Songs as reproductive messages
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“I enchain you” from ‘Pur ti
Miro, Pur ti Godo’ by
Monteverdi 1642
Sequestering/Mate Guarding
Keeping tabs on a mate,
watching, guarding, tracking
and/or isolating a mate. Also
includes references to privacy,
secrecy, and isolation for the
purpose of intercourse.
“Every breath you take/
Every move you make/
Every bond you break/ Every
step you take/I’ll be
watching you” from ‘Every
Breath You Take’ by the
Police 1983
“I’m gonna love you
forever/Forever and ever
Amen” from ‘Forever and
Ever Amen’ by Randy Travis
1987
Fidelity Assurance/
Abandonment Prevention
Questions or statements to
assess the fidelity of a mate.
Seeking information to ascertain
the commitment of a mate and
prevent
abandonment/cuckoldry.
“Do I have your love/ Am I
still enough/ Tell me don’t
I/or tell me do I, baby” from
‘Do I’ by Luke Bryan, 2009
“He knelt down and pulled
out a ring/And said ‘Marry
Me Juliette’” from ‘Love
Story’ by Taylor Swift 2009
Commitment and Fidelity
References to dedication,
sincerity and long term
commitments to a relationship
such as marriage, boyfriend,
girlfriend, wife, and husband or
committed other. Also includes
honest courtship signals such as
diamond rings which indicate a
committed relationship.
“There’s just something
about the woman that makes
my heart go haywire/And
she’s gonna be my wife”
from ‘Whatever It Is’ by the
Zac Brown Band 2009
Resources
Any reference to luxury items,
cars, money, or things that
denote resources.
“Money, Money, Money/
Talk about cash money-
dollar bills” from ‘For the
Love of Money’ by the
O’Jays 1973
Status
References to a person’s high
standing in society; VIP status,
being referred to as the “boss”
or a “rockstar” or other high
ranking person.
“An army of brave men, with
me as their leader/To return
crowned with laurels/To tell
you, for you have I fought!
For you have I conquered”
from ‘Celeste Aida’ by Verdi
1871
Songs as reproductive messages
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Mate Provisioning
Use of status or resources
specifically to protect/retain a
mate.
“My chick could have what
she want/… I know she ain’t
never had a man like that/to
buy her anything she desires”
from ‘Whatever You Like’ by
T.I. 2009
“Shopkeeper, give me
colour/To make my cheeks
red/So that I can make the
young men love [me] against
their will” from ‘Carmina
Burana’ by Carl Orff, 1935
Appearance Enhancement/
Sex Appeal
Grooming, physical appearance,
general attractiveness, fitness
displays and/or signals, or
references to any visual
/physical aspect of a potential
mate.
“Hot to trot/ Make any man’s
eyes pop…the chick was a
hit because her body was
boomin’” from ‘Let’s Talk
About Sex’ by Salt N Pepa
1991
Rejection
References to divorce, break-
ups, broken hearts, or discord
within the context of a pair-
bond relationship.
“She just looked me in the
eye/Said it's over” from ‘Red
Light’ by David Nail 2009
“I know somebody paying
child support for one of his
kids… And on her 18th
birthday he found out it
wasn't his” from ‘Gold
Digger’ by Kanye West 2005
Infidelity/Cheater Detection/
Mate Poaching
References to cheating, extra-
pair copulations, suspicions of
infidelity, stealing another
person’s mate, or paternal
uncertainty.
“I bet you're wondering how
I knew/About your plans to
make me blue/
With some other guy that
you knew before” from ‘I
Heard It Through the
Grapevine’ by Marvin Gaye
1969
Parenting
Includes any reference to
parenting, child-rearing, or
desire for children. Also
includes references to
grandparents and grandchildren.
“He’d been up all
night/Lying there in bed and
listening to his newborn baby
cry”
From ‘It Won’t Be Like This
For Long’ by Darius Rucker,
2009
Songs as reproductive messages
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Other
Any reproductive message not
captured above, such as the
menstrual cycle or incest.
