Towards Selfishness and ´Materiality´ A diachronic study on the evolution of pop music lyrics in America (from 1970 to 2020)

Lorenzo Sosso

English Studies – Linguistics BA Thesis 15 credits Spring 2021 Supervisor: Philip Clover Towards Selfishness and Materiality2

Table of Contents

Abstract…..3

1 Introduction…..4

1.1 Aim & research questions…..4

2 Background…..5

2.1 Situational background…..5

2.2 Theoretical background…..6

2.3 Specific Background and previous studies…..10

3 Design of the study and methodology…..11

4 Results and discussion…..12

4.1 Categorization of the references…..12

4.1.1 The theme of narcissism…..17

4.1.2 The theme of lust…..20

4.1.3 The theme of love…..22

4.2 Study limitations…..25

5 Concluding remarks…...26

References…..27

Appendices…..31 Towards Selfishness and Materiality3

Abstract

This paper investigates the change/evolution over time of the most relevant themes contained in the most popular song lyrics, namely love, lust, and narcissism, in America. The study will conduct an analysis of two corpora of songs from two different periods (early 1970s and late 2010s), as they appeared in the American chart Billboard, in order to provide valid results both in terms of quantitative distribution and qualitative delineation of such themes. Furthermore, those results will be processed with the purpose of defining a co-relation between modern American society and modern American pop music. In light of this research, it is argued that this co-relation is represented by the two elements of selfishness and materiality. Towards Selfishness and Materiality4

1 Introduction

Music is one of the oldest arts ever existed: it has been accompanying humankind for 40000 years (Killin, 2018) and now permeates almost every aspect of our lives. Despite the impossibility of stating with certainty how music influences society, it is possible, however, to see how music is a mirror of society (Rabinowitch, 2020). In particular, pop music (among all kinds) appears to be the most relevant when it comes to interpreting social changes. This is due to its intrinsic quality, namely being popular music (used in its literal, broader sense), or, in rough words, “music as a product conceived for the largest audience possible” (“Popular music”, 2021). For this reason, this paper purposely chose pop music as the starting point to conduct an analysis on the possible inter- relations between music and society. Of course, the primal component of music is sound, and words are an accessory element. However, even if so-called sound studies (focusing solely on non-verbal components of music) are emerging in connection with sociology studies (Thibeault, 2017), this study will only analyze the verbal (linguistic) element in pop songs, trying to find results that may represent a valid starting point to connect music and sociology. More specifically, the analysis will be of a diachronic type, meaning that it will put in comparison two corpora of song lyrics from two different historical periods (from 1970 to 1974, and from 2016 to 2020), in order to acknowledge any relevant changes occurred in almost fifty years’ time.

1.1 Aim & research questions

The aim of this paper is to provide a reliable picture of how lyrics have changed across time, both quantitatively and, above all, qualitatively. Once those results have been found, the last concern of this research will be to find a connection between the evolution of the contents in lyrics and the changes in society. The research questions that will drive this analysis are, thus, the following: RQ 1: How the content of music lyrics in American pop music has changed across time? RQ 2: Is there a reflection of the results achieved on the actual American society? Towards Selfishness and Materiality5

In light of the results achieved, furthermore, my specific claim is that pop music has changed in a way that reflects an increased focus on selfishness and ´materiality´ in society.

2 Background

2.1 Situational background

This study analyzes two corpora of pop lyrics from two different periods, within the same socio-geographical context, the U.S.A. It is thus necessary to briefly frame the content of this paper in a way that reflects the particular societal details involved. “In modern societies, cultural change seems ceaseless. The flux of fashion is especially obvious for popular music” (Mauch et.al, 2015, p.1). A concise definition of pop music (the definition slightly differs from the one of “popular music”) can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary: “music appealing to the popular taste, including rock and pop and also soul, reggae, rap, and dance music” (“Pop music”, 2021). Its main quality of reflecting popular taste is the reason why I chose to investigate specifically in this field of music, being more representative of the society in which it is produced and consumed, unlike other kinds of ´elite´ music, less indicative of general trends. A dissertation on such a broad topic may lead to complications, unnecessary for the purpose of this study; however, some considerations about the musical macro-change, which has occurred between the two periods in analysis, must be made: “the early twentieth centuries witnessed the expansion of music publishing, recording, and production in the United States; the rapid exportation of music into the global economy; and the increased availability of music of all kinds in any number of media” (Graham, 2013, p.12). This expansion is at the heart of pop music prominence, causing an increasing interest in terms of production and consumption, until it turned, towards the end of the 20th century, into a multi-faceted reality, where more and more cultural sub-layers overlapped (Starr and Waterman, 2003). In particular, modern pop music in the U.S. has been characterized by the appearance, roughly between 1984-1995, of rap/hip-hop music culture, that Towards Selfishness and Materiality6 drastically changed American pop music both in terms of form and content of the lyrics (Richardson & Scott, 2002). This will be evident when analyzing the results obtained, as this specific genre was not broadly present during the 1970s.

2.2 Theoretical background

This study aims at carrying a multi-layered research. Starting from the semantic-based analysis of song lyrics, it will try to put it in relation with the evolution of American society. This kind of approach is part of a specific field of research that goes under the name of applied ethnomusicology (Dirksen, 2021). Although not new, this discipline is relatively young, dating back to 1950, when Dutch musicologist Jaap Kunst first coined the word, combining two terms referring to pre-existing fields: musicology, generally referring to all sciences related to music (Harap, 1937), and ethnography, simply “the study of the beliefs, social interactions, and behaviors of small societies” (Naidoo, 2012, p.1) . Out of modern debates around this discipline, it emerges that being able to univocally define ethnomusicology is almost a utopic effort. As Dirksen pointed out in her dissertation, “this [issue] is due in part to recent interest in uniting, under a single identifying label, many strands of professional activity that have traditionally fallen outside the boundaries of mainstream ethnomusicological scholarship” (Dirksen, 2021, p.2). In addition to that, “the data and methods used are derived from many disciplines found in the arts, the humanities, the social sciences, and the physical sciences. […] It is impossible to encompass them all within one definition. […] Ethnomusicology cannot be adequately defined as an interdisciplinary activity. It is too diffuse, too amorphous” (List, 1979, p.1). This paper mainly draws from two kinds of disciplines operating together: semantics, and some elements of sociology (that belongs to the broader field of ethnography). Semantics will be the theoretical base which will make the collection of data coherent and cohesive, while the sociological aspects will represent the frame on which the application of the semantic results will be applied. Consequently, the research will consist of two macro-sections: the categorization of the data according to specific semantic fields, and their consequent discussion in relation to the sociological frame. Towards Selfishness and Materiality7

