Towards Selfishness and Materiality - A diachronic study on the evolution of pop music lyrics in America (from 1970 to 2020) Lorenzo Sosso ...

Towards Selfishness and ´Materiality´
 A diachronic study on the evolution of pop music lyrics in
               America (from 1970 to 2020)

                                Lorenzo Sosso

English Studies – Linguistics
BA Thesis
15 credits
Spring 2021
Supervisor: Philip Clover

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Table of Contents

Abstract…..3

1 Introduction…..4

1.1 Aim & research questions…..4

2 Background…..5

2.1 Situational background…..5

2.2 Theoretical background…..6

2.3 Specific Background and previous studies…..10

3 Design of the study and methodology…..11

4 Results and discussion…..12

  4.1 Categorization of the references…..12

  4.1.1 The theme of narcissism…..17

  4.1.2 The theme of lust…..20

  4.1.3 The theme of love…..22

4.2 Study limitations…..25

5 Concluding remarks…...26

References…..27

Appendices…..31

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Abstract

This paper investigates the change/evolution over time of the most relevant themes
contained in the most popular song lyrics, namely love, lust, and narcissism, in America.
The study will conduct an analysis of two corpora of songs from two different periods
(early 1970s and late 2010s), as they appeared in the American chart Billboard, in order
to provide valid results both in terms of quantitative distribution and qualitative
delineation of such themes. Furthermore, those results will be processed with the purpose
of defining a co-relation between modern American society and modern American pop
music. In light of this research, it is argued that this co-relation is represented by the two
elements of selfishness and materiality.

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1 Introduction

Music is one of the oldest arts ever existed: it has been accompanying humankind for
40000 years (Killin, 2018) and now permeates almost every aspect of our lives. Despite
the impossibility of stating with certainty how music influences society, it is possible,
however, to see how music is a mirror of society (Rabinowitch, 2020). In particular, pop
music (among all kinds) appears to be the most relevant when it comes to interpreting
social changes. This is due to its intrinsic quality, namely being popular music (used in
its literal, broader sense), or, in rough words, “music as a product conceived for the
largest audience possible” (“Popular music”, 2021). For this reason, this paper purposely
chose pop music as the starting point to conduct an analysis on the possible inter-
relations between music and society. Of course, the primal component of music is sound,
and words are an accessory element. However, even if so-called sound studies (focusing
solely on non-verbal components of music) are emerging in connection with sociology
studies (Thibeault, 2017), this study will only analyze the verbal (linguistic) element in
pop songs, trying to find results that may represent a valid starting point to connect music
and sociology. More specifically, the analysis will be of a diachronic type, meaning that
it will put in comparison two corpora of song lyrics from two different historical periods
(from 1970 to 1974, and from 2016 to 2020), in order to acknowledge any relevant
changes occurred in almost fifty years’ time.

1.1 Aim & research questions

The aim of this paper is to provide a reliable picture of how lyrics have changed across
time, both quantitatively and, above all, qualitatively. Once those results have been
found, the last concern of this research will be to find a connection between the evolution
of the contents in lyrics and the changes in society. The research questions that will drive
this analysis are, thus, the following:
RQ 1: How the content of music lyrics in American pop music has changed across time?
RQ 2: Is there a reflection of the results achieved on the actual American society?

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In light of the results achieved, furthermore, my specific claim is that pop music has
changed in a way that reflects an increased focus on selfishness and ´materiality´ in
society.

2 Background

2.1 Situational background

This study analyzes two corpora of pop lyrics from two different periods, within the
same socio-geographical context, the U.S.A. It is thus necessary to briefly frame the
content of this paper in a way that reflects the particular societal details involved. “In
modern societies, cultural change seems ceaseless. The flux of fashion is especially
obvious for popular music” (Mauch et.al, 2015, p.1). A concise definition of pop music
(the definition slightly differs from the one of “popular music”) can be found in the
Oxford English Dictionary: “music appealing to the popular taste, including rock and pop
and also soul, reggae, rap, and dance music” (“Pop music”, 2021). Its main quality of
reflecting popular taste is the reason why I chose to investigate specifically in this field of
music, being more representative of the society in which it is produced and consumed,
unlike other kinds of ´elite´ music, less indicative of general trends. A dissertation on
such a broad topic may lead to complications, unnecessary for the purpose of this study;
however, some considerations about the musical macro-change, which has occurred
between the two periods in analysis, must be made: “the early twentieth centuries
witnessed the expansion of music publishing, recording, and production in the United
States; the rapid exportation of music into the global economy; and the increased
availability of music of all kinds in any number of media” (Graham, 2013, p.12). This
expansion is at the heart of pop music prominence, causing an increasing interest in terms
of production and consumption, until it turned, towards the end of the 20 th century, into a
multi-faceted reality, where more and more cultural sub-layers overlapped (Starr and
Waterman, 2003). In particular, modern pop music in the U.S. has been characterized by
the appearance, roughly between 1984-1995, of rap/hip-hop music culture, that

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drastically changed American pop music both in terms of form and content of the lyrics
(Richardson & Scott, 2002). This will be evident when analyzing the results obtained, as
this specific genre was not broadly present during the 1970s.

