Knowledge Bank

While music preferences in society have always changed throughout the decades, we recognize that various external factors and trends—including the economic environment--affect the type of music we listen to. To this end, we seek to explore the relationship between economic measures and musical preferences in order to better understand how our external environment can affect the emotions that we choose to express and consume. This research analyzes the ways in how economic conditions (expansionary or contractionary periods) can be related to the tone of music that we listen to (such as joy, anger, and sadness). In this analysis, I found that in times of economic contractions, song lyrics were more likely to exhibit analytical and confidence tones, while in economic expansions’ lyrics tend to show more tones of sadness and anger. In understanding how something as external as economic cycles can influence something as internal as musical preferences, we can continue to seek out how our microenvironment affects our microenvironment. While this research can have practical application (such as providing insight to the music industry for forecasting musical preferences), I believe, more importantly, that this research can help society uncover and contemplate how their external environment influences and shapes their preferences, beliefs, and identity across generations.