Concerning the categorization of the songs, three main theoretical frames of semantic nature will be used: the semantic fields of love, lust, and narcissism. As visible later in this paper, more categories have been individuated, of whom the most quantitatively relevant is the theme of jilting; however, due to lack of relevant research surrounding it and its low productiveness in terms of useful results, it will not be actively included in the study. Before introducing the theories used, it is useful to provide a brief definition of semantics, as this paper will almost exclusively deal with meaning, rather than mere words. The most concise and effective definition of semantics can be found in the Oxford English Dictionary (OED): “the branch of linguistics and logic concerned with meaning. The two main areas are logical semantics, concerned with matters such as sense and reference and presupposition and implication, and lexical semantics, concerned with the analysis of word meanings and relations between them” (“Semantics”, 2021). In this paper, a clear-cut distinction between the above-mentioned areas will not be made, as both logical and lexical semantic concept will be used. The first theoretical frame comes from the acknowledgments of researcher Anna Wierzbicka, who, in the conclusive part of her dissertation about the semantic delineation of the concept of love, determined three main factors concurring in individuating and defining the concept of love: This shared meaning [love] includes three components, based, respectively, on thinking, feelings, and wanting. The ‘thinking’ component requires a long-term relationship: if person X loves person Y, then X often thinks about Y. The ‘feeling’ component requires very good feelings towards the loved person (if person X loves person Y, then X feels something very good towards Y). The ‘wanting’ component includes two subcomponents: if person X loves person Y, then X wants to do many things because of their thoughts about Y and their feelings towards Y; and, more specifically, X wants to do good things for Y. (Wierzbicka, 2019. pp.250-251) These three “components” (thinking, feeling, and wanting) imply two elements: first, the existence of the two ´agents´ involved (X and Y), which I personally defined as addresser and addressee of love (this definition will be useful later in the analysis); second, a long temporal horizon (Lavrova, 2015) which can be rendered either through a specific determination (e.g. the sentence “I´ve loved you for all my life”), or an undefined one (e.g. simply “I love you”). Two preliminary, fundamental remarks have to be made on this matter: first, Wierzbicka´s theoretical frame is not the only existing semantic delineation of love. Towards Selfishness and Materiality8

Being a complex emotion, “a multifaceted phenomenon affecting many and varied areas of human experience” (Soriano Salinas, 2013, p.1), love cannot be semantically defined in a univocal, completely objective way. However, for the purpose of this study, Wierzbicka´s delineation appeared to be the most suitable (as the three components involved make the task of individuating such theme in lyrics much more consistent than other theories); second, it is important to stress that love will always be intended, from here on, as a concept, and never as the actual word (that, as it will be later explained, may refer to the sphere of lust instead; e.g. in the expression “to make love”). The second theoretical frame is lust. The concept of lust embraces (according to Lavrova) two main lexico-semantic variants: “1) enthusiasm and 2) strong carnal desire” (2015). In this paper, only the second acceptation will be taken into account. However, the delineation of this semantic field is not of easy interpretation, especially considering that the concepts of lust and love might be closely intertwined and overlapped (Berscheid, 2010, p.14). The elements belonging to the semantic field of lust, that I will consider when categorizing lyrics accordingly, are: 1) references (overt or covert) to sexual desire or activity 2) presence of specific linguistic markers (words) pointing at concrete bodily components 3) short time horizon, signaled either specifically (e.g. the sentence “I want your body now”) or generally (e.g. simply “I want your body”) (Lavrova, 2015). It is evident how the first two elements are the most blatant ones; however, for a more accurate classification, all three aspects will be encompassed, rather than just defining lust as “sexual desire for another person or persons” (Madanikia & Bartholomew, 2014, p.2). The third theoretical frame is narcissism, which, first and foremost, defines a psychological spectrum (Krizan and Herlache, 2018), other than being also theorized as a semantic field. “Grandiose narcissism is a personality trait marked by beliefs of personal superiority […] Narcissists tend to go out of their way to impress others: They [...] brag about themselves and showcase their talents and abilities in front of others. At the same time, narcissists […] engage in self-promotion (i.e., attempts to increase their own status) or other-derogation” (Grapsas et al., 2019, p.150). Moreover, a relevant contribution on this concept comes from Holtzman et al., who conducted a study on the linguistic markers of grandiose narcissism and its semantic delineation. Their results have been summarized as follows: Towards Selfishness and Materiality9

“Grandiose narcissism manifests in a linguistic profile that appears certain, confident, and perhaps low in vulnerability […] A cocky, tough, and sure-minded language profile seems to integrate many of these findings. Moreover, narcissistic people present as sexually explicit and prone to using profanity. […] Conversely, they tend not to use words reflecting uncertainty, anxiety, and fear. Collectively, this set of linguistic manifestations points to an attention-getting personality that is (at least on the surface) confident and certain” (Holtzman et.al, 2019, p.13) Furthermore, contrarily to what might appear obvious, they acknowledged how “narcissism is unrelated to using first-person singular pronouns” (1), going against previous studies on the field that solely focused on this connection (Carey et. al, 2015). In light of all these notions, the concrete categorization of narcissistic references in the data is operated according to the follow linguistic principles: 1) mere presence of words with positive acceptation (mostly adjectives), in relation to the author of the song (“They [...] brag about themselves”), and absolute absence of words revealing uncertainty, including modal verbs expressing that, like can/could, may/might, etc…(“confident”, “sure-minded” language), 2) presence of superlative adjectives, in relation to the author of the song, 3) hyperbolic expressions and imagery, 4) comparison between the artist and divinities (“belief of personal superiority”, “self-promotion”), and 5) presence of expressions with negative connotation, in relation to subjects other than the artist (“other- derogation). In total, these 5 principles contribute to delineate a cohesive framing of the narcissistic semantic field. Another important part of the theoretical background (which will make possible the application of the results, emerging out of the classification of the lyrics, on the societal dimension) consists in the problematic connection between music and society. “The relationships between music and culture remain contested areas ripe for future testing” (Savage, 2018, p.15), thus, it is not possible, yet, to rely on an omni-comprehensive theory that unequivocally proves the existence of a specific connection between music and society: there are too many factors that may influence (and reflect) the evolution of a society, other than music. It is safe to say, however, that “music is perhaps the most sensitive indicator of the culture, and of all the arts is the most closely tied to the subconscious attitudes and assumptions on which we build our lives within a society” (Small & Walser, 1996, pp. 80), thus, it can be seen as a reliable mirror of the society (Christenson et.al, 2019). Towards Selfishness and Materiality10

The last element of theory contained in this paper is the most abstract one. In fact, as mentioned in the introduction, I argue that two concepts seem to represent a common thread in modern pop music: selfishness, which is closely related to narcissism (Crocker et al., 2017) and materiality. For the purpose of this research, I decided to draw entirely from Fleischer´s dissertation on the ontological delineation of materiality, in its acceptation of being “the quality or character of being material or composed of matter” (“materiality”, 2021). He individuated three essential features defining matter, which perfectly serve for the cohesiveness of my results: 1) matter is corporeal, 2) matter is substance 3) matter is the objective reality existing disregarding the subjective dimension of human beings (1962). The way materiality is concretely embedded in the reality of a society is what Dant defines as “material interactions” (2008, p.136), namely the interactions between human beings and the realm of ´things´, which, in Dant´s view, acquired greater importance in the modern era, due to “the impact of changes in material culture on the social life of people”, one of the consequences of the advent of capitalism (2008, p.138).

2.3 Specific background and previous studies

The lyrics collected have been all drawn from Billboard USA, which is a magazine/online platform, mostly famous for its music charts, collecting and ranking all the most popular songs in the whole continent. The reason why Billboard has been preferred over any other charts resides in the reliability of its calculation, when determining the popularity of a song. The current criteria used by Billboard, in fact, are based on a quite elaborate three-factor calculation, taking into account a ratio of: “1) sales (35-45%), 2) airplay (30-40%) and 3) streaming (30-40%)” (Trust, 2014). More than any other American chart, then, Billboard proved to be the most effective in reflecting the ´tastes´ of American people on music. It has to be noticed that, back in the 1970s, the factors used to rank the songs were not the same, of course: the only factor considered, in fact, was “sales” (Molanphy, 2013). However, for reasons of internal coherence, the same chart has been used to draw the data from the two periods. Towards Selfishness and Materiality11