2.2 Theoretical background

This study aims at carrying a multi-layered research. Starting from the semantic-based
analysis of song lyrics, it will try to put it in relation with the evolution of American
society. This kind of approach is part of a specific field of research that goes under the
name of applied ethnomusicology (Dirksen, 2021). Although not new, this discipline is
relatively young, dating back to 1950, when Dutch musicologist Jaap Kunst first coined
the word, combining two terms referring to pre-existing fields: musicology, generally
referring to all sciences related to music (Harap, 1937), and ethnography, simply “the
study of the beliefs, social interactions, and behaviors of small societies” (Naidoo, 2012,
p.1) . Out of modern debates around this discipline, it emerges that being able to
univocally define ethnomusicology is almost a utopic effort. As Dirksen pointed out in
her dissertation, “this [issue] is due in part to recent interest in uniting, under a single
identifying label, many strands of professional activity that have traditionally fallen
outside the boundaries of mainstream ethnomusicological scholarship” (Dirksen, 2021,
p.2). In addition to that, “the data and methods used are derived from many disciplines
found in the arts, the humanities, the social sciences, and the physical sciences. […] It is
impossible to encompass them all within one definition. […] Ethnomusicology cannot be
adequately defined as an interdisciplinary activity. It is too diffuse, too amorphous” (List,
1979, p.1).
   This paper mainly draws from two kinds of disciplines operating together: semantics,
and some elements of sociology (that belongs to the broader field of ethnography).
Semantics will be the theoretical base which will make the collection of data coherent
and cohesive, while the sociological aspects will represent the frame on which the
application of the semantic results will be applied. Consequently, the research will
consist of two macro-sections: the categorization of the data according to specific
semantic fields, and their consequent discussion in relation to the sociological frame.

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Concerning the categorization of the songs, three main theoretical frames of semantic
nature will be used: the semantic fields of love, lust, and narcissism. As visible later in
this paper, more categories have been individuated, of whom the most quantitatively
relevant is the theme of jilting; however, due to lack of relevant research surrounding it
and its low productiveness in terms of useful results, it will not be actively included in
the study. Before introducing the theories used, it is useful to provide a brief definition of
semantics, as this paper will almost exclusively deal with meaning, rather than mere
words. The most concise and effective definition of semantics can be found in the Oxford
English Dictionary (OED): “the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning.
The two main areas are logical semantics, concerned with matters such as sense and
reference and presupposition and implication, and lexical semantics, concerned with the
analysis of word meanings and relations between them” (“Semantics”, 2021). In this
paper, a clear-cut distinction between the above-mentioned areas will not be made, as
both logical and lexical semantic concept will be used.
     The first theoretical frame comes from the acknowledgments of researcher Anna
Wierzbicka, who, in the conclusive part of her dissertation about the semantic delineation
of the concept of love, determined three main factors concurring in individuating and
defining the concept of love:
       This shared meaning [love] includes three components, based, respectively, on thinking, feelings,
       and wanting. The ‘thinking’ component requires a long-term relationship: if person X loves person
       Y, then X often thinks about Y. The ‘feeling’ component requires very good feelings towards the
       loved person (if person X loves person Y, then X feels something very good towards Y). The
       ‘wanting’ component includes two subcomponents: if person X loves person Y, then X wants to
       do many things because of their thoughts about Y and their feelings towards Y; and, more
       specifically, X wants to do good things for Y. (Wierzbicka, 2019. pp.250-251)
These three “components” (thinking, feeling, and wanting) imply two elements: first, the
existence of the two ´agents´ involved (X and Y), which I personally defined as
addresser and addressee of love (this definition will be useful later in the analysis);
second, a long temporal horizon (Lavrova, 2015) which can be rendered either through a
specific determination (e.g. the sentence “I´ve loved you for all my life”), or an
undefined one (e.g. simply “I love you”).
      Two preliminary, fundamental remarks have to be made on this matter: first,
Wierzbicka´s theoretical frame is not the only existing semantic delineation of love.

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Being a complex emotion, “a multifaceted phenomenon affecting many and varied areas
of human experience” (Soriano Salinas, 2013, p.1), love cannot be semantically defined
in a univocal, completely objective way. However, for the purpose of this study,
Wierzbicka´s delineation appeared to be the most suitable (as the three components
involved make the task of individuating such theme in lyrics much more consistent than
other theories); second, it is important to stress that love will always be intended, from
here on, as a concept, and never as the actual word (that, as it will be later explained, may
refer to the sphere of lust instead; e.g. in the expression “to make love”).
     The second theoretical frame is lust. The concept of lust embraces (according to
Lavrova) two main lexico-semantic variants: “1) enthusiasm and 2) strong carnal desire”
(2015). In this paper, only the second acceptation will be taken into account. However,
the delineation of this semantic field is not of easy interpretation, especially considering
that the concepts of lust and love might be closely intertwined and overlapped
(Berscheid, 2010, p.14). The elements belonging to the semantic field of lust, that I will
consider when categorizing lyrics accordingly, are: 1) references (overt or covert) to
sexual desire or activity 2) presence of specific linguistic markers (words) pointing at
concrete bodily components 3) short time horizon, signaled either specifically (e.g. the
sentence “I want your body now”) or generally (e.g. simply “I want your body”)
(Lavrova, 2015). It is evident how the first two elements are the most blatant ones;
however, for a more accurate classification, all three aspects will be encompassed, rather
than just defining lust as “sexual desire for another person or persons” (Madanikia &
Bartholomew, 2014, p.2).
      The third theoretical frame is narcissism, which, first and foremost, defines a
psychological spectrum (Krizan and Herlache, 2018), other than being also theorized as a
semantic field. “Grandiose narcissism is a personality trait marked by beliefs of personal
superiority […] Narcissists tend to go out of their way to impress others: They [...] brag
about themselves and showcase their talents and abilities in front of others. At the same
time, narcissists […] engage in self-promotion (i.e., attempts to increase their own status)
or other-derogation” (Grapsas et al., 2019, p.150). Moreover, a relevant contribution on
this concept comes from Holtzman et al., who conducted a study on the linguistic
markers of grandiose narcissism and its semantic delineation. Their results have been
summarized as follows:

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       “Grandiose narcissism manifests in a linguistic profile that appears certain, confident, and perhaps
       low in vulnerability […] A cocky, tough, and sure-minded language profile seems to integrate
       many of these findings. Moreover, narcissistic people present as sexually explicit and prone to
       using profanity. […] Conversely, they tend not to use words reflecting uncertainty, anxiety, and
       fear. Collectively, this set of linguistic manifestations points to an attention-getting personality that
       is (at least on the surface) confident and certain” (Holtzman et.al, 2019, p.13)
Furthermore, contrarily to what might appear obvious, they acknowledged how
“narcissism is unrelated to using first-person singular pronouns” (1), going against
previous studies on the field that solely focused on this connection (Carey et. al, 2015).
In light of all these notions, the concrete categorization of narcissistic references in the
data is operated according to the follow linguistic principles: 1) mere presence of words
with positive acceptation (mostly adjectives), in relation to the author of the song (“They
[...] brag about themselves”), and absolute absence of words revealing uncertainty,
including modal verbs expressing that, like can/could, may/might, etc…(“confident”,
“sure-minded” language), 2) presence of superlative adjectives, in relation to the author
of the song, 3) hyperbolic expressions and imagery, 4) comparison between the artist and
divinities (“belief of personal superiority”, “self-promotion”), and 5) presence of
expressions with negative connotation, in relation to subjects other than the artist (“other-
derogation). In total, these 5 principles contribute to delineate a cohesive framing of the
narcissistic semantic field.
    Another important part of the theoretical background (which will make possible the
application of the results, emerging out of the classification of the lyrics, on the societal
dimension) consists in the problematic connection between music and society. “The
relationships between music and culture remain contested areas ripe for future testing”
(Savage, 2018, p.15), thus, it is not possible, yet, to rely on an omni-comprehensive
theory that unequivocally proves the existence of a specific connection between music
and society: there are too many factors that may influence (and reflect) the evolution of a
society, other than music. It is safe to say, however, that “music is perhaps the most
sensitive indicator of the culture, and of all the arts is the most closely tied to the
subconscious attitudes and assumptions on which we build our lives within a society”
(Small & Walser, 1996, pp. 80), thus, it can be seen as a reliable mirror of the society
(Christenson et.al, 2019).

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   The last element of theory contained in this paper is the most abstract one. In fact, as
mentioned in the introduction, I argue that two concepts seem to represent a common
thread in modern pop music: selfishness, which is closely related to narcissism (Crocker
et al., 2017) and materiality. For the purpose of this research, I decided to draw entirely
from Fleischer´s dissertation on the ontological delineation of materiality, in its
acceptation of being “the quality or character of being material or composed of matter”
(“materiality”, 2021). He individuated three essential features defining matter, which
perfectly serve for the cohesiveness of my results: 1) matter is corporeal, 2) matter is
substance 3) matter is the objective reality existing disregarding the subjective dimension
of human beings (1962). The way materiality is concretely embedded in the reality of a
society is what Dant defines as “material interactions” (2008, p.136), namely the
interactions between human beings and the realm of ´things´, which, in Dant´s view,
acquired greater importance in the modern era, due to “the impact of changes in material
culture on the social life of people”, one of the consequences of the advent of capitalism
(2008, p.138).

2.3 Specific background and previous studies

The lyrics collected have been all drawn from Billboard USA, which is a
magazine/online platform, mostly famous for its music charts, collecting and ranking all
the most popular songs in the whole continent. The reason why Billboard has been
preferred over any other charts resides in the reliability of its calculation, when
determining the popularity of a song. The current criteria used by Billboard, in fact, are
based on a quite elaborate three-factor calculation, taking into account a ratio of: “1)
sales (35-45%), 2) airplay (30-40%) and 3) streaming (30-40%)” (Trust, 2014). More
than any other American chart, then, Billboard proved to be the most effective in
reflecting the ´tastes´ of American people on music. It has to be noticed that, back in the
1970s, the factors used to rank the songs were not the same, of course: the only factor
considered, in fact, was “sales” (Molanphy, 2013). However, for reasons of internal
coherence, the same chart has been used to draw the data from the two periods.

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   Several previous studies have been made on similar data, even though most of them
have been characterized by a corpus-driven approach. This implies a focus on the
quantitative aspects of such analyses, rather than qualitative. Also, given the high
abstractness of music, in general, I find those quantitative results reductive and not
suitable to explore such a complex topic. However, these findings have been used to set a
comparison between them and the ones found in the first part of my project, based on the
quantitative distribution of the lyrics´ themes in the two corpora selected. More
specifically, the most relevant studies mentioned in this paper are: Madanikia and
Bartholomew´s study in 2014, who focused on the themes of love and lust in 360
Billboard songs from 1971 to 2011, with the aim of acknowledging a different
distribution over time of songs containing themes of love and lust (once more, it is not
clear according to which criteria the theme of love and lust have been defined in their
study); furthermore, DeWall´ s project, in 2011, who conducted, for the first time, a
linguistic cross-study on lyrics from 1980–2007 (as appearing in Billboard hot-100 charts
for each year), starting from a psychological background, with the purpose of finding
linguistic markers for emotional traits in music. His results provided precious results on
the theme of narcissism in American most popular music. Concerning the increasing
references to materiality in music, the study I took as main reference is the one by
Christenson et.al, who, in a joint project conducted in 2019, analyzed the year-end U.S.
Billboard top-40 singles for every even-numbered year, from 1960 until 2010. Finally,
for the application of the results of my analysis to the societal context, I referred to the
2008 article published by DeRobertis on the connection between selfish human behavior
and materiality in America (in the development of his work, the term ´materiality´ has
been incorporated in the more specific concept of consumerism).

