介绍： Popular music is getting sadder and angstier
The rise of blues music
DIE WITH a smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars was the anthem of 2025. The soppy ballad climbed charts in more than 30 countries and became the longest-running daily number-one song on Spotify, a streaming platform. Its appeal owes something...

介绍： Popular music is getting sadder and angstier
The rise of blues music
DIE WITH a smile” by Lady Gaga and Bruno Mars was the anthem of 2025. The soppy ballad climbed charts in more than 30 countries and became the longest-running daily number-one song on Spotify, a streaming platform. Its appeal owes something to its mood: pop music has grown gloomier. Sad sells.
In an analysis for The Economist, MusixMatch, an analytics company, gathered lyrics from the Billboard top 100 songs for each week of the past few decades. Using AI tools, the company assigned moods to each track. The share of hits with lyrics invoking “angst” increased by 13 percentage points in the past two decades. This puts it neck and neck with “heartbreak”, long a pop staple, which has been on the rise of late, too. “Despair” also began to increase sharply after 2020. Now around a quarter of songs in the top 100 have lyrics that hint at misery—think of moody hits by Sam Smith or Billie Eilish.
Analysing Billboard charts since 1973, authors of a recent analysis published in Scientific Reports also show that lyrical “stress” has risen steadily, while positivity has declined. Both data sets measure Billboard hits, not every song released. It is possible there are lots of cheerful tunes not measured because angsty young people are instead streaming songs that match their moods. If pop sounds bluer than it used to, the issue may lie not with the artists but with listless listeners. 
anthem /ˈænθəm/ n. 赞歌；主题歌
The crowd sang the national anthem before the game.
比赛前，人群唱起了国歌。
ballad /ˈbæləd/ n. 民谣；情歌；慢板叙事歌
She performed a slow ballad at the concert.
她在音乐会上演唱了一首舒缓的情歌。
appeal /əˈpiːl/ n. 吸引力；魅力
The appeal of this video game lies in its simple controls.
这款电子游戏的吸引力在于操作简单。
invoke /ɪnˈvəʊk/ v. 唤起；引发；援引
The advertisement tried to invoke a sense of nostalgia.
这则广告试图唤起怀旧之情。
staple /ˈsteɪpl/ n. 主食；主要部分；主打产品
Rice is a staple of the Asian diet.
大米是亚洲饮食中的主食。
positivity /ˌpɒzəˈtɪvəti/ n. 积极性；乐观
Surround yourself with people who radiate positivity.
和那些散发正能量的人在一起。