Several previous studies have been made on similar data, even though most of them have been characterized by a corpus-driven approach. This implies a focus on the quantitative aspects of such analyses, rather than qualitative. Also, given the high abstractness of music, in general, I find those quantitative results reductive and not suitable to explore such a complex topic. However, these findings have been used to set a comparison between them and the ones found in the first part of my project, based on the quantitative distribution of the lyrics´ themes in the two corpora selected. More specifically, the most relevant studies mentioned in this paper are: Madanikia and Bartholomew´s study in 2014, who focused on the themes of love and lust in 360 Billboard songs from 1971 to 2011, with the aim of acknowledging a different distribution over time of songs containing themes of love and lust (once more, it is not clear according to which criteria the theme of love and lust have been defined in their study); furthermore, DeWall´ s project, in 2011, who conducted, for the first time, a linguistic cross-study on lyrics from 1980–2007 (as appearing in Billboard hot-100 charts for each year), starting from a psychological background, with the purpose of finding linguistic markers for emotional traits in music. His results provided precious results on the theme of narcissism in American most popular music. Concerning the increasing references to materiality in music, the study I took as main reference is the one by Christenson et.al, who, in a joint project conducted in 2019, analyzed the year-end U.S. Billboard top-40 singles for every even-numbered year, from 1960 until 2010. Finally, for the application of the results of my analysis to the societal context, I referred to the 2008 article published by DeRobertis on the connection between selfish human behavior and materiality in America (in the development of his work, the term ´materiality´ has been incorporated in the more specific concept of consumerism).

3 Design of the study and methodology

The data in analysis are the lyrics of the most ‘popular’ songs in the USA, from two different historical periods, namely the early 1970s (1970-1971-1972-1973-1974) and the late 2010s (2016-2017-2018-2019-2020). The lyrics have not been, of course, arbitrarily chosen: the database selected is Billboard; in particular, I decided to refer to the Towards Selfishness and Materiality12

Billboard year-end hot 100 songs, the annual charts that rank the songs that have been determined as the ´most popular´ for each year. More specifically, I picked the first 15 songs for each of the 5 years considered in every period, resulting in two sub-corpora of 15x5=75 lyrics, for a total of 150 lyrics. Since this project starts out from a diachronic confrontation of data, I believe that the two corpora, selected in such way, could be representative of the two periods considered, providing a reliable account of the changes occurred in American pop music in fifty years. The two corpora are not huge (an aspect which may represent a limitation), but this choice has been made because, unlike similar studies on the same topic, my project is not corpus-driven (even though, for some quantitative deductions, I used the corpus calculation software Antconc). This means that the categorization of the specific data, for the purpose of this paper, has been manually conducted. The study will adhere to the following structure: firstly, a categorization of all songs from each corpus, according to the semantic principles enunciated in the theoretical background (concerning lust, love, and narcissism), will be made. This will provide a general overview on the way in which the contents of the songs have changed over time, quantitatively. Secondly, the three specific themes of lust, love, and narcissism will be separately analyzed in-depth. Thirdly, the qualitative results obtained will be merged together, in order to highlight a common thread, namely the concept of selfishness and materiality present in modern American society, which pop music reflects.

4 Results and discussion

4.1 Categorization of the references

The first step in this analysis is to classify all songs from the two corpora, according to the content of their lyrics, namely their themes. The classification will be made following the semantic principles discussed in the theoretical background, in order to highlight three major categories of references contained in songs: love, lust and narcissism. Three necessary remarks have to be made, before proceeding further: first, the categorization will allow to obtain references related to the themes aforementioned; thus, it is possible Towards Selfishness and Materiality13 for one song to contain multiple references to different themes (it is not concern of this paper to classify songs according to the prevalence of one theme or another); second, the categorization will necessarily present some not clear-cut, ´grey areas´, where a reference may fall within (especially regarding the distinction between lust and love, which is not always easy to operate); third (and most important), since the paper deals with semantics, the contextual analysis always needs to be kept into account (for instance, the expression “I love you”, without any additional contextual element, might also express a parental type of love, rather than a romantic one: the context contributes to solving this issue). For reasons of transparency, it would be useful to report practical examples of how I concretely applied the semantic criteria aforementioned to individuate the three themes in all songs. Concerning the theme of love, I will report six exhaustive examples, three for each period: (1) “Every day and every night [...] I love you girl” (from the 1974 song “Show and tell”). Here, the two agents are present (“I” and “you”), together with an explicit expression of “love” (that, in this case, makes the categorization very easy, without need for a further contextual analysis), and a specific long-time horizon (“every day and every night”). (2) “You make my dreams a real, I never met a girl could make me feel the way you do, get ready, I’m bringing you a love that’s true” (from the 1970 song “Get ready”). This is another easily definable love reference: the two agents are present, and the expression “I never met a girl could make me feel the way you do” includes both the “feeling” component and the “wanting” (“I´m bringing you a love that´s true”), together with the (undefined) long time horizon, which is articulated in all its three dimensions: past, present, and future (“I never met”, “the way you do”, “I´m bringing you”). (3) “You got something for me: oh, I got a brand new pair of roller skates, you got a brand new key […] I think that we should get together and try them out, you see” (from the 1972 song “Brand new key”). This reference is indeed of more difficult interpretation, since it is not unarguably attributable to either love of lust theme: the expression “we should get together” can be interpreted as a sexual proposal , but also as a romantic one; however, I categorized it as a love reference, because of the absence of specific linguistic markers pointing at "concrete bodily components". In other words Towards Selfishness and Materiality14

(also considering the general context of the whole song), the expression lacks any kind of elements of sexual nature. (4) “Be my girl, I'll be your man. I see my future in your eyes” (from the 2018 song “Perfect”). In this line, both agents are present, but the explicit “love” verb is not present; diversely, the expression “be my girl” strongly implies the component of wanting, and “I see my future in your eyes” delineates both the component of “thinking/feeling” and the long time horizon. (5) “I'll wake you up with some breakfast in bed. I'll bring you coffee with a kiss on your head and I'll take the kids to school” (from the 2017 song “Say you won´t let go”). Similarly, besides the obvious presence of the two agents, the components of “thinking/wanting/feeling”, together with a long time horizon, are present (the author explicitly expresses the intention of having a family, in the future, with the beloved person he´s thinking of, and for whom he has romantic feelings). (6) “Got a pretty girl and she love me long time” (from the 2016 song “One dance”). This line is another example of a reference falling within a ´grey area´. In fact, despite the presence of the two agents, the verb “love” (that, as already mentioned, can also be used with a sexual acceptation), and the long time horizon, the reference could also be interpreted as lusty. However, in the same way as example (3) was handled, because of the absence of specific sexual expressions/references to bodily parts of the female body, the line has been categorized as a love reference. Concerning the theme of lust, three examples can be reported here. (7) “She […] is soft when she loves me” (from the 1974 song “One hell of a woman), where, as previously mentioned, the verb “love” implies sexual activity, due to two factors: the short time horizon, implied by the presence of the adverb “when”, and the adjective “soft”, which might be consistent with the sexual act, but not with the feeling of love. (8) “Her body fit right in my hands” (from the 2019 song “Senorita”), in which the lusty desire of the author is clearly signaled by the explicit reference to the female body. (9) “I've been with her myself” (from the 1973 song “The nights the lights went out in Georgia”). This is a case of a reference that falls within a ´grey area´: there is not an overt sexual reference, nor a mentioning to any bodily part; however, in this case, the context of the whole song helps to delineate the reference as belonging to the theme of lust. It is Towards Selfishness and Materiality15 in fact specified, later in the song, that the woman (whose the man confesses having “been with” himself) is a “cheating wife”, strengthening the hypothesis of a sexual implication. Lastly, I will also report three examples concerning the theme of narcissism, which is, by far, the most easily recognizable one, with no reported cases of ´grey areas´. (10)“I'm way too exclusive, I don't shop on Insta' boutiques” (from the 2020 song “Savage”): here, it is obvious how the author praises her own wealth, putting herself on a higher level than the one of those shopping “on [Instagram] boutiques”; the adjective “exclusive”, plus, reinforced by the adverb “too”, denotes hyperbolic language in reference to the author. (11) “You are now listening to the hottest producer” (from the 2016 song “Panda”). In this line, the author refers to himself as the “hottest producer”. The use of the superlative clearly expresses the narcissistic dimension of this hyperbolic statement. (12) “Hope I got some brothers that outlive me. They gon' tell the story, shit was different with me: God's plan” (from 2018 song “God´s plan”). Here, the author clearly states that his “story”, deemed “different” from the one of anybody else, is part of a “God ´s plan”. All these examples have been selected to illustrate how the researcher applied the concepts explained in the theoretical background for the categorizations of all the references. In addition to that, the full list of all references to love, lust, and narcissism (individuated in each song) is reported in the appendices. Some considerations need to be made, before proceeding further. As visible in table 1 and table 2, that report the results of this classification for each corpus, 9 macro- categories of references have been individuated; however, except for those of love, lust, and narcissism, an asterisk has been placed to remind the readers that the selection of those themes is not backed up by any theory, being the outcome of an ´arbitrary´ selection, and, for this reason, they will not be included in the analysis of this paper. Also, both in terms of quantitative and qualitative relevance, they have been overlooked.