3 Design of the study and methodology

The data in analysis are the lyrics of the most ‘popular’ songs in the USA, from two
different historical periods, namely the early 1970s (1970-1971-1972-1973-1974) and the
late 2010s (2016-2017-2018-2019-2020). The lyrics have not been, of course, arbitrarily
chosen: the database selected is Billboard; in particular, I decided to refer to the

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Billboard year-end hot 100 songs, the annual charts that rank the songs that have been
determined as the ´most popular´ for each year. More specifically, I picked the first 15
songs for each of the 5 years considered in every period, resulting in two sub-corpora of
15x5=75 lyrics, for a total of 150 lyrics. Since this project starts out from a diachronic
confrontation of data, I believe that the two corpora, selected in such way, could be
representative of the two periods considered, providing a reliable account of the changes
occurred in American pop music in fifty years. The two corpora are not huge (an aspect
which may represent a limitation), but this choice has been made because, unlike similar
studies on the same topic, my project is not corpus-driven (even though, for some
quantitative deductions, I used the corpus calculation software Antconc). This means that
the categorization of the specific data, for the purpose of this paper, has been manually
conducted.
   The study will adhere to the following structure: firstly, a categorization of all songs
from each corpus, according to the semantic principles enunciated in the theoretical
background (concerning lust, love, and narcissism), will be made. This will provide a
general overview on the way in which the contents of the songs have changed over time,
quantitatively. Secondly, the three specific themes of lust, love, and narcissism will be
separately analyzed in-depth. Thirdly, the qualitative results obtained will be merged
together, in order to highlight a common thread, namely the concept of selfishness and
materiality present in modern American society, which pop music reflects.

4 Results and discussion

4.1 Categorization of the references

The first step in this analysis is to classify all songs from the two corpora, according to
the content of their lyrics, namely their themes. The classification will be made following
the semantic principles discussed in the theoretical background, in order to highlight
three major categories of references contained in songs: love, lust and narcissism. Three
necessary remarks have to be made, before proceeding further: first, the categorization
will allow to obtain references related to the themes aforementioned; thus, it is possible

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for one song to contain multiple references to different themes (it is not concern of this
paper to classify songs according to the prevalence of one theme or another); second, the
categorization will necessarily present some not clear-cut, ´grey areas´, where a reference
may fall within (especially regarding the distinction between lust and love, which is not
always easy to operate); third (and most important), since the paper deals with semantics,
the contextual analysis always needs to be kept into account (for instance, the expression
“I love you”, without any additional contextual element, might also express a parental
type of love, rather than a romantic one: the context contributes to solving this issue). For
reasons of transparency, it would be useful to report practical examples of how I
concretely applied the semantic criteria aforementioned to individuate the three themes in
all songs. Concerning the theme of love, I will report six exhaustive examples, three for
each period:
(1) “Every day and every night [...] I love you girl” (from the 1974 song “Show and
tell”). Here, the two agents are present (“I” and “you”), together with an explicit
expression of “love” (that, in this case, makes the categorization very easy, without need
for a further contextual analysis), and a specific long-time horizon (“every day and every
night”).
(2) “You make my dreams a real, I never met a girl could make me feel the way you do,
get ready, I’m bringing you a love that’s true” (from the 1970 song “Get ready”). This is
another easily definable love reference: the two agents are present, and the expression “I
never met a girl could make me feel the way you do” includes both the “feeling”
component and the “wanting” (“I´m bringing you a love that´s true”), together with the
(undefined) long time horizon, which is articulated in all its three dimensions: past,
present, and future (“I never met”, “the way you do”, “I´m bringing you”).
(3) “You got something for me: oh, I got a brand new pair of roller skates, you got a
brand new key […] I think that we should get together and try them out, you see” (from
the 1972 song “Brand new key”). This reference is indeed of more difficult
interpretation, since it is not unarguably attributable to either love of lust theme: the
expression “we should get together” can be interpreted as a sexual proposal , but also as a
romantic one; however, I categorized it as a love reference, because of the absence of
specific linguistic markers pointing at "concrete bodily components". In other words

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(also considering the general context of the whole song), the expression lacks any kind of
elements of sexual nature.
(4) “Be my girl, I'll be your man. I see my future in your eyes” (from the 2018 song
“Perfect”). In this line, both agents are present, but the explicit “love” verb is not present;
diversely, the expression “be my girl” strongly implies the component of wanting, and “I
see my future in your eyes” delineates both the component of “thinking/feeling” and the
long time horizon.
(5) “I'll wake you up with some breakfast in bed. I'll bring you coffee with a kiss on your
head and I'll take the kids to school” (from the 2017 song “Say you won´t let go”).
Similarly, besides the obvious presence of the two agents, the components of
“thinking/wanting/feeling”, together with a long time horizon, are present (the author
explicitly expresses the intention of having a family, in the future, with the beloved
person he´s thinking of, and for whom he has romantic feelings).
(6) “Got a pretty girl and she love me long time” (from the 2016 song “One dance”). This
line is another example of a reference falling within a ´grey area´. In fact, despite the
presence of the two agents, the verb “love” (that, as already mentioned, can also be used
with a sexual acceptation), and the long time horizon, the reference could also be
interpreted as lusty. However, in the same way as example (3) was handled, because of
the absence of specific sexual expressions/references to bodily parts of the female body,
the line has been categorized as a love reference. Concerning the theme of lust, three
examples can be reported here.
(7) “She […] is soft when she loves me” (from the 1974 song “One hell of a woman),
where, as previously mentioned, the verb “love” implies sexual activity, due to two
factors: the short time horizon, implied by the presence of the adverb “when”, and the
adjective “soft”, which might be consistent with the sexual act, but not with the feeling of
love.
(8) “Her body fit right in my hands” (from the 2019 song “Senorita”), in which the lusty
desire of the author is clearly signaled by the explicit reference to the female body.
(9) “I've been with her myself” (from the 1973 song “The nights the lights went out in
Georgia”). This is a case of a reference that falls within a ´grey area´: there is not an overt
sexual reference, nor a mentioning to any bodily part; however, in this case, the context
of the whole song helps to delineate the reference as belonging to the theme of lust. It is

