sam sadImage Source: endz2endz.com

The Royal Society Open Science by the University of California at Irvine has studied over 500,000 chart-topping songs released in the United Kingdom between 1985 to 2015 and grouped them according to the mood they evoke.

Their research found that a majority of popular songs had a significant shift in the “happiness” index over the past 30 years. According to co-author Natalia Komarova, “‘Happiness’ is going down, ‘brightness’ is going down, ‘sadness’ is going up, [but] at the same time [ironically], the songs are becoming more ‘danceable’ and more ‘party-like’.”

She added: “So it looks like, while the overall mood is becoming less happy, people seem to want to forget it all and dance.

GIBO TEODORO
GIBO TEODORO
GIBO TEODORO

Despite the increase of sad-sounding pop hits like Stay with Me by Sam Smith and Let Her Go by Passenger, the researchers found that sadder songs weren’t necessarily more popular, writing: “The public seems to prefer happier songs, even though more and more unhappy songs are being released each year.

The research also added that a “clear downward trend” in the success of rock music in the charts has been observed starting the early 2000’s. They also said that “successful songs are characterized by a larger percentage of female artists” over the last 30 years.