Table 1. (Songs from 1970 to 1974)

THEMES QUANTITY LOVE 33 LUST 20 JILT/BREAKUP* 18 HOPE* 3 PROTEST* 2 Towards Selfishness and Materiality16

RELIGION* 4 HOME-COMING* 3 LOSS* 2 NARCISSISM 0 OTHER* 9

Table 2. (Songs from 2016 to 2020)

THEMES QUANTITY LOVE 14 LUST 35 JILT/BREAKUP* 21 HOPE* 0 PROTEST* 0 RELIGION* 1 HOME-COMING* 0 LOSS* 0 NARCISSISM 30 OTHER* 8

The two tables offer an overall view, suitable for the first considerations in terms of the quantitative distribution of the various themes. The main finding is that the theme of love, by far the strongest presence in the 1970s corpus, has been more than halved (14<33) in the 2010s. In addition to that, in the most recent songs we assist to an evident increase of the theme of lust. These results, surprisingly, appear to be only partially consistent with previous studies on the same field. Particularly, Madanikia and Bartholomew have argued that “themes of lust increased systematically over the study period [and] the proportion of songs with a theme of love did decrease over the study period. […] Moving into this century, the proportion of songs with themes of lust became comparable with […] the proportion of songs with themes of love” (5)”. According to my results, however, the number of love references in the recent corpus is remarkably inferior to the one of lust (this might be due to the fact that Madanikia and Bartholomew ´s study is corpus-driven, thus their classification of the two themes of love and lust appears less accurate, being solely made on linguistic markers; furthermore, their corpus is more than double than mine, 360>150). Another evident change, probably the most blatant, concerns the theme of narcissism. In the 1970s corpus, such theme never appears, while it appears almost as frequently as the theme of lust in the 2010s corpus. This finding is consistent with previous related studies. De Wall et al., in their study, pointed out how “changes in popular music lyrics mirror increases in narcissism […], with Towards Selfishness and Materiality17 musical lyrics becoming increasingly self-focused over time” (2011, p.3). Summing up what acknowledged so far, it appears that, compared to fifty years ago, the most popular music in America displays an increment in the references to lust, a contraction in the references to love, and, above all, the appearance of a whole new theme, the one of narcissism. This quantitative delineation of the diachronic change of music across time in terms of themes is the solid base upon which the following part of the project will develop. In particular, this section will try to acknowledge in which way the theme of love, lust, and narcissism are differently portrayed in the two periods considered, shifting to a qualitative kind of analysis.

4.1.1 The theme of narcissism

Firstly, the theme of narcissism will be investigated. Given the peculiarity of this theme, which could not be found in the 1970s corpus, a diachronic comparison is impossible. Nonetheless, three aspects, in particular, are relevant for the delineation of this theme. The first one concerns the peculiarity of the musical genre which this theme appears to be linked to, namely rap music and all the sub-genres deriving from it, like trap, r&b, and hip-hop music (Silver et al., 2016). Of all the 75 songs contained in the corpus of modern lyrics, 37 belong to the macro-genre of rap music. Of these 37 rap songs, 28 contain the theme of narcissism, while only 9 do not display such theme. Furthermore, keeping in mind the results reported in table 2, it is evident how, of all 30 lyrics containing the theme of narcissism, the majority of them (28/30= 93%) are rap songs. This finding is perfectly consistent with contemporary research studies pointing out that “many rap songs contain lyrics promoting […] self-aggrandizement” (Craft and Elsner, 2017, p.1). However, how is the theme of self-celebration, mostly found in rap music (but not only), exactly expressed? To answer this question, it is convenient to break down all the references related to it, as reported in the appendix (App. I). A common trend seems to link all these references: the motifs at the heart of the authors´ narcissism are majorly money/wealth and success (needless to say how the two things are necessarily inter- related), and what directly derives from them: material possessions, social status, and the attention from potential sexual partners. Analyzing all the 30 lyrics containing Towards Selfishness and Materiality18 narcissistic elements, it emerges that references to money/wealth are present in 25 of these songs (25/30= 83%). It is interesting to notice how this type of discourse (money) is basically non-existent in lyrics from the 1970s: processing both corpora through the corpus calculation software Antconc (Anthony, 2014), in fact, this evidence is easily acknowledgeable; in terms of frequency, the term “money” occurred 25 times in the 2010s, while there is not a single occurrence in the older corpus. Other terms like “diamond/s”, also, follow the same trend: in modern songs, this term shows up 11 times, while, in the older songs, it appears only once. This result finds validation in recent studies. Christenson et al. proved that “references to wealth increased substantially [over time], particularly in the 2000s” (2019, p.194). However, the connection between the theme of narcissism and the discourse of money/wealth has not been broadly researched on yet. It has to be noticed that only in 5 cases, visible in the list, the reason of the narcissistic attitude cannot be attributed to money (or success) and its derivations. In “XO Tour life”, for instance, the author talks about a sexual intercourse with a woman who is already engaged to someone else, stating that “(she) gon' leave” her partner, but not him, who self-proclaims as “Casanova” (a famous Italian author, mostly known for his innumerous amorous conquests and a hectic sexual life). In this rare case, money does not represent a reason for the author to brag about. Even more general is the self-praising reference contained in “Unforgettable”, in which, out of frustration for a jilt, the author claims that “nobody can equal” him, without specifying the reason why. Similarly, in “Havana”, the author allegorically places himself as the individual upon which “history is being made”, but, given the absence of further references to money or success, it is not possible to link that claim to any of the two factors. The other two cases, “I like it”, and “Say so”, besides lacking direct connection with money and success, are comments by the authors on their alleged extraordinary pleasing physical aspect. More generally, in modern songs containing narcissistic references, the amount of terms referring to prestige, money, and wealth is incredibly high, going from expensive food and drinks (like “scampi”, “champagne”) to “Black card” (referring to the most prestigious credit card issued by American Express) and luxury products. Concerning luxury products, another peculiar feature needs to be pointed out: in songs containing narcissistic references, specific names of famous brands are broadly present. In table 3, all terms referring to specific brands are reported. Towards Selfishness and Materiality19

Table 3. (Full list of brand references in songs displaying the theme of narcissism)