Towards Selfishness and Materiality 15

in fact specified, later in the song, that the woman (whose the man confesses having
“been with” himself) is a “cheating wife”, strengthening the hypothesis of a sexual
implication. Lastly, I will also report three examples concerning the theme of narcissism,
which is, by far, the most easily recognizable one, with no reported cases of ´grey areas´.
(10)“I'm way too exclusive, I don't shop on Insta' boutiques” (from the 2020 song
“Savage”): here, it is obvious how the author praises her own wealth, putting herself on a
higher level than the one of those shopping “on [Instagram] boutiques”; the adjective
“exclusive”, plus, reinforced by the adverb “too”, denotes hyperbolic language in
reference to the author.
(11) “You are now listening to the hottest producer” (from the 2016 song “Panda”). In
this line, the author refers to himself as the “hottest producer”. The use of the superlative
clearly expresses the narcissistic dimension of this hyperbolic statement.
(12) “Hope I got some brothers that outlive me. They gon' tell the story, shit was
different with me: God's plan” (from 2018 song “God´s plan”). Here, the author clearly
states that his “story”, deemed “different” from the one of anybody else, is part of a “God
´s plan”. All these examples have been selected to illustrate how the researcher applied
the concepts explained in the theoretical background for the categorizations of all the
references. In addition to that, the full list of all references to love, lust, and narcissism
(individuated in each song) is reported in the appendices.
   Some considerations need to be made, before proceeding further. As visible in table 1
and table 2, that report the results of this classification for each corpus, 9 macro-
categories of references have been individuated; however, except for those of love, lust,
and narcissism, an asterisk has been placed to remind the readers that the selection of
those themes is not backed up by any theory, being the outcome of an ´arbitrary´
selection, and, for this reason, they will not be included in the analysis of this paper.
Also, both in terms of quantitative and qualitative relevance, they have been overlooked.

Table 1. (Songs from 1970 to 1974)

              THEMES                            QUANTITY
              LOVE                              33
              LUST                              20
              JILT/BREAKUP*                     18
              HOPE*                             3
              PROTEST*                          2

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             RELIGION*                       4
             HOME-COMING*                    3
             LOSS*                           2
             NARCISSISM                      0
             OTHER*                          9

Table 2. (Songs from 2016 to 2020)

             THEMES                          QUANTITY
             LOVE                            14
             LUST                            35
             JILT/BREAKUP*                   21
             HOPE*                           0
             PROTEST*                        0
             RELIGION*                       1
             HOME-COMING*                    0
             LOSS*                           0
             NARCISSISM                      30
             OTHER*                          8

The two tables offer an overall view, suitable for the first considerations in terms of the
quantitative distribution of the various themes. The main finding is that the theme of
love, by far the strongest presence in the 1970s corpus, has been more than halved
(14150). Another evident change, probably the most
blatant, concerns the theme of narcissism. In the 1970s corpus, such theme never appears,
while it appears almost as frequently as the theme of lust in the 2010s corpus. This
finding is consistent with previous related studies. De Wall et al., in their study, pointed
out how “changes in popular music lyrics mirror increases in narcissism […], with

Towards Selfishness and Materiality 17

musical lyrics becoming increasingly self-focused over time” (2011, p.3). Summing up
what acknowledged so far, it appears that, compared to fifty years ago, the most popular
music in America displays an increment in the references to lust, a contraction in the
references to love, and, above all, the appearance of a whole new theme, the one of
narcissism.
   This quantitative delineation of the diachronic change of music across time in terms of
themes is the solid base upon which the following part of the project will develop. In
particular, this section will try to acknowledge in which way the theme of love, lust, and
narcissism are differently portrayed in the two periods considered, shifting to a
qualitative kind of analysis.

4.1.1 The theme of narcissism

Firstly, the theme of narcissism will be investigated. Given the peculiarity of this theme,
which could not be found in the 1970s corpus, a diachronic comparison is impossible.
Nonetheless, three aspects, in particular, are relevant for the delineation of this theme.
The first one concerns the peculiarity of the musical genre which this theme appears to be
linked to, namely rap music and all the sub-genres deriving from it, like trap, r&b, and
hip-hop music (Silver et al., 2016). Of all the 75 songs contained in the corpus of modern
lyrics, 37 belong to the macro-genre of rap music. Of these 37 rap songs, 28 contain the
theme of narcissism, while only 9 do not display such theme. Furthermore, keeping in
mind the results reported in table 2, it is evident how, of all 30 lyrics containing the
theme of narcissism, the majority of them (28/30= 93%) are rap songs. This finding is
perfectly consistent with contemporary research studies pointing out that “many rap
songs contain lyrics promoting […] self-aggrandizement” (Craft and Elsner, 2017, p.1).
However, how is the theme of self-celebration, mostly found in rap music (but not only),
exactly expressed? To answer this question, it is convenient to break down all the
references related to it, as reported in the appendix (App. I). A common trend seems to
link all these references: the motifs at the heart of the authors´ narcissism are majorly
money/wealth and success (needless to say how the two things are necessarily inter-
related), and what directly derives from them: material possessions, social status, and the
attention from potential sexual partners. Analyzing all the 30 lyrics containing

