Here comes the sun: music features of popular songs reflect prevailing weather conditions
We examine associations between prevailing weather conditions and music features in all available songs that reached the United Kingdom weekly top charts throughout a 67-year period (1953–2019), comprising 23 859 unique entries. We found that music features reflecting high intensity and positive emo...
| Main Authors: | , , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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The Royal Society
2023-05-01
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| Series: | Royal Society Open Science |
| Subjects: | |
| Online Access: | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.221443 |
| _version_ | 1797310793923952640 |
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| author | Manuel Anglada-Tort Harin Lee Amanda E. Krause Adrian C. North |
| author_facet | Manuel Anglada-Tort Harin Lee Amanda E. Krause Adrian C. North |
| author_sort | Manuel Anglada-Tort |
| collection | DOAJ |
| description | We examine associations between prevailing weather conditions and music features in all available songs that reached the United Kingdom weekly top charts throughout a 67-year period (1953–2019), comprising 23 859 unique entries. We found that music features reflecting high intensity and positive emotions were positively associated with daily temperatures and negatively associated with rainfall, whereas music features reflecting low intensity and negative emotions were not related to weather conditions. These results held true after controlling for the mediating effects of year (temporal patterns) and month (seasonal patterns). However, music–weather associations were more nuanced than previously assumed by linear models, becoming only meaningful in those months and seasons when changes in weather were the most notable. Importantly, the observed associations depended on the popularity of the music: while songs in the top 10 of the charts exhibited the strongest associations with weather, less popular songs showed no relationship. This suggests that a song's fit with prevailing weather may be a factor pushing a song into the top of the charts. Our work extends previous research on non-musical domains (e.g. finance, crime, mental health) by showing that large-scale population-level preferences for cultural phenomena (music) are also influenced by broad environmental factors that exist over long periods of time (weather) via mood-regulation mechanisms. We discuss these results in terms of the limited nature of correlational studies and cross-cultural generalizability. |
| first_indexed | 2024-03-08T01:49:09Z |
| format | Article |
| id | doaj.art-9497c0cc52e14b9a857078ea940507ca |
| institution | Directory Open Access Journal |
| issn | 2054-5703 |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-03-08T01:49:09Z |
| publishDate | 2023-05-01 |
| publisher | The Royal Society |
| record_format | Article |
| series | Royal Society Open Science |
| spelling | doaj.art-9497c0cc52e14b9a857078ea940507ca2024-02-14T11:19:15ZengThe Royal SocietyRoyal Society Open Science2054-57032023-05-0110510.1098/rsos.221443Here comes the sun: music features of popular songs reflect prevailing weather conditionsManuel Anglada-Tort0Harin Lee1Amanda E. Krause2Adrian C. North3Faculty of Music, University of Oxford, Oxford, UKComputational Auditory Perception Group, Max Planck Institute for Empirical Aesthetics, Frankfurt am Main, GermanyDepartment of Psychology, James Cook University, Townsville, AustraliaSchool of Population Health, Curtin University, Perth, AustraliaWe examine associations between prevailing weather conditions and music features in all available songs that reached the United Kingdom weekly top charts throughout a 67-year period (1953–2019), comprising 23 859 unique entries. We found that music features reflecting high intensity and positive emotions were positively associated with daily temperatures and negatively associated with rainfall, whereas music features reflecting low intensity and negative emotions were not related to weather conditions. These results held true after controlling for the mediating effects of year (temporal patterns) and month (seasonal patterns). However, music–weather associations were more nuanced than previously assumed by linear models, becoming only meaningful in those months and seasons when changes in weather were the most notable. Importantly, the observed associations depended on the popularity of the music: while songs in the top 10 of the charts exhibited the strongest associations with weather, less popular songs showed no relationship. This suggests that a song's fit with prevailing weather may be a factor pushing a song into the top of the charts. Our work extends previous research on non-musical domains (e.g. finance, crime, mental health) by showing that large-scale population-level preferences for cultural phenomena (music) are also influenced by broad environmental factors that exist over long periods of time (weather) via mood-regulation mechanisms. We discuss these results in terms of the limited nature of correlational studies and cross-cultural generalizability.https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.221443weatherseasonsmoodemotionmusic preferencesmedia consumption |
| spellingShingle | Manuel Anglada-Tort Harin Lee Amanda E. Krause Adrian C. North Here comes the sun: music features of popular songs reflect prevailing weather conditions Royal Society Open Science weather seasons mood emotion music preferences media consumption |
| title | Here comes the sun: music features of popular songs reflect prevailing weather conditions |
| title_full | Here comes the sun: music features of popular songs reflect prevailing weather conditions |
| title_fullStr | Here comes the sun: music features of popular songs reflect prevailing weather conditions |
| title_full_unstemmed | Here comes the sun: music features of popular songs reflect prevailing weather conditions |
| title_short | Here comes the sun: music features of popular songs reflect prevailing weather conditions |
| title_sort | here comes the sun music features of popular songs reflect prevailing weather conditions |
| topic | weather seasons mood emotion music preferences media consumption |
| url | https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rsos.221443 |
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