“To his own sister he makes
his way, for Love entices the
Spring/…Enamored, the
brother courts his own sister”
from ‘Winterstürme Wichen
dem Wonnemond’ by
Wagner 1870
Results
To determine the reliability of applying these categories to specific song lyrics, two
observers independently classified the reproductive themes present in written versions of
the reproductively relevant phrases extracted from a representative sample of the Pop,
Country, and R&B songs. The number of phrases containing reproductive messages ranged
from 2 (“White Horse” and “Second Chance”) to 29 (“Baby By Me”) for a total of 219
reproductive phrases, with an average of 8.76 different reproductive references per song.
Most songs included a few phrases that were judged to contain several (2-3) reproductive
messages for a total of 269 reproductive references summed across all songs. There was
complete agreement between the two observers in classifying 237 of the 269 reproductive
phrases, resulting in a respectable inter-rater agreement of over 88%.
The initial sample contained 174 Top Ten songs taken from the 2009 Country, Pop,
and R&B charts compiled by Billboard magazine and published on their website. Printed
copies of the lyrics for each of these songs were downloaded for analysis. Figure 1
represents a distribution of the different reproductive categories found in the lyrics of these
songs. A one-way ANOVA applied to the number of reproductive categories was
significant, F(2, 173) = 17.21, p < .0001. Bonferroni's Multiple Comparison Test showed
that there were significantly more reproductive categories in R&B songs in comparison to
Country (p < .0001) and Pop (p < .001). However, the differences between Country and
Pop were not significant.
Songs as reproductive messages
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Figure 1. Distribution of reproductive themes for 2009 songs as a function of song type
The number of reproductive references/phrases for the songs in this sample ranged
from 0 to 48, with 160 of these songs, or 92% containing one or more reproductive
references. Reproductive phrases that were repeated within a song (such as a chorus) were
only counted once. For the 57 Country songs there were a total of 340 reproductive
references, for an average of 5.96 different reproductive references per song. For the 59
Pop songs a total of 513 reproductive references were identified, with an average of 8.69
references per song. For the 58 R&B songs there were 973 reproductive references,
resulting in a mean of 16.77 reproductive references per song. A one-way ANOVA of the
number of reproductive references was significant, F(2, 173) = 33.60, p < .0001.
Bonferroni’s Test showed that there were significantly more reproductive references in
R&B songs in comparison to both Country (p < .0001) and Pop (p < .0001). And again, the
differences between Country and Pop were not significant. See Appendix 1 for a list of the
songs used in Study 1.
As shown in Figure 1, there were differences between charts in reproductive
themes, and the frequency with which the reproductive categories were mentioned differed
between charts as well. The four most frequent reproductive categories contained in the
lyrics of Country songs were commitment, parenting, rejection, and fidelity assurance, in
that order. For Pop songs the most frequent reproductive categories were sex appeal,
reputation, short-term strategies, and fidelity assurance. For R&B songs, sex appeal,
resources, sex act, and status constituted the most frequent themes. Whereas 46 out of the
58 parenting themes came from Country songs, only four appeared in R&B songs. In
contrast, references to resources were featured 106 times in R&B songs, but appeared only
six times in Country songs. It is also interesting to note that while there is some overlap
between the top four reproductive themes across the charts (fidelity is one of the top four
Songs as reproductive messages
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for both Country and Pop, and sex appeal is featured in the top four for Pop and R&B), no
theme was common to the top four in all three charts.
Study 2
In the second study an attempt was made to determine whether there might be a
relationship between reproductive messages and the popularity/sales of recorded
contemporary songs. This was accomplished by measuring the number of reproductive
messages in 30 randomly selected songs from each of the three charts that made it into the
Top Ten in 2009 and also appeared in albums. As a control condition, we measured the
number of reproductive messages in randomly selected songs from the same album by the
same vocalists that did not make it into the Top 10. As a result, each of the 30 songs we
chose that appeared in the Top Ten was matched with another control song by the same
singer and released on the same album, but did not make it into the Top 10. See Appendix 2
for a list of the songs we used in these different categories.
Results
Country Songs
Figure 2 depicts the average number of different reproductive messages for the
Country songs we selected that made it into the Top Ten and those that did not. For the
songs selected from the top rankings in 2009 there were more reproductive messages per
song (M = 7.2, SD = 4.74) than for those by the same vocalist (in the same album) that did
not appear in the top ten (M = 4.3, SD = 3.08). A paired t-test showed that this difference
was significant, t(29) = 2.879, p = .0074.