Towards Selfishness and Materiality 18

narcissistic elements, it emerges that references to money/wealth are present in 25 of
these songs (25/30= 83%). It is interesting to notice how this type of discourse (money)
is basically non-existent in lyrics from the 1970s: processing both corpora through the
corpus calculation software Antconc (Anthony, 2014), in fact, this evidence is easily
acknowledgeable; in terms of frequency, the term “money” occurred 25 times in the
2010s, while there is not a single occurrence in the older corpus. Other terms like
“diamond/s”, also, follow the same trend: in modern songs, this term shows up 11 times,
while, in the older songs, it appears only once. This result finds validation in recent
studies. Christenson et al. proved that “references to wealth increased substantially [over
time], particularly in the 2000s” (2019, p.194). However, the connection between the
theme of narcissism and the discourse of money/wealth has not been broadly researched
on yet. It has to be noticed that only in 5 cases, visible in the list, the reason of the
narcissistic attitude cannot be attributed to money (or success) and its derivations. In
“XO Tour life”, for instance, the author talks about a sexual intercourse with a woman
who is already engaged to someone else, stating that “(she) gon' leave” her partner, but
not him, who self-proclaims as “Casanova” (a famous Italian author, mostly known for
his innumerous amorous conquests and a hectic sexual life). In this rare case, money does
not represent a reason for the author to brag about. Even more general is the self-praising
reference contained in “Unforgettable”, in which, out of frustration for a jilt, the author
claims that “nobody can equal” him, without specifying the reason why. Similarly, in
“Havana”, the author allegorically places himself as the individual upon which “history is
being made”, but, given the absence of further references to money or success, it is not
possible to link that claim to any of the two factors. The other two cases, “I like it”, and
“Say so”, besides lacking direct connection with money and success, are comments by
the authors on their alleged extraordinary pleasing physical aspect. More generally, in
modern songs containing narcissistic references, the amount of terms referring to
prestige, money, and wealth is incredibly high, going from expensive food and drinks
(like “scampi”, “champagne”) to “Black card” (referring to the most prestigious credit
card issued by American Express) and luxury products. Concerning luxury products,
another peculiar feature needs to be pointed out: in songs containing narcissistic
references, specific names of famous brands are broadly present. In table 3, all terms
referring to specific brands are reported.

Towards Selfishness and Materiality 19

Table 3. (Full list of brand references in songs displaying the theme of narcissism)

 YEAR        TERMS
 2016        Hennessy, Black/White X6, Bando, Phantom ship, Hammers, Versace, Bugatti,
             Rover
 2017        Cadillac (2), Parmesan, Mercedes, Polo socks, alcohol, Grey Poupon, Evian, TED,
             Bentley, Ben-Ben Franklins, Rolls, Chanel, Gucci belt, Essence, Ford Explorer,
             Coupe, Range (Rover), Maybach, Bacardi, Jacuzi, Cuban, Inglewood shoes
 2018        Dechino, Benzo(2), Rollie, Chevy, Rodeo, Saint Laurent Jeans, Vans, Balenciaga,
             Ferrari, Coupe, Lamborghini, Champagne, Henny(2)
 2019        Porsche, Gucci, Wrangler, LaCroix, 720s, 750, Lambo, Penthouse, Louis belt, Remy
             (Martin), 305, FBO, Forbes, Ferrari
 2020        Cadillac, double C’s, Rollie, Patek(2), Lamborghini, Maybach Suv, Bentley, PJ,
             Penthouse, Birkin, B.B Simon belt, Lamborghini

In the 1970s corpus, the only reference to a specific brand is the word “Chevy” (short for
“Chevrolet”, a famous car brand), occurring only twice.
    The last emerging result on this theme is its particular connection with a specific
expression, frequently recurring in the 2010s corpus (while non-existent in the older
corpus), namely “bad bitch”. “Bitch” is a vulgar term that, in pop culture as much as in
everyday life, both men and women may use with two different acceptations: both as an
epithet against women (and homosexual men), as well as a mean of expressing
dominance over a person or object (Kleinman et al., 2009). It is a word that does not
appear in the 1970s corpus, while it largely occurs in modern corpus (54 times, according
to Antconc): this should not result surprising, as swear words, and, in general, vulgarity
and obscenities are a typical feature of modern lyrics. As Amdan and Shaari point out in
their study on the analysis of the top 20 billboard songs from 2009 to 2015, in fact,
“lyrics writing has changed according to the demand from the consumers or listeners.
The usage of profane words in song lyrics are no exception in popular music” (2017, 2).
In particular, it has to be also specified that the presence of swear words has been majorly
detected in rap songs, compared to other genres (Wolfe, 1993). As previously reported,
rap is the genre where the theme of narcissism is present the most; thus, it is safe to say
that, in general, swear words tend to be more frequent in narcissist songs, consistently
with Holtzman´s findings. The expression “bad bitch”, however, falls outside the mere
discourse of obscenity/vulgarity. If we look at their concordances, in fact, in 3 cases the

Towards Selfishness and Materiality 20

expression “bad bitch” is a ´status´ which the authors gladly associated themselves with.
In table 4, those concordances are reported in their context of occurrence.

Table 4. (Concordances of the expression “bad bitch” used by female authors, contained
in songs displaying the theme of narcissism)

 SONG                       CONTEXT
 “Needed me” (2016)         ´You was just another nigga on the hit list
                            Tryna fix your inner issues with a bad bitch´
 “Truth hurts” (2017)       ´You coulda had a bad bitch, non-committal
                             Help you with your career, just a little´
 “I like it” (2018)         ´ Tell the driver, close the curtains
                             Bad bitch make you nervous´

Two considerations can be made: the first one is that these references are made in third
person. Third-person referencing is called illeism, which “is often associated with
narcissism” (Mishra et al., 2013, pp. 627). The second important one is that the authors
of these three songs are all women. This latter point is surprising, since a term like
“bitch” (historically associated with misogyny) is now used by women themselves in a
positive acceptation, in association with an adjective, “bad”, which carries (for its own
definition) negative connotation. The other two concordances of the expression “bad
bitch” in the 2010s corpus are also contained in rap songs, but, in these cases, they have
been used by male authors in their original, derogatory acceptation (as visible in table 5).