YEAR TERMS 2016 Hennessy, Black/White X6, Bando, Phantom ship, Hammers, Versace, Bugatti, Rover 2017 Cadillac (2), Parmesan, Mercedes, Polo socks, alcohol, Grey Poupon, Evian, TED, Bentley, Ben-Ben Franklins, Rolls, Chanel, Gucci belt, Essence, Ford Explorer, Coupe, Range (Rover), Maybach, Bacardi, Jacuzi, Cuban, Inglewood shoes 2018 Dechino, Benzo(2), Rollie, Chevy, Rodeo, Saint Laurent Jeans, Vans, Balenciaga, Ferrari, Coupe, Lamborghini, Champagne, Henny(2) 2019 Porsche, Gucci, Wrangler, LaCroix, 720s, 750, Lambo, Penthouse, Louis belt, Remy (Martin), 305, FBO, Forbes, Ferrari 2020 Cadillac, double C’s, Rollie, Patek(2), Lamborghini, Maybach Suv, Bentley, PJ, Penthouse, Birkin, B.B Simon belt, Lamborghini

In the 1970s corpus, the only reference to a specific brand is the word “Chevy” (short for “Chevrolet”, a famous car brand), occurring only twice. The last emerging result on this theme is its particular connection with a specific expression, frequently recurring in the 2010s corpus (while non-existent in the older corpus), namely “bad bitch”. “Bitch” is a vulgar term that, in pop culture as much as in everyday life, both men and women may use with two different acceptations: both as an epithet against women (and homosexual men), as well as a mean of expressing dominance over a person or object (Kleinman et al., 2009). It is a word that does not appear in the 1970s corpus, while it largely occurs in modern corpus (54 times, according to Antconc): this should not result surprising, as swear words, and, in general, vulgarity and obscenities are a typical feature of modern lyrics. As Amdan and Shaari point out in their study on the analysis of the top 20 billboard songs from 2009 to 2015, in fact, “lyrics writing has changed according to the demand from the consumers or listeners. The usage of profane words in song lyrics are no exception in popular music” (2017, 2). In particular, it has to be also specified that the presence of swear words has been majorly detected in rap songs, compared to other genres (Wolfe, 1993). As previously reported, rap is the genre where the theme of narcissism is present the most; thus, it is safe to say that, in general, swear words tend to be more frequent in narcissist songs, consistently with Holtzman´s findings. The expression “bad bitch”, however, falls outside the mere discourse of obscenity/vulgarity. If we look at their concordances, in fact, in 3 cases the Towards Selfishness and Materiality20 expression “bad bitch” is a ´status´ which the authors gladly associated themselves with. In table 4, those concordances are reported in their context of occurrence.

Table 4. (Concordances of the expression “bad bitch” used by female authors, contained in songs displaying the theme of narcissism)

SONG CONTEXT “Needed me” (2016) ´You was just another nigga on the hit list Tryna fix your inner issues with a bad bitch´ “Truth hurts” (2017) ´You coulda had a bad bitch, non-committal Help you with your career, just a little´ “I like it” (2018) ´ Tell the driver, close the curtains Bad bitch make you nervous´

Two considerations can be made: the first one is that these references are made in third person. Third-person referencing is called illeism, which “is often associated with narcissism” (Mishra et al., 2013, pp. 627). The second important one is that the authors of these three songs are all women. This latter point is surprising, since a term like “bitch” (historically associated with misogyny) is now used by women themselves in a positive acceptation, in association with an adjective, “bad”, which carries (for its own definition) negative connotation. The other two concordances of the expression “bad bitch” in the 2010s corpus are also contained in rap songs, but, in these cases, they have been used by male authors in their original, derogatory acceptation (as visible in table 5).

Table 5. (Concordances of the expression “bad bitch” used by male authors, contained in songs displaying narcissistic references)

SONG CONTEXT “Bad and Boujee” (2017) ´My bitch is bad and boujee´ “What´s poppin´?” (2020) ´Put a bad bitch in the friend zone´

4.1.2 The theme of lust

The next theme to be investigated will be lust. As previously acknowledged, songs containing lust references have significantly increased over time (in this study, they augmented from 20 to 35=43%). However, lust has not solely changed in terms of quantity: the way it is expressed nowadays appears radically different. Once more, the classification of the songs containing the theme of lust has been made according to the Towards Selfishness and Materiality21 principles mentioned in the theoretical background. In the appendix, I reported all lust references from the 1970s corpus (App .II). In the same way, I reported all lust references from the 2010s corpus (App. III). Out of a comparative analysis between the two tables, I argue that two evident results emerge: firstly, lust is more overt and explicit in modern era, while, in the 1970s, it tended to be more implied and subtle; secondly, lust in songs from the 2010s brings to light an increasing objectification of the female body. The implicitness of sexual references in old lyrics, compared to the explicitness of recent songs, is visible in the different register used in the two corpora. In the 1970s, the sexual desire tended to be expressed through ´clean´ words, like “satisfy”, “please”, “make” , “be with” and “use”; in particular, the most interesting (and recurring) expression to refer to the sexual act/desire is “to love” and its lexical derivations (like “lover”): this is a tendency that can be rarely seen in the modern songs, where the same verb is used specifically in reference to the theme of love, and not lust. The use of terms adhering to the sphere of love, when expressing lust instead, may indicate a deeper conception, according to which, in older times, love and sex were inevitably intertwined, unlike in modern era, where individuals clearly distinguish the two things. Diversely, modern songs display, in most of the cases, explicit expressions referring to sexuality: “fuck”, “grind”, “bite”, “pull hair”, “topping´”, “ride”, “sucking”; those expressions are not present at all in the 1970s corpus (made exception for “bite” and “ride”, but in other acceptations). Only rarely, more covert expressions are used (as in the song “Dancing with a stranger”, where the sexual desire is rendered through the allegoric words “light my fire”, an expression more typical of older lyrics). The second aspect, concerning the objectification of the female body, is equally obvious. In the older corpus, expressions referring to specific parts of the female body are scarce: “body”, “lips”, and “it” (most likely referring to the gluteus). In the recent corpus, however, references to the female body are abundant and, in most cases, more obscene: “pussy”, “ass” (resulting to be the most recurring word in this kind of references, with a total frequency of 15 in the entire 2010s corpus, according to Antconc´s calculation), “bumper”, “boobies”, “hips”. A further consideration needs to be made on the phenomenon of the objectification of the female body: surprisingly, among all songs listed, it can be noticed that objectification is present even in two songs written by female authors, specifically “Say so” and “Savage”, where the authors refer to their own corporeality in the same way male artists (from the Towards Selfishness and Materiality22 same list) would do: “boy, grab my ass”, and “this pussy is fat”. This new tendency is probably much more eloquent than it may just seem, as stressed by Frisby & Aubrey, who argue that “sexual objectification of women’s bodies teaches women to internalize an outsiders’ perspective on the self, such that they come to see themselves as objects to be evaluated by others, a tendency called self-objectification” (2012, p.5). In other words, it appears that the growing objectification of the female body, primarily operated by men, has become accepted in the society to such an extent that it has become normalized and accepted by women themselves.

