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2020 •
This study examines the use of metaphors, metonymies and meta-phorical similes for love in a selective corpus of the most commercially successful US hit songs from 1946 to 2016 according to Billboard year-end charts. The analysis is performed within the framework of Conceptual Metaphor Theory and from quantitative and qualitative perspectives. Our results indicate that the theme of romantic love is prevalent in US mainstream pop music over the course of seven decades but shows evolutionary features. Metaphors of love evolve from conventional to novel with a notable increase in both heartbreak and erotic metaphors. Remarkably, the study finds that the two predominant conceptualizations of love in pop songs-which in a significant number of cases overlap-are the following: one experiential, originating in the physical proximity of the lovers, and one cultural, reflecting possession by one lover and showing a non-egalitarian type of love.
We explored themes related to sexual desire (lust) and romantic desire (love) in the lyrics of popular music over the past 40 years. We examined whether there have been changes in the prevalence of lust and love themes and changes in how these themes inter-relate in music lyrics over time. The study sample consisted of the top 40 songs of Billboard Year End Hot 100 single songs for every 5 years from 1971 to 2011 (N = 360). There was a linear decrease over time in the proportion of songs with a love theme and in the proportion of songs with a combination of lust and love themes. In contrast, there was a significant increase in the proportion of songs with a theme focusing on lust in the absence of love. Themes of lust in the absence of love were especially prevalent in hip-hop/rap music, although music genre did not account for the changing themes over time. These shifts in themes found in popular music may both influence cultural norms and reflect a cultural shift toward acceptance of sexuality outside of love relationships.
2020 •
In “How to Disappear,” a song from her last album, Norman Fucking Rockwell!, Lana Del Rey leads us to expect a how-to manual, but she gives us a poem instead: “Now it’s been years since I left New York / I got a kid and two cats in the yard / The California sun and the movie stars I watch the skies getting light as I write / As I think about those years / As I whisper in your ear / I’m always gon’ to be right here / No one’s going anywhere.” Such an unabashed display of sentimentality is compounded by the photographic and/or painterly image on the album’s cover, in which Del Rey clings to a man, a handsome man, and she clings to the American flag and Americana, and she clings to kitsch and she clings to melodrama and the problematic histories that each of these normative and patriarchal phenomena might provide, even as they all sink together. Staying with the doomed ship (loving the doomed ship, even) is an act of radical generosity.
Lady Gaga and Popular Music: Performing Gender, Fashion, and Culture
Who's calling? Telephone songs, female vocal empowerment and signification2014 •
The cultural history of the telephone is one that has run in parallel with that of recorded technology in popular music. Both histories are invoked by the corpus of “telephone songs”, songs whose lyrics focus chiefly on the mediation of a romantic relationship by telecommunication technology. Lady Gaga’s “Telephone”, originally a solo project designed for Britney Spears but later a collaboration with Beyoncé, exploits the standard conventions of the telephone song genre. Common tropes are explored, but also sometimes subverted through playful manipulation of the expectations for women in relation to technology, sexuality, race and gender.
in: The Third Rail, no. 7 (2016)
2010 •
Reading Song Lyrics offers the first systematic introduction to lyrics as a vibrant genre of (performed) literature. It takes lyrics seriously as a complex form of verbal art that has been unjustly neglected in literary, music, and, to a lesser degree, cultural studies, partly as it cuts squarely across institutional boundaries. The first part of this book accordingly introduces a thoroughly transdisciplinary interpretive framework. It outlines theoretical approaches to issues such as performance and performativity, generic convention and cultural capital, sound and songfulness, mediality and musical multimedia, and step by step applies them to the example of a single song. The second part then offers three extended case studies which showcase the larger cultural and historical viability of this model. Probing into the relationship between lyrics and the ambivalent performance of national culture in Britain, it offers exemplary readings of a highly subversive 1597 ayre by John Dowland, of an 1811 broadside ballad about Sara Baartman, ‘The Hottentot Venus’, and of a 2000 song by ‘jungle punk’ collective Asian Dub Foundation. Reading Song Lyrics demonstrates how and why song lyrics matter as a paradigmatic art form in the culture of modernity. full text: http://www.scribd.com/doc/75704917/Eckstein-Reading-Song-Lyrics
Psychology and Education: A Multidisciplinary Journal
Unlocking the Lyrics: Exploring the Themes of Mental Health in Selected Contemporary Song2024 •
Psychology and Education, Melvin G. Barete, Mark Louie L. Budias, BRYAN KIM DAJERO, Edgar R. Lumandas, Fremativo A. Vergara, ROVIC VILLALON
In light of current difficulties and the prevalence of mental health issues, music-a powerful medium for emotional expression and narrative-has historically addressed resilience, mental health, and personal challenges. This research explores the representation of mental health in selected contemporary music, recognizing the current societal emphasis on mental well-being. Despite numerous studies exploring the impact of music, there is a need for further research to analyze songs that specifically address personal struggles. Grounded in Narrative Psychology Theory, the study employs descriptive qualitative research to explore the nuances of mental health expressions in a purposively selected sample of 12 songs from diverse genres released within the last decade. Thematic analysis reveals prevalent themes related to personal struggles, mental health issues, and overcoming adversities, providing insights into how musicians navigate and articulate mental health experiences. Using pseudonyms ensures confidentiality in reporting findings in an interconnected narrative format. The study underscores the vital role of music as a medium for expressing and understanding mental health experiences, offering resonance to listeners, and contributing to the cultural discourse on mental well-being. Exploring diverse themes in contemporary songs enriches our understanding of the multifaceted dimensions of mental health in today's culture.
2006 •
arXiv: General Relativity and Quantum Cosmology
Deformed phase space for 3d loop gravity and hyperbolic discrete geometries2014 •
2017 •
Journal of International Development
Targeting in Practice: A Review of Existing Mechanisms for Beneficiary Selection in the Democratic Republic of Congo2020 •
2020 •
2009 •
2021 •
IEEE Transactions on Instrumentation and Measurement
Reconfigurable Unit for Precise RMS Measurements2009 •
Advanced Synthesis & Catalysis
A Recyclable Chiral 2‐(Triphenylmethyl)pyrrolidine Organocatalyst Anchored to [60]Fullerene2019 •
2019 International Conference on Document Analysis and Recognition (ICDAR)
Deep Generalized Max Pooling2019 •
Korean Journal of Chemical Engineering
Comparative Study on Convective and Microwave-Assisted Heating of Zeolite-Monoethanolamine Adsorbent Impregnation Process for CO 2 Adsorption2021 •
2012 •
Journal of Paleontology
Planktonic foraminiferal biostratigraphy of the 'Avedat Group (Eocene) in the northern Negev, Israel1980 •
The Journal of Clinical Endocrinology & Metabolism
MicroRNA 135 Regulates HOXA10 Expression in Endometriosis2011 •
2011 •