charts we surveyed. The top four themes for high ranking Country songs were commitment, parenting, rejection, and fidelity assurance, whereas for Pop it was sex appeal, reputation, short-term strategies, and fidelity assurance, for R&B/Hip Hop it was sex appeal, resources, sex act, and status. While Cox and Fisher (2009) found that short-term relationships were “all together ignored by romance novels” (p. 398), that is clearly not the case for song lyrics.
Approximately 92% of the 174 songs that made it into the Top 10 in 2009 contained reproductive messages. A content analysis of these messages revealed 18 reproductive themes that read like topics taken from an outline for a course in evolutionary psychology. Although differences in the frequency of different themes between charts were found, further analyses showed that the bestselling songs in all three charts featured significantly more reproductive messages than those that failed to make it into the Top Ten (see Figure 2). The stability of these reproductive messages over time was confirmed by a content analysis of the lyrics contained in a list of the Top Ten songs for the years 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009 (see Figure 3). An analysis of the lyrics of opera arias and art songs also revealed compelling evidence for the same reproductive categories extending back as far as 1597. As shown in Figure 5, the six most common themes to emerge from the combined sample of song lyrics (past and present) were fidelity assurance, commitment, rejection, arousal, sex appeal, and other body parts.
Frequency distribution of the presence of one or more reproductive categories in the songs contained in Study 1, 3, and 4 (N = 432)
We suspect songs that rise to high ranking positions on the charts do so for a myriad of reasons. The fact that some popular recordings are only instrumental with no lyrics (e.g., Chariots of Fire), while others are sung by artists in a foreign language (e.g., Volare) strongly suggests that the instrumentation, melody, tempo, sex of the artist, and sound of the singer's voice (see Hughes, Dispenza, and Gallup, 2004), along with subtle nonverbal cues of sincerity and emotional commitment conveyed by intonation of the artist are all important components. As such, raw, disembodied lyrics as they appear in print are clearly only one relatively small factor that may influence a song's popularity. Nonetheless, our results show that the number of reproductive messages contributes significantly to sales/popularity, and this implies that listeners are in fact processing at some level (wittingly or not) the evolutionarily relevant portions of the lyrics contained in many popular songs.
Marketing by record companies undoubtedly plays a role in public exposure to songs, and by extension may influence chart position and sales. But whether marketing per se can account for the preponderance of reproductive messages in the songs we sampled is unlikely. For example, the presence as well as the incidence of reproductive themes among the opera aria and art songs in our historical sample is comparable in most instances to contemporary songs (see Figure 4). Moreover, if the position of songs on the charts is a simple reflection of promotion and marketing then it ought to be independent of the lyrics, and our data clearly show that is not the case. In our view, the ubiquitous presence of these reproductive themes is a reflection of evolved properties of the human psyche, where people are voting with their pocket books and listener preferences are driving the lyrics.
Our findings concerning embedded reproductive messages in song lyrics, combined with those of Davis and McLeod (2003) on front-page news stories and Cox and Fisher (2009) on the titles of romance novels, strongly suggest that many of the topics of central importance to evolutionary psychology are a pervasive, almost ubiquitous feature of day-to-day human existence.
Footnotes
Acknowledgements
We thank Melanie Shank, Jeremy Atkinson, and Marlene Wong for assistance with this project, and Andrew Gallup for help with the statistical analyses.