4.1.3 The theme of love

Last theme to be analyzed is the theme of love, by far the most complex to categorize. App. IV and App. V report the results for both corpora. In order to analyze more in-depth this theme, it is useful to further categorize love references according to what I personally define the role hierarchies of the two agents involved in the semantic field of love. More specifically, I individuated 3 possible dynamics: 1) addresser above the addressee, 2) addressee above the addresser, 3) addresser and addressee on the same level. In other words, this aims at being a semantic categorization around the selfishness/unselfishness of the love representation. The most difficult part of this operation, is that, linguistically speaking, the analysis of, for instance, personal pronouns as “I”, “you”, and “we” as markers for this concept is not enough by itself (although useful for a preliminary distinction): to obtain a better picture, it is convenient to consider the whole context for each song and, more specifically, the vector of the feeling of love, namely the direction of it: either from the addresser to the addressee, the vice versa, or a bilateral movement. To establish the direction of the feeling, thus, not only the pronouns, but also the verbs used to express that feeling need to be considered. Three examples of songs from the list have been reported, to make this process clearer: in “Let´s stay together” (1972) we find the reference “I'm so in love with you.” / “Loving you forever is what I need”, involving the pronouns “I” (the addresser), the pronoun “you” (the addressee), and the two main verbs “love” and “need”; in this case, it is clear how the reference carries “selfish” connotation, as the discourse revolves entirely around the addresser, around “his love” and “his need to love”. Diversely, in “Bridge over troubled water” (1970), for instance, Towards Selfishness and Materiality23 we can individuate the opposite vector: “When tears are in your eyes, I'll dry them all. I'm on your side […] I will comfort you, I'll take your part” (it has to be noticed that, as explained before, this line could also refer to a parental kind love. However, the context of the song excludes this hypothesis). Although the pronoun “I” would suggest a “selfish” discourse, it is clear how it is actually the opposite: the actions of “to dry tears”, “to comfort”, and to “take someone´s part” delineate a hierarchy in which the addressee´s sake is placed above the addresser, resulting in an “unselfish” love. Conversely, in “The bones” (2020), the reference “We built this right, so nothing's ever gonna move it” denotes a more balanced depictions of the two agents, resulting in what I defined “bilateral vector”. All cases where the target (addressee) is hierarchically placed below the agent (addresser) will be considered “selfish love”. The vice versa will be considered “unselfish love”, and any other case (where addressee and addresser are on the same level) will be defined as “balanced love”. In table 6 and table 7, the role hierarchies are reported, for each corpus

Table 6 (Role hierarchies for the 1970s corpus)

HIERARCHY SONGS QUANTITY Addresser > Addressee “Touch me in the morning”, “ABC”, “I feel the 15 (Selfish love) earth move”, “Knock three times”, “ Tired of being alone”, “Let´s stay together”, “My love”, “Let´s get it on”, “Tie a yellow ribbon round the Ole Oak Tree”, “Touch me in the morning”, “Love´s theme”, “Come and get your love”, “You make me feel brand new”, “Show and tell” Addresser > Addressee “Bridge over troubled water”, “Long to be”, “Ain´t 12 (Unselfish love) no mountain high enough”, “I´ll be there”, “Get ready”, “Maggie May”, “One bad apple”, “Me and Bobby McGee”, “The first time that I ever saw your face”, “Daddy don´t you walk so fast”, “Brandy you´re a fine girl” , “Delta Dawn” Addresser = Addressee “Just my imagination”, “Brand new key”, “Nice to 6 (Balanced love) be with you”, “Me and mrs. Jones”, “Seasons in the sun”, “Midnight at the Oasis”

Table 7 (Role hierarchies for the 2010s corpus)

HIERARCHY SONGS QUANTITY Addresser > Addressee “One dance”, “Despacito”, “Meant to be”, 10 Towards Selfishness and Materiality24

(Selfish love) “Havana”, “Boo´d up”, “Sunflower”, “Talk”, “Blinding lights”, “Adore you”, “God´s plan” Addresser < Addressee “Say you won´t let go” 1 (Unselfish love) Addresser = Addressee “Perfect”, “Sucker”, “The bones” 3 (Balanced love)

The results are clear: proportionally, in modern lyrics (unlike old songs) the theme of love appears to be more “selfish” than it was in the past. The in-depth analysis of the three major thematic references to love, lust and narcissism (both quantitatively and qualitatively) showed different results. As I stated in the introductory part of this paper, I argue that two common threads appear to bind these results together, in the modern lyrics: selfishness and materiality. Summarizing this section, in fact, the following evidences have been acknowledged. Firstly, narcissistic references display, other than “self-aggrandizement” elements (narcissistic behavior and “illeism”), a relevant amount of elements belonging to the sphere of materiality, namely the strong presence of brand names referring to specific products and, more generally, to money and material possessions/pleasures. Secondly, lust references show a great focus on the materiality of the sexual sphere (as mentioned in the theoretical background, one major feature of materiality is its being “bodily”), eventually leading to an objectification of the female body, linkable to a self-fulfillment of pleasure and to a shift from a ´platonic´ conception of lust to a more physical (material) one. Thirdly, the references to the theme of love have highlighted a substantial shift (proportionally) in what I defined the role hierarchies of love, leading to a more selfish portrayal of love. If my argument may appear meaningless in terms of pragmatism (and highly theoretical), it finds, nonetheless, a reliable projection on modern American society. It is not by chance, in fact, that the concept of selfishness and materiality co-occurred throughout this analysis. A concise explanation on this phenomenon of co-relation can be drawn out of the study, conducted by DeRobertis, specifically on the alleged selfishness connoting modern American society. Among other factors (not considered in this paper), he individuated consumerism (according to the OED, “the belief that it is good for a society or an individual person to buy and use a large quantity of goods and services”) as an important cause of increased selfishness in the American society: Towards Selfishness and Materiality25

Consumerism is another force to consider in the search for causes of selfishness in America. In the United States marketing machines are able to communicate to our youth that they need to have a certain kind of phone, a certain kind of jeans, a certain kind of body size, if they are to be considered cool, desirable, good looking, and so forth. Moreover, the implicit message in these advertisements is that being cool and desirable is of prime importance. […] Hence, the self becomes superficial, that of a greedy purchaser who might shine a little more brightly in appearance and prestige than his or her fellows. Self-hood becomes nothing but personal image, and the person cannot relate deeply to others. When looking for sources of increased selfishness in American culture, I would venture to say that consumerism is already having an impact on education. (DeRobertis, 2008, p. 41) Needless to point out how the concept of consumerism is necessarily associated to materiality: “goods” are, in fact, concrete, “substantial” things, exclusively belonging to “the objective reality existing disregarding the subjective dimension of human beings”. According to DeRobertis´ argument, then, the two elements of selfishness and (implied) materiality are linked in a way that the latter represents the direct cause of the first. The increased selfishness flooding American society (Lasley, 1987, p. 674) appears not to be an isolated problem, lacking practical and visible consequences. Waldman, in his publication, in fact, warns against this trend: “What are the foreseeable and possible consequences [of selfishness]? One consequence will be a continuation of what we see already, an unacceptable and unsustainable degree of inequality” (2007, 111).

4.2 Study limitations

I believe there are three main limitations to my study. The first one, as already mentioned, concerns the size of the two corpora in analysis, which, compared to the ones contained in similar studies on the same topic, is definitely smaller. The second limitation concerns the unusual approach of this study, which tried to be as omni- comprehensive as possible. Given the impossibility of developing in-depth every aspect of the project, some implications may need a strengthening in their theoretical approach: the risk of aiming at a bigger picture is always to disregard details. The third and last limitation concerns the impossibility of obtaining absolute objectivity in the categorization of the lyrics, according to the semantic principles mentioned above. The academic debate about the connection between semantics and music is still far from Towards Selfishness and Materiality26 saturation, thus my method would need further investigation and approval from the scientific community.