Pop Songs
Figure 2 shows comparable results for Pop songs. For those selected from the top
songs in 2009 there were more reproductive messages per song (M = 10.73, SD = 6.47)
than for songs by the same vocalists that did not make it into the Top Ten (M = 5.8, SD =
4.50), and this was significant, t(29) = 4.449, p <.0001.
R&B Songs
Figure 2 also depicts the results for R&B songs. For the selected top ranking songs
in 2009 there were also almost twice as many reproductive messages per song (M = 18.07,
SD = 16.91) compared with those that did not appear in the Top Ten and were included in
the same albums by the same vocalist (M = 9.13, SD = 8.32). This difference also reached
statistical significance, t(29) = 4.453, p < .0001.
Songs as reproductive messages
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Figure 2. Average number of reproductive messages for 2009 Country, Pop, and R&B
songs that made it into the Top Ten and control songs that did not
Study 3
To examine the stability of reproductive messages and themes over time, the third
study featured a content analysis of the lyrics contained in the annual list of the Top Ten
songs for the years 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009 for Country, Pop, and R&B
charts. The list of Top 10 Country songs for the years 1959, 1969, 1979, 1989, and 1999
were taken from “Hot Country Songs” (Whitburn, 2008). The list of Pop songs for these
same years was taken from “A Century of Pop Music” (Whitburn, 1999), and the list of
R&B songs for these years was taken from “Top R&B/Hip Hop Singles” (Whitburn, 2004).
The 2009 Top 10 songs of the year for all genres were taken from the Billboard magazine
website: www.billboard.com.
Results
As shown in Figure 3, the number of reproductive messages in top ranked popular
songs has remained relatively stable over the past six decades. The one exception is the
recent increase in reproductive messages contained in songs that rise to high ranking
positions on the R&B charts. A 3 (charts) x 6 (decades) ANOVA revealed a significant
main effect of song type, F(2, 162) = 10.852, p < .0001, a significant main effect of decade,
F(5, 162) = 10.743, p < .0001, and as illustrated in Figure 3, a significant interaction
between charts and decade, F(10, 162) = 4.478, p < .0001. Using the Bonferroni correction,
pairwise comparisons between decades showed that songs in 1999 and 2009 had
significantly more reproductive references (p < .05). Corrected pairwise comparisons based
on song type also showed that R&B songs contained significantly more reproductive
messages (p < .001) than Country and Pop, while differences between Country and Pop
were not significant.
Songs as reproductive messages
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Figure 3. Mean number of different reproductive messages per song for the Top Ten songs
at the end of each decade for all three charts over the past sixty years
Study 4
To determine if the presence of reproductive messages is a long term, enduring
feature of song lyrics, the fourth study was based on a content analysis of the lyrics
contained in a sample of representative art songs and opera aria dating back as far as 1597.
Arias are usually a melodic segment set within the context of a larger composition called an
opera. Though arias are often performed independent of the full opera, they derive much of
their meaning from the framework of the surrounding composition. In contrast, Art songs
are smaller scale compositions that are meant to be performed by themselves. Notable
Arias and Art songs were chosen for analysis because they are analogous to popular current
songs. Art songs have the advantage of bridging a time gap when composers no longer
wrote operas but other genres of popular music had not yet emerged.
Method
To identify a representative sample of art songs we used a combination of books,
websites and sheet music anthologies (Walter, 2009) and tried to find matches for those
songs in other art song anthologies. If a song appeared in more than one book it was
included on the list. The list of art songs chosen for analysis contains songs that date back
as far as 1597. See Appendix 3 for a compilation of these songs.
The arias were taken from the Metropolitan Opera Archives, which lists the
Songs as reproductive messages
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frequency of aria performances. To identify noted arias we also consulted Wikipedia and
an opera anthology (Batta, 1999). In addition, we searched for operas in standard opera
song literature books for singers. The final list included opera arias that date back to 1642.
See Appendix 4 for a list of the opera arias.
To take into account changes in the meaning of different words/phrases over time,
assistance with the content analysis of the opera arias and the art songs was provided by
Melanie L. Shank, an opera singer who studies and performs songs from these eras.
Results
There was complete agreement among two independent raters in classifying 327
reproductive messages out of a total of 362 references taken from a representative sample
of the opera and art songs, which represents an inter-rater agreement of over 90%.