Appendix 1
2009 Billboard Top Ten songs
| Song Title | Artist | Recording Label |
|---|---|---|
|
|
||
| Country | ||
| Already Gone | Sugarland | Mercury Nashville |
| Alright | Darius Rucker | Capitol Nashville |
| American Ride | Toby Keith | Show Dog Nashville |
| Big Green Tractor | Jason Aldean | Broken Bow |
| Bonfire | Craig Morgan | BNA |
| Boots On | Randy Houser | Universal South |
| Chicken Fried | Zac Brown Band | Live Nation/Home Grown/Atlantic |
| Consider Me Gone | Reba McEntire | Starstruck Records/Valory Music |
| Country Boy | Jason Aldean | Broken Bow |
| Cowboy Cassanova | Carrie Underwood | Arista Nashville |
| Cowgirls Don't Cry | Brooks and Dunn w/ | Arista Nashville |
| Reba McEntire | ||
| Do I | Luke Bryan | Capitol Nashville |
| Don't | Billy Currington | Mercury Nashville |
| Don't Think I Can't | Jake Owen | RCA Nashville |
| Love You | ||
| Down The Road | Kenny Chesney | Blue Chair/BNA |
| Feel That Fire | Dierks Bentley | Capitol |
| Fifteen | Taylor Swift | Big Machine |
| Getting You Home | Chris Young | RCA Nashville |
| God Love Her | Toby Keith | Show Dog Nashville |
| Here | Rascal Flatts | Lyric Street |
| Here Comes Goodbye | Rascal Flatts | Lyric Street |
| I Run To You | Lady Antebellum | Capitol Nashville/Parlophone |
| I Told You So | Carrie Underwood w/ | 19/Arista Nashville/Arista |
| Randy Travis | ||
| I Wanna Make You | Dierks Bentley | Capitol Nashville |
| Close Your Eyes | ||
| I'll Just Hold On | Blake Shelton | Warner Bros. |
| I'm Alive | Kenny Chesney | Blue Chair/BNA |
| In Color | Jamey Johnson | Mercury Nashville |
| It Happens | Sugarland | Mercury Nashville |
| It Won't Be Like This | Darius Rucker | Capitol Nashville |
| For Long | ||
| It's America | Rodney Atkins | Curb |
| Kiss A Girl | Keith Urban | Capitol Nashville |
| Living For The Night | George Strait | MCA Nashville |
| Lost You Anyway | Toby Keith | Show Dog Nashville |
| Love Your Love The | Eric Church | Capitol Records Nashville/EMI |
| Most | Nashville | |
| Need You Now | Lady Antebellum | Capitol Nashville/Parlophone |
| Nothin' To Die For | Tim McGraw | Curb |
| One In Every Crowd | Montgomery Gentry | Columbia Nashville |
| Only You Can Love | Keith Urban | Capitol Nashville |
| Me This Way | ||
| Out Last Night | Kenny Chesney | Blue Chair/BNA |
| People Are Crazy | Billy Currington | Mercury Nashville |
| Red Light | David Nail | MCA Nashville |
| River Of Love | George Strait | MCA Nashville |
| Roll With Me | Montgomery Gentry | Columbia Nashville |
| She Wouldn't Be | Blake Shelton | Warner Bros. |
| Gone | ||
| She's Country | Jason Aldean | Capitol Nashville/Broken Bow |
| Sideways | Dierks Bentley | Dangling Rope/Capitol Records Nashville |
| Sissy's Song | Alan Jackson | Arista Nashville/EMI Nashville |
| Small Town U.S.A. | Justin Moore | Valory Music Group |
| Start A Band | Brad Paisley | Arista Nashville |
| Summer Nights | Rascal Flatts | Lyric Street |
| Sweet Thing | Keith Urban | Capitol Nashville |
| Then | Brad Paisley | Arista Nashville |
| Toes | Zac Brown Band | Live Nation/Home Grown/Atlantic |
| Welcome To The | Brad Paisley | Arista Nashville |
| Future | ||
| Whatever It Is | Zac Brown Band | Live Nation/Home Grown/Atlantic |