5 Concluding remarks

In conclusion, this study has provided two different types of results, quantitative and qualitative, on the way the three macro-themes of love, lust, and narcissism have evolved over time, in the American scenario, from the early 1970s to the late 2010s. In light of these results, it is possible to summarize the following conclusions: modern lyrics (in the corpus analyzed) present a decrement of the theme of love, an increment of the theme of lust, and the presence of a new theme, narcissism, which could not be individuated in the older lyrics. In terms of how these three themes are differently expressed in modern music, it is safe to say that they all reflect a rising focus on a selfish attitude, linked to a more abstract concept of materiality. These two elements, drawn out of the specific context of music, found a concrete projection on the current societal trends in America. As mentioned more than once throughout this paper, the field of ethnomusicology (which this paper aims at belonging to) is a relative new subject, thus the amount of theory surrounding it is, in my opinion, still insufficient. Further studies on this discipline could find in this paper the starting point from which elaborating a more substantial connection between language in music and its reflection on societies. Also, by using my same approach, it would be interesting to replicate this study increasing the size of the corpora.

Word count: 8766 Towards Selfishness and Materiality27

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Appendices

APP.I SONG REFERENCES “Panda” (2016) “You are now listening to the hottest Producer” / “Goin' out like I'm Montana” / “Man I'm the macho like Randy” / “I got bitches pull up and they get it” “Humble” (2017) “Girl, I can buy yo' ass the world with my paystub” / “If I quit your BM, I still ride Mercedes, funk. If I quit this season, I still be the greatest, funk” / “I'm the realest nigga after all” “Bad and Boujee” (2017) “I swear these niggas is under me” / “I'm young and rich and plus I'm bougie, so my money makin' my back ache” / “Wait, these niggas watchin', I swear to God they be my clones” “Congratulations” (2017) “They said I wouldn't be nothing Now they always say congratulations: yeah, we made it” “I´m the one” (2017) “the money never lie no: I'm the one” / “I'm the best yet, and yet, my best is yet to come” / “I'm a legend” “Xo Tour Life” (2017) “Gon' leave you, won't leave me I call it that Casanova” “Mask off” (2017) “Four-door Maybach; I drive anything Buy my Range, make 'em go insane” / “I level up when god says so” / “Ten dividends gon' grow when I say "grow"/ “Ain't no penny that I don't touch: all my enemy bite on dust” / “I mean, I'm floatin', I got the sauce, got the potion” “Unforgettable” (2018) “It's not gonna work for you, nobody can equal me” / “ “24 k magic” (2018) “I'm a dangerous man with some money in my pocket” / “can I preach? I gotta show 'em how a pimp get it in” / “everywhere I go they be like Oh, so player!” “God´s plan” (2018) “Hope I got some brothers that outlive me They gon' tell the story, shit was different with me: God's plan”

“Havana” (2018) “This is history in the makin', on me” “Rockstar” (2018) “I done made the hot chart” “Psycho” (2018) “My money thick, won't ever fold” “I like it” (2018) “I do what they say I can't” / “They call me Cardi Bardi, banging body, Spicy mami, hot tamale. Hotter than a Somali / “Drop the top and blow the brains” / “This is the new religion” “Lucid dreams” (2018) “You found another one, but I am the better one” Towards Selfishness and Materiality32

“Finesse” (2018) “Yeah, know we'll turn heads forever So tonight I'm gonna show you off” / “We out here drippin' in finesse” / “Don't it feel so good to be us?” “Old Town Road” (2018) “I been in the valley, You ain't been up off the porch” / “My life is a movie” “Wow” (2019) “I know it piss you off to see me winnin': see the igloo in my mouth when I be grinnin'” / “It's a moment when I show up, got 'em sayin', "Wow”!” / Used to have a lot, but I got more now” “7 rings” (2019) “I see it, I like it, I want it, I got it” / “I bought a crib just for the closet” / “I don't mean to brag, but I be like, "Put it in the bag” / “I got the juice: nothing but net when we shoot. Look at my neck, look at my jet: ain't got enough money to pay me respect” “Sicko mode” (2019) “All of these hoes I made off records I produced I might take all my exes and put 'em all in a group” / “Who put this shit together? I'm the glue” / ”When I shoot my shot, that shit wetty like I'm Sheck” “High hopes” (2019) “Didn't know how but I always had a feeling I was gonna be that one in a million” “Thank you next” (2019) “Now, I'm so amazing” / ” look what I got” / “I turned out amazing” “Truth hurts” (2019) “I don't play tag, bitch I been it” “The box” (2019) “I'm a 2020 president candidate” “Don´t start now” (2019) “Look at where I ended up: I'm all good already” “Rockstar” (2020) “It's safe to say I earned it: ain't a nigga gave me nothin´” “Life is good” (2020) “Baby got a ego twice the size of the crib” / “Manor house in Rosewood, this shit too plush” “Say so” (2020) “He ain't never even been impressed like this” / “Realer than anybody you had, and pretty” “What´s poppin´?” (2020) “I got options: I could pass that bitch like Stockton” / “In the 'Ville and I move like a don” “Savage” (2020) “I'm way too exclusive, I don't shop on Insta' boutiques” / “I'm the shit: I need a mop to clean the floor, it's too much drip”

APP.II SONG REFERENCES “Get ready” (1970) “Start makin´love to you” “Make it with you” (1970) “I want to make it with you” “Hitchin´a ride” (1970) “Gotta get me home, keep her satisfied” “Abc” (1970) “Get up girl show me what you can do shake it “Maggie May” (1971) “You turned into a lover and a mother” Towards Selfishness and Materiality33

“One bad apple” (1971) “I could satisfy you too” “Go away little girl” (1971) “I know that your lips are sweet. When you're near me like this, you're much too hard to resist“ “Knock three times” (1971) “I can feel your body swaying one floor below me. You don't even know me”

“Brandy you´re a fine girl” (1972) “Brandy walks through a silent town and loves a man who's not around” “Nice to be with you” (1972) “It's so nice to hear you say you're gonna please me in every way” “My ding-a-ling” (1972) “I want you to play with my ding-a-ling” “I gotcha” (1972) “Now give me what you promised me” “Baby, don´t get hooked on me” (1972) “I´ll just use you, then I´ll set you free” “Bad, bad Leroy Brown” (1973) “And oh that girl looked nice! Well, he cast his eyes upon her” “Let´s get it on” (1973) “Let´s get it on” “The night the lights went out in “I've been with her myself” Georgia” (1973) “Brother Louie” (1973) “She’s only looking at me, I’m her lover” “Me and mrs. Jones” (1973) “Me and Mrs. Jones we got a thing goin' on. We both know that it's wrong, but it's much too strong to let it go now “Dancing machine” (1974) “She such a sexy lady/dynamyte attraction! Watch her get down as she do her thing Right on the scene, shake it/move it babe” “One hell of a woman” (1974) “She's one hell of a woman, young, strong and tame, but soft when she loves me […]”

APP.III SONG REFERENCES “One dance” (2016) “If you're down, I'll take it slow Make you lose control” “Work” (2016) “Work*” *´Work´is Jamaican patois for the term ´sex´ “Can´t stop the feeling” (2016) “All those things I should do to you…but you dance” “Closer” (2016) “So, baby, pull me closer in the back seat of your Rover […] Bite that tattoo on your shoulder” “Needed me” (2016) “You was good on the low for a faded fuck” “My house” (2016) “Baby take control now, we can't even slow down” “Shape of you” (2017) “Although my heart is falling too, I'm in love with your body, and last night you were in my room, and now my bedsheets smell like you” “That´s what I like” (2017) “You and your ass invited” / “Sex by the fire at night” “Humble” (2017) “That pussy good, won't you sit it on my taste buds?” “Bad and Boujee” (2017) “ (We) fuckin' on your bitch” “Body like a back road” (2017) “The way she fit in them blue jeans, she don't need no belt, but I can turn 'em inside out [...] Towards Selfishness and Materiality34

Got hips like honey, so thick and so sweet”

“I´m the one” (2017) “She want a nigga that pull her hair” “XO tour life” (2017) “Every time that you leave your spot Your girlfriend call me like "Come on over"

