My mom always asks me how I am able to remember all the lyrics to songs. Now I can give her an answer – it’s because I passed third grade.
Andrew Powell-Morse conducted a study that analyzed over 225 songs in genres ranging from country, pop, rock and hip-hop. The lyrics of number one singles on the 2014 Billboard charts were, on average, at second to third-grade reading levels. Songs that topped the charts last year included Pharrell William’s inescapable “Happy,” John Legend’s soulful “All Of Me,” and Iggy Azalea’s summertime smash “Fancy.”
I’m not going to ask a grammar school student to write the next hit song, but I guess the lyrics “Because I’m happy, Clap along if you know what happiness is to you. Because I’m happy, Clap along if you feel like that’s what you wanna do” don’t exactly cause me to run and grab a dictionary.
The study found that over the past 10 years, the reading levels of popular songs decreased dramatically. In 2005, the reading level of these hit tracks was a full grade higher than it is now.
This graph looks at songs’ grade level over the past decade…
And this one breaks it down by genre.