| White Horse | Taylor Swift | Big Machine |
| You Belong With Me | Taylor Swift | Big Machine |
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Already Gone | Kelly Clarkson | RCA |
| Bad Romance | Lady Gaga | Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree/ |
| Interscrope | ||
| Battlefield | Jordin Sparks | 19/Jive |
| Best I Ever Had | Drake | Young Money/Cash Money/ |
| Universal Motown | ||
| Blame It | Jamie Foxx w/ T-Pain | J |
| Boom Boom Pow | Black Eyed Peas | Interscope |
| Circus | Britney Spears | Jive |
| Dead And Gone | T.I. w/ Justin | Grand Hustle/Atlantic |
| Timberlake | ||
| Don't Trust Me | 3OH!3 | Photo Finish Records |
| Down | Jay Sean w/Lil Wayne | Jeyded/2Point9/Cash |
| Money/Universal Republic | ||
| Fire Burning | Sean Kingston | Epic/Geffen/Koch |
| Fireflies | Owl City | Universal Republic |
| Gives You Hell | The All American | DGC/Interscope |
| Rejects | ||
| Good Girls Go Bad | Cobra Starship w/ | Fueled by |
| Leighton Meester | Ramen/Decaydance/Columbia UK | |
| Halo | Beyonce | Columbia |
| Heartless | Kanye West | Roc-a-fella/Def Jam |
| Hot N Cold | Katy Perry | Capitol |
| How Do You Sleep | Jesse McCartney | Hollywood |
| I Do Not Hook Up | Kelly Clarkson | RCA |
| I Gotta Feeling | Black Eyed Peas | Interscope |
| I Know You Want Me | Pitbull | The Orchard/Ultra/J/Polo Grounds/ |
| Mr. 305 | ||
| If I Were A Boy | Beyonce | Capitol |
| If You Seek Amy | Britney Spears | Jive |
| I'm Yours | Jason Mraz | Atlantic |
| Just Dance | Lady Gaga | Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree/ |
| Interscrope | ||
| Kiss Me Through the | Soulja Boy | Stacks on Deck Entertainment/ |
| Phone | Collipark Music/HHH/Interscope | |
| Knock You Down | Keri Hilson w/Kanye | Mosely/Zone 4 |
| West and Ne-Yo | ||
| Let It Rock | Kevin Rudolf | Cash Money/Universal Republic |
| Live Your Life | T.I. w/ Rihanna | Grand Hustle/Atlantic |
| Love Drunk | Boys Like Girls | Sony Music |
| Love Game | Lady Gaga | Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree/ |
| Interscrope | ||
| Love Lockdown | Kanye West | Roc-a-fella/Def Jam |
| Love Story | Taylor Swift | Big Machine |
| Meet Me Halfway | Black Eyed Peas | Interscope |
| My Life Would Suck | Kelly Clarkson | RCA |
| Without You | ||
| New Divide | Linkin Park | Reprise |
| No Surprise | Daughtry | RCA |
| Paparazzi | Lady Gaga | Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree/ |
| Interscrope | ||
| Party In the U.S.A. | Miley Cyrus | Hollywood/ Fascination/Avex |
| Please Don't Leave Me | Pink | LaFace/Jive |
| Poker Face | Lady Gaga | Streamline/KonLive/Cherrytree/ |
| Interscrope | ||
| Replay | Iyaz | T.I.M.E./Beluga Heights/Reprise |
| Records | ||
| Right Round | Flo Rida | Poe Boy/Atlantic |
| Run This Town | Jay-Z, Rihanna and | Roc Nation/Atlantic |
| Kanye West | ||
| Second Chance | Shinedown | Atlantic |
| Sexy Chick | David Guetta w/ Akon | Virgin/EMI |
| Single Ladies | Beyonce | Capitol |
| So What | Pink | LaFace/Jive |
| Sober | Pink | LaFace/Jive |
| Sweet Dreams | Beyonce | Capitol |
| The Climb | Miley Cyrus | Hollywood/ Fascination/Avex |
| Three (3) | Britney Spears | Jive |
| Use Somebody | Kings Of Leon | Sony/RCA/Columbia |
| Waking Up in Vegas | Katy Perry | Columbia/Capitol |
