A Study of Popular Music Reveals Metal as the Most Lexically Diverse Genre

The leaders in vocabulary richness were the bands Black Sabbath and Pink Floyd.

Prodigy Education conducted a study to determine which music genres have the most lexical diversity and are therefore the most intellectually stimulating. Using artificial intelligence, they analyzed the lyrics of English-language songs from the top contemporary artists according to Billboard, as well as popular bands and musicians from past decades. Metal achieved the highest scores.

The study included 10 compositions from artists representing 15 different genres - rock, metal, pop, rap, country, and others. Experts also assessed the emotional tone of the lyrics and identified frequently repeated words.

The leaders in lexical diversity were the heavy metal band Black Sabbath and the rock band Pink Floyd, both of which had their lyrical richness rated at 52%. The top 20 also included the metal bands Slayer and Megadeth, rock musician Bruce Springsteen, pop artist Bob Dylan, and others.

The analysis revealed that metal is the most diverse genre in terms of vocabulary. It was followed by rock, country, R'n'B, pop, and electronic dance music. In terms of eras, tracks from the 70s showed the highest level (38%), while those from the 90s had the lowest (29%).

The five most common words in the songs of various genre artists were "love," "know," "time," "good," and "want." Analyzing the emotional tone of the tracks, experts found that lyrics in the metal genre are not only the most intellectually stimulating but also the most negative. In contrast, the most positive genres were pop and country.