IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/osf/osfxxx/nmruj.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

People Prefer Simpler Content When There Are More Choices: A Time Series Analysis of Lyrical Complexity in Six Decades of American Popular Music

Author

Listed:
  • Varnum, Michael E. W. PhD

    (Arizona State University)

  • Krems, Jaimie
  • Morris, Colin
  • Grossmann, Igor

    (University of Waterloo)

Abstract

Song lyrics are rich in meaning. In recent years, the lyrical content of popular songs has been used as an index of shifting norms, affect, and values at the cultural level. One remarkable, recently-uncovered trend is that successful pop songs have increasingly simple lyrics. Why? We test the idea that increasing lyrical simplicity is linked to a widening array of novel song choices. To test this Cultural Compression Hypothesis (CCH), we examined six decades of popular music (N = 14,661 songs). The number of novel song choices predicted greater lyrical simplicity of successful songs. This relationship was robust, holding when controlling for critical ecological and demographic factors and also when using a variety of approaches to account for the potentially confounding influence of temporal autocorrelation. The present data provide the first time series evidence that real-world cultural transmission may depend on the amount of novel choices in the information landscape.

Suggested Citation

  • Varnum, Michael E. W. PhD & Krems, Jaimie & Morris, Colin & Grossmann, Igor, 2019. "People Prefer Simpler Content When There Are More Choices: A Time Series Analysis of Lyrical Complexity in Six Decades of American Popular Music," OSF Preprints nmruj, Center for Open Science.
    • Handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:nmruj
    DOI: 10.31219/osf.io/nmruj
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://osf.io/download/5defe6ea9bd131000c12fb09/
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.31219/osf.io/nmruj?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Hobday, Mike, 1998. "Product complexity, innovation and industrial organisation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 26(6), pages 689-710, February.
    2. Rycroft, Robert W., 2006. "Time and technological innovation: Implications for public policy," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 28(3), pages 281-301.
    3. Iyengar, Sheena S. & Kamenica, Emir, 2010. "Choice proliferation, simplicity seeking, and asset allocation," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 94(7-8), pages 530-539, August.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Varnum, Michael E. W. PhD & Krems, Jaimie & Morris, Colin & Grossmann, Igor, 2019. "People Prefer Simpler Content When There Are More Choices: A Time Series Analysis of Lyrical Complexity in Six Decades of American Popular Music," OSF Preprints nmruj_v1, Center for Open Science.
    2. Umar, Tarik, 2022. "Complexity aversion when SeekingAlpha," Journal of Accounting and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 73(2).
    3. Geurts, Amber & Geerdink, Tara & Sprenkeling, Marit, 2022. "Accelerated innovation in crises: The role of collaboration in the development of alternative ventilators during the COVID-19 pandemic," Technology in Society, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    4. T. Gries & R. Grundmann & I. Palnau & M. Redlin, 2017. "Innovations, growth and participation in advanced economies - a review of major concepts and findings," International Economics and Economic Policy, Springer, vol. 14(2), pages 293-351, April.
    5. Geyer, Anton & Davies, Andrew, 2000. "Managing project-system interfaces: case studies of railway projects in restructured UK and German markets," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(7-8), pages 991-1013, August.
    6. Sokolovskyi, Dmytro, 2018. "Analysis of dependencies between state tax behavior and macroeconomic indicators," MPRA Paper 86417, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    7. Ralph Stevens & Jennifer Alonso Garcia & Hazel Bateman & Arthur van Soest & Johan Bonekamp, 2022. "Saving preferences after retirement," ULB Institutional Repository 2013/342267, ULB -- Universite Libre de Bruxelles.
    8. Sandro Ambuehl & B. Douglas Bernheim & Annamaria Lusardi, 2022. "Evaluating Deliberative Competence: A Simple Method with an Application to Financial Choice," American Economic Review, American Economic Association, vol. 112(11), pages 3584-3626, November.
    9. Helmut Herwartz & Christoph Strumann, 2024. "Too many cooks could spoil the broth: choice overload and the provision of ambulatory health care," International Journal of Health Economics and Management, Springer, vol. 24(3), pages 357-373, September.
    10. João Caraça & João Lobo Ferreira & Sandro Mendonça, 2007. "A chain-interactive innovation model for the learning economy: Prelude for a proposal," Working Papers Department of Economics 2007/12, ISEG - Lisbon School of Economics and Management, Department of Economics, Universidade de Lisboa.
    11. Nightingale, Paul, 1998. "A cognitive model of innovation," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 27(7), pages 689-709, November.
    12. Binz, Christian & Gosens, Jorrit & Hansen, Teis & Hansen, Ulrich Elmer, 2017. "Toward Technology-Sensitive Catching-Up Policies: Insights from Renewable Energy in China," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 96(C), pages 418-437.
    13. Biggiero, Lucio & Angelini, Pier Paolo, 2015. "Hunting scale-free properties in R&D collaboration networks: Self-organization, power-law and policy issues in the European aerospace research area," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 94(C), pages 21-43.
    14. Chioveanu, Ioana & Zhou, Jidong, 2009. "Price Competition and Consumer Confusion," MPRA Paper 17340, University Library of Munich, Germany.
    15. Michael Grubb, 2015. "Failing to Choose the Best Price: Theory, Evidence, and Policy," Review of Industrial Organization, Springer;The Industrial Organization Society, vol. 47(3), pages 303-340, November.
    16. Li, Shenxue & Clark, Timothy & Sillince, John, 2018. "Constructing a strategy on the creation of core competencies for African companies," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 131(C), pages 204-213.
    17. Saon Ray & Smita Miglani, 2018. "Upgrading in the Indian automobile sector: The role of lead firms," Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER) Working Paper 360, Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations (ICRIER), New Delhi, India.
    18. Prencipe, Andrea, 2000. "Breadth and depth of technological capabilities in CoPS: the case of the aircraft engine control system," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 29(7-8), pages 895-911, August.
    19. Prencipe, Andrea & Tell, Fredrik, 2001. "Inter-project learning: processes and outcomes of knowledge codification in project-based firms," Research Policy, Elsevier, vol. 30(9), pages 1373-1394, December.
    20. Choi, James J. & Haisley, Emily & Kurkoski, Jennifer & Massey, Cade, 2017. "Small cues change savings choices," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 142(C), pages 378-395.

    More about this item

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:osf:osfxxx:nmruj. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: OSF (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://osf.io/preprints/ .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.