| Whatcha Say | Jason Derulo | Warner Bros./Beluga |
| Heights/Konvict Music | ||
| Whatever You Like | T.I. | Grand Hustle/Atlantic |
| Womanizer | Britney Spears | Jive |
| You Belong With Me | Taylor Swift | Big Machine |
| You Found Me | The Fray | Epic |
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Ain't I | Yung L.A. | Grand Hustle/Atlantic |
| Baby By Me | 50 Cent | Aftermath/Interscope/Shady |
| Bad Habits | Maxwell | Columbia |
| Beep | Bobby Valentino | EMI/Blu Kolla Dreams |
| Best I Ever Had | Drake | Young Money/Cash |
| Money/Universal Motown | ||
| Birthday Sex | Jeremih | Def Jam |
| Blame It | Jamie Foxx w/ T-Pain | J |
| Boyfriend #2 | Pleasure P | Atlantic |
| Break Up | Mario | J |
| Chopped N Skrewed | T-Pain | Nappy Boy/Konvict/Jive |
| Day N Nite | Kid Cudi | GOOD Music/Fool's Gold |
| Records/Universal Motown | ||
| Dead And Gone | T.I. w/ Justin | Grand Hustle/Atlantic |
| Timberlake | ||
| Diva | Beyonce | Columbia |
| Ego | Beyonce | Columbia |
| Empire State of Mind | Jay Z+Alicia Keys | Roc Nation/Atlantic |
| Every Girl | Young Money | Young Money/Cash |
| Money/Universal Motown | ||
| Forever | Drake | Zone 4/Interscope/Shady/Aftermath |
| God In Me | Mary Mary | Columbia |
| Green Light | John Legend w/ Andre | Sony Music |
| 3000 | ||
| Heartless | Kanye West | Roc-a-fella/Def Jam |
| I Invented Sex | Trey Songz | Atlantic Songbook |
| I Need a Girl | Trey Songz | Atlantic Songbook |
| Ice Cream Paint Job | Dorrough | Ngenius Ent/E1 Music |
| If This Isn't Love | Jennifer Hudson | Arista |
| If U Leave | Musiq Soulchild w/ | Def Soul/Atlantic |
| Mary J. Blige | ||
| Just Like Me | Jamie Foxx | J |
| Kiss Me Through the | Soulja Boy | Stacks on Deck Entertainment/ |
| Phone | Collipark Music/HHH/Interscope | |
| Knock You Down | Keri Hilson w/Kanye | Mosely/Zone 4 |
| West and Ne-Yo | ||
| Last Chance | Ginuwine | Notifi Records/Warner Bros. |
| Lions, Tigers and | Jazmine Sullivan | J Records/Arista/Puppy Love |
| Bears | ||
| Live Your Life | T.I. w/ Rihanna | Grand Hustle/Atlantic |
| Mad | Ne-Yo | Def Jam |
| Magnificent | Rick Ross | Maybach/Slip-N-Slide/Def Jam |
| Miss Independent | Ne-Yo | Def Jam |
| Money To Blow | Birdman w/ Lil' Wayne | Cash Money/Universal Motown |
| and Drake | ||
| Mrs. Officer | Lil' Wayne | Cash Money/Universal Motown |
| Number One | R. Kelly | Jive |
| Papers | Usher | LaFace |
| Playa Cardz Right | Keyshia Cole w/ 2Pac | Geffen Records |
| Pop Champagne | Jim Jones | Columbia/Universal Motown/ |
| Koch/Ether Boy | ||
| Pretty Wings | Maxwell | Columbia |
| Put It On Ya | Plies | Big Gate/Slip-N-Slide/Atlantic |
| Regret | LeToya w/ Ludacris | Capitol Music Group |
| Rockin That Thang | The Dream | Radio Killa/Def Jam |
| Run This Town | Jay-Z, Rihanna and | Roc Nation/Atlantic |
| Kanye West | ||
| She Got Her Own | Ne-Yo | Def Jam |
| Single Ladies | Beyonce | Capitol |
| Sobeautiful | Musiq Soulchild | Def Soul/Atlantic |
| Successful | Drake | Young Money/Cash Money/ |
| Universal Motown | ||
| Throw It In The Bag | Fabolous w/ The | Desert Storm/Def Jam |
| Dream | ||
| Trading Places | Usher | LaFace |
| Trust | Keyshia Cole | AandM/Geffen |
| Turn My Swag On | Soulja Boy | Stacks on Deck |
| Entertainment/Collipark | ||