Table 5. (Concordances of the expression “bad bitch” used by male authors, contained in
songs displaying narcissistic references)

 SONG                                              CONTEXT
 “Bad and Boujee” (2017)                           ´My bitch is bad and boujee´
 “What´s poppin´?” (2020)                          ´Put a bad bitch in the friend zone´

4.1.2 The theme of lust

The next theme to be investigated will be lust. As previously acknowledged, songs
containing lust references have significantly increased over time (in this study, they
augmented from 20 to 35=43%). However, lust has not solely changed in terms of
quantity: the way it is expressed nowadays appears radically different. Once more, the
classification of the songs containing the theme of lust has been made according to the

Towards Selfishness and Materiality 21

principles mentioned in the theoretical background. In the appendix, I reported all lust
references from the 1970s corpus (App .II). In the same way, I reported all lust references
from the 2010s corpus (App. III). Out of a comparative analysis between the two tables, I
argue that two evident results emerge: firstly, lust is more overt and explicit in modern
era, while, in the 1970s, it tended to be more implied and subtle; secondly, lust in songs
from the 2010s brings to light an increasing objectification of the female body. The
implicitness of sexual references in old lyrics, compared to the explicitness of recent
songs, is visible in the different register used in the two corpora. In the 1970s, the sexual
desire tended to be expressed through ´clean´ words, like “satisfy”, “please”, “make” ,
“be with” and “use”; in particular, the most interesting (and recurring) expression to refer
to the sexual act/desire is “to love” and its lexical derivations (like “lover”): this is a
tendency that can be rarely seen in the modern songs, where the same verb is used
specifically in reference to the theme of love, and not lust. The use of terms adhering to
the sphere of love, when expressing lust instead, may indicate a deeper conception,
according to which, in older times, love and sex were inevitably intertwined, unlike in
modern era, where individuals clearly distinguish the two things. Diversely, modern
songs display, in most of the cases, explicit expressions referring to sexuality: “fuck”,
“grind”, “bite”, “pull hair”, “topping´”, “ride”, “sucking”; those expressions are not
present at all in the 1970s corpus (made exception for “bite” and “ride”, but in other
acceptations). Only rarely, more covert expressions are used (as in the song “Dancing
with a stranger”, where the sexual desire is rendered through the allegoric words “light
my fire”, an expression more typical of older lyrics). The second aspect, concerning the
objectification of the female body, is equally obvious. In the older corpus, expressions
referring to specific parts of the female body are scarce: “body”, “lips”, and “it” (most
likely referring to the gluteus). In the recent corpus, however, references to the female
body are abundant and, in most cases, more obscene: “pussy”, “ass” (resulting to be the
most recurring word in this kind of references, with a total frequency of 15 in the entire
2010s corpus, according to Antconc´s calculation), “bumper”, “boobies”, “hips”. A
further consideration needs to be made on the phenomenon of the objectification of the
female body: surprisingly, among all songs listed, it can be noticed that objectification is
present even in two songs written by female authors, specifically “Say so” and “Savage”,
where the authors refer to their own corporeality in the same way male artists (from the

Towards Selfishness and Materiality 22

same list) would do: “boy, grab my ass”, and “this pussy is fat”. This new tendency is
probably much more eloquent than it may just seem, as stressed by Frisby & Aubrey,
who argue that “sexual objectification of women’s bodies teaches women to internalize
an outsiders’ perspective on the self, such that they come to see themselves as objects to
be evaluated by others, a tendency called self-objectification” (2012, p.5). In other words,
it appears that the growing objectification of the female body, primarily operated by men,
has become accepted in the society to such an extent that it has become normalized and
accepted by women themselves.

4.1.3 The theme of love

Last theme to be analyzed is the theme of love, by far the most complex to categorize.
App. IV and App. V report the results for both corpora. In order to analyze more in-depth
this theme, it is useful to further categorize love references according to what I personally
define the role hierarchies of the two agents involved in the semantic field of love. More
specifically, I individuated 3 possible dynamics: 1) addresser above the addressee, 2)
addressee above the addresser, 3) addresser and addressee on the same level. In other
words, this aims at being a semantic categorization around the selfishness/unselfishness
of the love representation. The most difficult part of this operation, is that, linguistically
speaking, the analysis of, for instance, personal pronouns as “I”, “you”, and “we” as
markers for this concept is not enough by itself (although useful for a preliminary
distinction): to obtain a better picture, it is convenient to consider the whole context for
each song and, more specifically, the vector of the feeling of love, namely the direction
of it: either from the addresser to the addressee, the vice versa, or a bilateral movement.
To establish the direction of the feeling, thus, not only the pronouns, but also the verbs
used to express that feeling need to be considered. Three examples of songs from the list
have been reported, to make this process clearer: in “Let´s stay together” (1972) we find
the reference “I'm so in love with you.” / “Loving you forever is what I need”, involving
the pronouns “I” (the addresser), the pronoun “you” (the addressee), and the two main
verbs “love” and “need”; in this case, it is clear how the reference carries “selfish”
connotation, as the discourse revolves entirely around the addresser, around “his love”
and “his need to love”. Diversely, in “Bridge over troubled water” (1970), for instance,

Towards Selfishness and Materiality 23

we can individuate the opposite vector: “When tears are in your eyes, I'll dry them all.
I'm on your side […] I will comfort you, I'll take your part” (it has to be noticed that, as
explained before, this line could also refer to a parental kind love. However, the context
of the song excludes this hypothesis). Although the pronoun “I” would suggest a
“selfish” discourse, it is clear how it is actually the opposite: the actions of “to dry tears”,
“to comfort”, and to “take someone´s part” delineate a hierarchy in which the addressee´s
sake is placed above the addresser, resulting in an “unselfish” love. Conversely, in “The
bones” (2020), the reference “We built this right, so nothing's ever gonna move it”
denotes a more balanced depictions of the two agents, resulting in what I defined
“bilateral vector”. All cases where the target (addressee) is hierarchically placed below
the agent (addresser) will be considered “selfish love”. The vice versa will be considered
“unselfish love”, and any other case (where addressee and addresser are on the same
level) will be defined as “balanced love”. In table 6 and table 7, the role hierarchies are
reported, for each corpus