Figure 4 depicts the results. A t-test failed to demonstrate a significant difference in
the number of reproductive categories between the opera and art songs, t(104) = .6098, p =
.5433. While the frequency of some of the themes differ, these findings clearly show that
the same reproductive categories derived from the content analysis of our initial sample of
2009 contemporary songs map surprisingly well onto the lyrics from opera and arts songs
dating back hundreds of years.
Figure 4. Distribution of reproductive themes for opera aria and art songs sampled over
the past 414 years along with those in Study 1
Discussion
Whereas short-term sexual relationships are rarely featured in female romance
novels (Cox and Fisher, 2009), promiscuity and brief sexual liaisons are common, recurring
Songs as reproductive messages
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themes in many popular songs - particularly R&B and Pop (see Figure 1). Although the
typical romance novel contains several hundred pages, contemporary songs in the charts we
sampled last for only a few minutes and contain a relatively small number of often
repetitive verses. Yet despite their limited scope, most popular songs contain a high
incidence of reproductive messages.
Since the position of songs on the Billboard charts is driven in part by sales, our
study represents a significant advantage over the Cox and Fisher (2009) analysis of
romance novels where sales figures were not available. The same market factors that
appear to affect the title of romance novels also impact the lyrics of songs on different
charts (see Figure 1). For example, Country and Western listeners are thought to represent a
higher proportion of women than is true for the other charts we surveyed. The top four
themes for high ranking Country songs were commitment, parenting, rejection, and fidelity
assurance, whereas for Pop it was sex appeal, reputation, short-term strategies, and fidelity
assurance, for R&B/Hip Hop it was sex appeal, resources, sex act, and status. While Cox
and Fisher (2009) found that short-term relationships were “all together ignored by
romance novels” (p. 398), that is clearly not the case for song lyrics.
Approximately 92% of the 174 songs that made it into the Top 10 in 2009 contained
reproductive messages. A content analysis of these messages revealed 18 reproductive
themes that read like topics taken from an outline for a course in evolutionary psychology.
Although differences in the frequency of different themes between charts were found,
further analyses showed that the bestselling songs in all three charts featured significantly
more reproductive messages than those that failed to make it into the Top Ten (see Figure
2). The stability of these reproductive messages over time was confirmed by a content
analysis of the lyrics contained in a list of the Top Ten songs for the years 1959, 1969,
1979, 1989, 1999, and 2009 (see Figure 3). An analysis of the lyrics of opera arias and art
songs also revealed compelling evidence for the same reproductive categories extending
back as far as 1597. As shown in Figure 5, the six most common themes to emerge from
the combined sample of song lyrics (past and present) were fidelity assurance,
commitment, rejection, arousal, sex appeal, and other body parts.
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Figure 5. Frequency distribution of the presence of one or more reproductive categories in
the songs contained in Study 1, 3, and 4 (N = 432)
We suspect songs that rise to high ranking positions on the charts do so for a myriad
of reasons. The fact that some popular recordings are only instrumental with no lyrics (e.g.,
Chariots of Fire), while others are sung by artists in a foreign language (e.g., Volare)
strongly suggests that the instrumentation, melody, tempo, sex of the artist, and sound of
the singer’s voice (see Hughes, Dispenza, and Gallup, 2004), along with subtle nonverbal
cues of sincerity and emotional commitment conveyed by intonation of the artist are all
important components. As such, raw, disembodied lyrics as they appear in print are clearly
only one relatively small factor that may influence a song’s popularity. Nonetheless, our
results show that the number of reproductive messages contributes significantly to
sales/popularity, and this implies that listeners are in fact processing at some level
(wittingly or not) the evolutionarily relevant portions of the lyrics contained in many
popular songs.
Marketing by record companies undoubtedly plays a role in public exposure to
songs, and by extension may influence chart position and sales. But whether marketing per
se can account for the preponderance of reproductive messages in the songs we sampled is
unlikely. For example, the presence as well as the incidence of reproductive themes among
the opera aria and art songs in our historical sample is comparable in most instances to
contemporary songs (see Figure 4). Moreover, if the position of songs on the charts is a
simple reflection of promotion and marketing then it ought to be independent of the lyrics,
and our data clearly show that is not the case. In our view, the ubiquitous presence of these
reproductive themes is a reflection of evolved properties of the human psyche, where
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