There is this book called Psychology of Music that is about to be published and researchers, Terry Pettijohn and Donald Sacco conducted a study looking at Billboard Number One Songs from 1955 to 2003 and concluded that when socioeconomic conditions were more challenging, the songs that had more meaningful themes and content were most popular.
In the 1950s the economy roared and ”At the Hop” by Danny and the Juniors defined the upbeat and good feeling people felt. The Beatles 1968 hit “Hey Jude” defined social unrest such as the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy. Pettijohn writes that “‘ That’s What Friends Are For’ by Dionne Warwick, rated high on the dimension of comforting.” I personally am not a big fan of hip pop but the researchers conclude that 50 Cent “In Da Club” is my generations “At the Hop”.
Many of us look into music for comfort. Ever since the president’s decision of going into war many songs were written for this cause. Avenged Sevenfold’s “Critical Acclaim” is a call out for “pompous a**holes” to realize what they are doing is inhumane. The Dixie Chicks Grammy-winning “Ain’t ready to make nice” was a non-apology for the singers statement of being ashamed to be from Texas because of our president. Pink wrote a song called “Dear Mr. President”, which was banned from radio because it was “unnecessary publicity”, basically telling Mr. President what would he do if he lived the life we all live. Music is the media that kind of sums up the devastation we are living and this research just proves to be correct. The soundtrack to our lives is being presented to us everyday.