| Music/HHH/Interscope | ||
| Turnin Me On | Ker Hilson w/ Lil' | Zone 4/ Mosely Music/Interscope |
| Wayne | ||
| Under | Pleasure P | Atlantic/Bluestar Records/Swagga |
| Entertainment | ||
| Wasted | Gucci Mane | Asylum/Warner Bros. |
| Wetter | Twista | Get Money Gang |
| Entertainment/Capitol/EMI | ||
| You Complete Me | Keyshia Cole | A&M/Geffen |
Appendix 2
2009 charting and non-charting controls
| Charting Song Title | Non-Charting Song Title | Artist |
|---|---|---|
|
|
||
| Country | ||
| Already Gone | Steve Earle | Sugarland |
| Alright | Learn to Live | Darius Rucker |
| American Ride | Ballad of Balad | Toby Keith |
| Big Green Tractor | The Best of Me | Jason Aldean |
| Bonfire | Ordinary Angels | Craig Morgan |
| Boots On | Strange | Randy Houser |
| Cowboy Cassanova | Quitter | Carrie Underwood |
| Cowgirls Don't Cry | American Dreamer | Brooks and Dunn w/ |
| Reba McEntire | ||
| Do I | Chuggin' Along | Luke Bryan |
| Don't Think I Can't Love | Green Bananas | Jake Owen |
| You | ||
| Down The Road | Ten With a Two | Kenny Chesney |
| Fifteen | The Best Day | Taylor Swift |
| God Love Her | Time That It Would Take | Toby Keith |
| Here | Help Me Remember | Rascal Flatts |
| I Wanna Make You Close | Last Call | Dierks Bentley |
| Your Eyes | ||
| I'll Just Hold On | Never Lovin' You | Blake Shelton |
| It Won't Be Like This For | I Hope They Get to Me in | Darius Rucker |
| Long | Time | |
| Kiss A Girl | Why's It Feel So Long | Keith Urban |
| Love Your Love The Most | Longer Gone | Eric Church |
| Need You Now | If I Knew Then | Lady Antebellum |
| Nothin' To Die For | Shotgun Rider | Tim McGraw |
| Only You Can Love Me This | My Heart is Open | Keith Urban |
| Way | ||
| Red Light | Missouri | David Nail |
| River Of Love | West Texas Town | George Strait |
| Roll With Me | God Knows Who I Am | Montgomery Gentry |
| She's Country | This I Gotta See | Jason Aldean |
| Start A Band | Departure | Brad Paisley |
| Then | No | Brad Paisley |
| Toes | Different Kind of Fine | Zac Brown Band |
| Welcome To The Future | Back to the Future | Brad Paisley |
| You Belong With Me | Tell Me Why | Taylor Swift |
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Bad Romance | So Happy I Could Die | Lady Gaga |
| Battlefield | Walking on Frankie Snow | Jordin Sparks |
| Best I Ever Had | Houstatlantavegas | Drake |
| Blame It | Overdose | Jamie Foxx w/ T-Pain |
| Boom Boom Pow | Now Generation | Black Eyed Peas |
| Circus | Mannequin | Britney Spears |
| Dead And Gone | I'm Illy | T.I. w/ Justin Timberlake |
| Down | If I Ain't Got You | Jay Sean w/Lil Wayne |
| Fire Burning | Welcome to Tomorrow | Sean Kingston |
| Gives You Hell | Mona Lisa | The All American |
| Rejects | ||
| Good Girls Go Bad | The World Will Never Do | Cobra Starship w/ |
| Leighton Meester | ||
| How Do You Sleep | Not Your Enemy | Jesse McCartney |
| I Do Not Hook Up | Cry | Kelly Clarkson |
| I Know You Want Me | Girls | Pitbull |
| I'm Yours | Live High | Jason Mraz |
| Just Dance | Again Again | Lady Gaga |
| Knock You Down | How Does it Feel | Keri Hilson w/Kanye |
| West and Ne-Yo | ||
| Let It Rock | Coffee and Donuts | Kevin Rudolf |
| Love Lockdown | Robocop | Kanye West |
| My Life Would Suck Without | Long Shot | Kelly Clarkson |