Table 6 (Role hierarchies for the 1970s corpus)

 HIERARCHY                       SONGS                                                   QUANTITY
 Addresser > Addressee           “Touch me in the morning”, “ABC”, “I feel the           15
 (Selfish love)                  earth move”, “Knock three times”, “ Tired of being
                                 alone”, “Let´s stay together”, “My love”, “Let´s get
                                 it on”, “Tie a yellow ribbon round the Ole Oak
                                 Tree”, “Touch me in the morning”, “Love´s
                                 theme”, “Come and get your love”, “You make me
                                 feel brand new”, “Show and tell”
 Addresser > Addressee           “Bridge over troubled water”, “Long to be”, “Ain´t      12
 (Unselfish love)                no mountain high enough”, “I´ll be there”, “Get
                                 ready”, “Maggie May”, “One bad apple”, “Me and
                                 Bobby McGee”, “The first time that I ever saw
                                 your face”, “Daddy don´t you walk so fast”,
                                 “Brandy you´re a fine girl” , “Delta Dawn”
 Addresser = Addressee           “Just my imagination”, “Brand new key”, “Nice to        6
 (Balanced love)                 be with you”, “Me and mrs. Jones”, “Seasons in the
                                 sun”, “Midnight at the Oasis”

Table 7 (Role hierarchies for the 2010s corpus)

 HIERARCHY                      SONGS                                                   QUANTITY
 Addresser > Addressee          “One dance”, “Despacito”, “Meant to be”,                10

Towards Selfishness and Materiality 24

 (Selfish love)                “Havana”, “Boo´d up”, “Sunflower”, “Talk”,
                               “Blinding lights”, “Adore you”, “God´s plan”
 Addresser < Addressee         “Say you won´t let go”                                1
 (Unselfish love)
 Addresser = Addressee         “Perfect”, “Sucker”, “The bones”                      3
 (Balanced love)

The results are clear: proportionally, in modern lyrics (unlike old songs) the theme of
love appears to be more “selfish” than it was in the past.
      The in-depth analysis of the three major thematic references to love, lust and
narcissism (both quantitatively and qualitatively) showed different results. As I stated in
the introductory part of this paper, I argue that two common threads appear to bind these
results together, in the modern lyrics: selfishness and materiality. Summarizing this
section, in fact, the following evidences have been acknowledged. Firstly, narcissistic
references display, other than “self-aggrandizement” elements (narcissistic behavior and
“illeism”), a relevant amount of elements belonging to the sphere of materiality, namely
the strong presence of brand names referring to specific products and, more generally, to
money and material possessions/pleasures. Secondly, lust references show a great focus
on the materiality of the sexual sphere (as mentioned in the theoretical background, one
major feature of materiality is its being “bodily”), eventually leading to an objectification
of the female body, linkable to a self-fulfillment of pleasure and to a shift from a
´platonic´ conception of lust to a more physical (material) one. Thirdly, the references to
the theme of love have highlighted a substantial shift (proportionally) in what I defined
the role hierarchies of love, leading to a more selfish portrayal of love.
      If my argument may appear meaningless in terms of pragmatism (and highly
theoretical), it finds, nonetheless, a reliable projection on modern American society. It is
not by chance, in fact, that the concept of selfishness and materiality co-occurred
throughout this analysis. A concise explanation on this phenomenon of co-relation can be
drawn out of the study, conducted by DeRobertis, specifically on the alleged selfishness
connoting modern American society. Among other factors (not considered in this paper),
he individuated consumerism (according to the OED, “the belief that it is good for a
society or an individual person to buy and use a large quantity of goods and services”) as
an important cause of increased selfishness in the American society:

Towards Selfishness and Materiality 25

       Consumerism is another force to consider in the search for causes of selfishness in America. In the
       United States marketing machines are able to communicate to our youth that they need to have a
       certain kind of phone, a certain kind of jeans, a certain kind of body size, if they are to be
       considered cool, desirable, good looking, and so forth. Moreover, the implicit message in these
       advertisements is that being cool and desirable is of prime importance. […] Hence, the self
       becomes superficial, that of a greedy purchaser who might shine a little more brightly in
       appearance and prestige than his or her fellows. Self-hood becomes nothing but personal image,
       and the person cannot relate deeply to others. When looking for sources of increased selfishness in
       American culture, I would venture to say that consumerism is already having an impact on
       education. (DeRobertis, 2008, p. 41)
Needless to point out how the concept of consumerism is necessarily associated to
materiality: “goods” are, in fact, concrete, “substantial” things, exclusively belonging to
“the objective reality existing disregarding the subjective dimension of human beings”.
According to DeRobertis´ argument, then, the two elements of selfishness and (implied)
materiality are linked in a way that the latter represents the direct cause of the first. The
increased selfishness flooding American society (Lasley, 1987, p. 674) appears not to be
an isolated problem, lacking practical and visible consequences. Waldman, in his
publication, in fact, warns against this trend: “What are the foreseeable and possible
consequences [of selfishness]? One consequence will be a continuation of what we see
already, an unacceptable and unsustainable degree of inequality” (2007, 111).

4.2 Study limitations

I believe there are three main limitations to my study. The first one, as already
mentioned, concerns the size of the two corpora in analysis, which, compared to the ones
contained in similar studies on the same topic, is definitely smaller. The second
limitation concerns the unusual approach of this study, which tried to be as omni-
comprehensive as possible. Given the impossibility of developing in-depth every aspect
of the project, some implications may need a strengthening in their theoretical approach:
the risk of aiming at a bigger picture is always to disregard details. The third and last
limitation concerns the impossibility of obtaining absolute objectivity in the
categorization of the lyrics, according to the semantic principles mentioned above. The
academic debate about the connection between semantics and music is still far from