| You | ||
| No Surprise | Open Up Your Eyes | Daughtry |
| Please Don't Leave Me | One Foot Wrong | Pink |
| Replay | Look At Me Now | Iyaz |
| Right Round | Touch Me | Flo Rida |
| Run This Town | A Star is Born | Jay-Z, Rihanna and |
| Kanye West | ||
| Sweet Dreams | Satellites | Beyonce |
| Use Somebody | Be Somebody | Kings Of Leon |
| Waking Up in Vegas | Mannequin | Katy Perry |
| Whatever You Like | On Top of the World | T.I. |
| You Belong With Me | Tell Me Why | Taylor Swift |
| You Found Me | Never Say Never | The Fray |
|
|
||
|
|
||
|
|
||
| Baby By Me | Death to My Enemies | 50 Cent |
| Bad Habits | Playing Possum | Maxwell |
| Beep | Make You the Only One | Bobby Valentino |
| Best I Ever Had | Houstatlantavegas | Drake |
| Birthday Sex | My Sunshine | Jeremih |
| Blame It | Covergirl | Jamie Foxx w/ T-Pain |
| Boyfriend #2 | Birthday Suit | Pleasure P |
| Chopped N Skrewed | Change | T-Pain |
| Day N Nite | CuDi Zone | Kid Cudi |
| Dead And Gone | I'm Illy | T.I. w/ Justin Timberlake |
| Empire State of Mind | Hate | Jay Z+Alicia Keys |
| Every Girl | Play in My Band | Young Money |
| Green Light | Cross the Line | John Legend w/ Andre |
| 3000 | ||
| I Invented Sex | Holla if You Need Me | Trey Songz |
| Ice Cream Paint Job | Feel This Way | Dorrough |
| If This Isn't Love | My Heart | Jennifer Hudson |
| Just Like Me | Love Brings Change | Jamie Foxx |
| Knock You Down | Get Your Money Up | Keri Hilson w/Kanye |
| West and Ne-Yo | ||
| Last Chance | Orchestra | Ginuwine |
| Lions, Tigers and Bears | Switch | Jazmine Sullivan |
| Money To Blow | Money Machine | Birdman w/ Lil' Wayne |
| and Drake | ||
| Papers | Makin' Love into the Night | Usher |
| Pop Champagne | How to be a Boss | Jim Jones |
| Pretty Wings | Cold | Maxwell |
| Rockin That Thang | Right Side of my Brain | The Dream |
| Run This Town | A Star is Born | Jay-Z, Rihanna and |
| Kanye West | ||
| Successful | Ignorant Shit | Drake |
| Throw It In The Bag | No | Fabolous w/ The Dream |
| Trading Places | Something Special | Usher |
| Turnin Me On | Change Me | Ker Hilson w/ Lil' |
| Wayne | ||
| Wasted | Volume | Gucci Mane |
| Wetter | Block Music | Twista |
Appendix 3
Art Song sample
| Song | Composer | Year Premiered/Published |
|---|---|---|
| Abendempfindung | Mozart | 1787 |
| Allerseelen | Strauss | 1885 |
| An die Musik | Schubert | 1817 |
| Apres un reve | Faure | 1877 |
| Asturiana | Falla | 1914 |
| Ave Maria | Caccini | 1615 |
| Beau Soir | Debussy | 1891 |
| Bist du bei mir | Bach | 1722 |
| Blow, blow thou winter wind | Arne | 1740 |
| Bois épais | Lully | 1684 |
| Caldi sospiri | Rotani | 1609 |
| Caro mio ben | Giordani | 1780 |
| Chanson triste | DuParc | 1868 |
| Come Again Sweet Love | Dowland | 1597 |
| Das Veilchen | Mozart | 1785 |
| Del cabello más sutil | Obradors | 1914 |
| Der Doppelgänger | Schubert | 1828 |
| Der Ehre Gottes aus der Natur | Beethoven | 1800 |
| Der Nussbaum | Schumann | 1840 |
| Der Tod und das Mädchen | Schubert | 1817 |
| Die Beiden Grenadiere | Schumann | 1840 |
| Die Mainacht | Brahms | 1866 |
| Du bist die ruh | Schubert | 1823 |
| Du bist wie eine Blume | Schumann | 1840 |
| Gretchen am spinnrade | Schubert | 1814 |
| Heidenröslein | Schubert | 1815 |
| I attempt from Love's sickness | Purcell | 1695 |
| Ich grolle nicht | Schumann | 1840 |
| I'll sail upon the Dog-Star | Purcell | 1688 |
| Immer Leiser Wird Mein | Brahms | 1886 |
| Schlummer | ||
| It was a lover and his lass | Quilter | 1940 |
| Lied der Braut | Schumann | 1840 |
| Lied der Suleika | Schumann | 1840 |
| Mandoline | Debussy | 1883 |
| Mattinata | Leoncavallo | 1904 |
| My Mother bids me Bind my hair | Haydn | 1794 |
| Nebbie | Respighi | 1921 |
| Now sleeps the Crimson Petal | Quilter | 1897 |
| Nymphs and Shepherds | Purcell | 1692 |
| O del mio amato ben | Donaudy | 1918 |
| O del mio dolce ardor | Gluck | 1870 |
| Oh Mistress Mine | Quilter | 1905 |
| Ouvre ton Coeur | Bizet | 1870 |
| Ridente La Calma | Mozart | 1775 |
| Se Tu M'ami, Se Sospiri | Pergolesi | 1725 |
| Silent Noon | Vaughan Williams | 1903 |
| Sonntag | Brahms | 1878 |
| Vergebliches Ständchen | Brahms | 1882 |
| Von ewiger Liebe | Brahms | 1864 |
| What if I never speed | Dowland | 1600 |
| When daisies pied | Arne | 1740 |
| Where the bee sucks | Arne | 1740 |
| Widmung | Schumann | 1840 |
| Wie Melodien zieht es mir | Brahms | 1886 |
| Wiegenlied | Brahms | 1868 |
| Zueignung | Strauss | 1885 |
Appendix 4
Opera Aria sample
| Song Title | Composer | Year Premiered/Published |
|---|---|---|
| Abendsegen | Humperdinck | 1893 |
| Ach ich fuhls | Mozart | 1791 |
| Adieu, notre petite table | Massenet | 1884 |
| Ah! Je veux vivre | Gounod | 1867 |
| Amore o grillo | Puccini | 1904 |
| Bella Sicome un angelo | Donizetti | 1843 |
| Cara Sposa | Handel | 1711 |
| Caro Nome | Verdi | 1851 |
| Casta Diva | Bellini | 1831 |
| Celeste Aida | Verdi | 1871 |
| Che faro senza Euridice | Gluck | 1762 |
| Das süsse Lied verhallt | Wagner | 1850 |
| Das war sehr gut | Strauss | 1933 |
| Der Holle Rache | Mozart | 1791 |
| Di Provenza il mar, il suol | Verdi | 1853 |
| Dido's Lament | Purcell | 1698 |
| Dome epais le jasmin | Delibes | 1883 |
| Donna non vidi mai | Puccini | 1893 |
| Dove sei, amato bene | Handel | 1719 |
| Fair Robin I love | Mechem | 1980 |
| Gia Nella notte densa | Verdi | 1887 |
| Habanera | Bizet | 1875 |
| Hav' mir's gelobt | Strauss | 1911 |
| Heil dir, Sonne | Wagner | 1876 |
| La ci darem la mano | Mozart | 1787 |
| Laurie's Song | Copland | 1954 |
| Les oiseaux | Offenbach | 1881 |
| Liebestod | Wagner | 1865 |
| Mon coeur s'ouvre a ta voix | Saint-Saens | 1877 |
| O Mio Babbino | Puccini | 1918 |
| O! du mein holder Abendstern | Wagner | 1845 |
| Oh war' ich schon mit dir vereint | Beethoven | 1805 |
| Pace, pace mio dio | Verdi | 1862 |
| Piangero | Handel | 1724 |
| Pur ti miro, pur ti godo | Monteverdi | 1642 |
| Quando men Vo | Puccini | 1896 |
| Salut! Demeure chaste et pure | Gounod | 1859 |
| Saper vorreste | Verdi | 1859 |
| Signore, ascolta | Puccini | 1926 |
| Spargi d'amaro | Donizetti | 1835 |
| Stride la vampa! | Verdi | 1853 |
| Stridono lassu | Leoncavallo | 1892 |
| Una donna a quindici anni | Mozart | 1790 |
| Una furtiva lagrima | Donizetti | 1832 |
| Una voce poco fa | Rossini | 1816 |
| Vissi d'arte | Puccini | 1900 |
| Voce di donna o d'angelo | Ponchielli | 1876 |
| Voi lo sapete | Mascagni | 1890 |
| Voi, che sapete | Mozart | 1786 |
| Winterstürme wichen dem Wonnemond | Wagner | 1870 |