“Mask off” (2017) “All the ass go unveil” / “I done fucked so much I can't sleep.I done fucked so much I'm retired” / “Get your ass up and be inspired” “Unforgettable” (2017) “I got a hard head but her ass soft” “Havana” (2018) “Bump on her bumper like a traffic jam” “Rockstar” (2018) “I've been fuckin' hoes” / “Your girlfriend is a groupie, she just tryna get in” / “Now she actin' outta pocket tryna grab up on my pants. Hundred bitches in my trailer say they ain't got a man and they all brought a friend” / “Bitches jumpin' in the pool and they ain't got on no bra: hit her from the back, pullin' on her tracks And now she screamin' out, "No más”!” “Psycho” (2018) “I can make the ass drop. I'm hittin' lil' mama” “The middle” (2018) “I need you on my skin” “In my feelings” (2018) “And when you get to topping, I see that you've been learning” “Girls like you” (2018) “Girls like you love fun and, yeah, me too” “Nice for what” (2018) “Gotta make that ass jump” “Finesse” (2018) “I love the way it feels when we grind” “Boo´d up” (2018) “Feeling all over my body, you know how I like it Ain't gotta tell you what to do” “Old town road” (2019) “I cheated on my baby. […] My life is a movie: bull riding and boobies” “Sunflower” (2019) “She wanna ride me like a cruise” “Bad guy” (2019) “I like it when you take control, even if you know that you don't. Own me, I'll let you play the role. I'll be your animal” “Wow” (2019) “Pull up to the house with some big butts ,turn the kitchen counter to a strip-club” “Sicko mode” (2019) “We ain't even make it to the room: […] now I got her open” “Dancing with a stranger” (2019) “Can you light the fire? I need somebody who can take control” “Senorita” (2019) “Every touch is ’ooh’! Sweat dripping off me Before I even knew her name. Her body fit right in my hands” “Say so” (2020) “Boy, stop playing, grab my ass” “What´s poppin´?” (2020) “She said, "Babe, does it hurt when I deep throat?" Certified freak hoe...” “Life is good” (2020) “I put the pussy on the shirt” Towards Selfishness and Materiality35

“The box” (2020) “She suckin' on dick, no hands with it” “Savage” (2020) “Bitch, I'm lit like a match, and any nigga I let hit is still attached. That body right, but you know this pussy fat”

APP.IV SONG REFERENCES “Bridge over troubled water “(1970) “When tears are in your eyes, I'll dry them all. I'm on your side […] I will comfort you I'll take your part” “Long to be” (1970) “Why do birds suddenly appear every time you are near? Just like me, they long to be close to you”

“Ain’t no mountain high enough” “If you need me call me/call my name, don’t worry, I set (1970) you free, I told you you could always count on me darling/baby, my love is alive way down my heart, if you ever need a helping hand/in trouble I’ll be there” “I’ll be there” (1970) “I’ll reach out my hand to you/have faith in all you do/be there to comfort you with a love that’s strong/to protect you with an unselfish love that respects you/build my world of dreams around you, if you should ever find someone new I know he better be good to you honey” “Get ready” (1970) “You make my dreams a real, i never met a girl could make me feel the way you do, get ready, I’m bringing you a love that’s true” “Hitchin’ a ride” (1970) “I’m on my way, been away too long from my baby’s side, gotta get me home to my baby’s side” “ABC” (1970) “I’m gonna teach you/let me tell you all about love, sit down“ “Maggie May” (1971) “I wish I never seen your face, I love you anyway, you’re everything, you turned into a lover and a mother” “I feel the earth move” (1971) “I feel the earth move under my feet/the sky tumbling down my heart start to trembling whenever you're around” / “I just got to have ya, baby” “One bad apple “ (1971) “I’ll give you love’s guarantee that you won’t be hurt again, to me you're like a dream come true, I'd rather hurt myself than to ever hurt you” “Just my imagination” (1971) “We'll always be this free We will be living for the love we have Living not for reality”

“Knock three times” (1971) “Read how many times I saw you, how in my silence, I adore you and only in my dreams did that wall between us come apart” Towards Selfishness and Materiality36

“Me and Bobby McGee” (1971) “Bobby shared the secrets of my soul, I called him my man” “Tired of being alone” (1971) “I love you so, Sometimes I wonder If you love me like you say you do, I been thinkin' about it/ wantin' to get next to you baby” “The first time ever that I saw your “The first time ever I saw your face face” (1972) I thought the sun rose in your eyes And the moon and the stars were the gifts you gave to the dark and the endless skies, my love” “Brand New Key” (1972) “I been looking around a while. You got something for me: oh, I got a brand new pair of roller skates, you got a brand new key […]I think that we should get together And try them out, you see”

“Daddy don’t you walk so fast” (1972) “If only for the sake of my sweet daughter I just had to turn back home right there and then, and try to start a new life with the mother of my child” “Let’s stay together” (1972) “I'm so in love with you.” / “Loving you forever Is what I need”/ “Brandy you’re a fine girl” (1972) “At night, when the bars close down, Brandy walks through a silent town and loves a man who's not around” “Nice to be with you” (1972) “I love all the things ya say and do, You're there to pick me up and help me to carry on” / “Baby, you and me have got somethin' that's real” / “When you need a shoulder to cry on, I'm there to ease the pain and chase away the rain” “Tie a yellow ribbon ‘round the Ole Oak “It's been three long years, do you still want me? […] I'm Tree” (1973) really still in prison and my love, she holds the key” “Let’s get it on” (1973) “I've been really tryin', baby, tryin' to hold back this feeling for so long: I love you” “My love” (1973) “Only my love holds the other key to me” / “

“Touch me in the morning” (1973) “I can’t watch love die in the warmth of the night. If I've got to be strong, don't you know I need to have tonight when you're gone? 'Till you go I need to lie here and think about the last time that you'll touch me in the morning” “Brother Louie “ (1973) “Babe, don't let him steal your heart [...] Girl, this game can't last forever: why we cannot live together?Don't let him take your love from me […] I'm in love, set her free.”

“Delta Dawn” (1973) “She walks down town with a suitcase in her hand, looking for a mysterious dark-haired man (a man of low degree stood by her side Towards Selfishness and Materiality37

and promised her he'd take her for his bride) “Me and Mrs. Jones” (1973) “Our thing is strong, Holding hands, making all kinds of plans: […] we can't afford to build our hopes up too high” “Seasons in the sun” (1974) “Think of me and I'll be there. We had joy, we had fun” “Love’s theme” (1974) “I know that the melody that made him MINE Will be the melody that keeps him close to me” “Come and get your love” (1974) “ Come and get your love ’ […] cause you're fine and you're mine” “Midnight at the oasis “ (1974) “Got shadows painting our faces and traces of romance in our heads” “You make me feel brand new “ (1974) “I'll never find the words, my love To tell you how I feel […] Only you, care when I needed a friend, gratitude and love.Without you life has no meaning” “Show and tell” (1974) “These are the eyes that never knew how to smile till you came into my life […] Every day and every night [...] I love you girl, so show me, and tell me that you feel the same way too

APP.V SONG REFERENCES “One dance” (2016) “Got a pretty girl and she love me long time” “Despacito (remix) ” (2017) “You are my sunrise on the darkest day. Got me feelin’ some kind of way, make me wanna savor every moment slowly: you fit me, tailor-made love” “Say you won’t let go” (2017) “I'll wake you up with some breakfast in bed. I'll bring you coffee with a kiss on your head and I'll take the kids to school, wave them goodbye and I'll thank my lucky stars for that night”

“God’s plan” (2018) “She say, "Do you love me?" I tell her, "Only partly: I only love my bed and my momma, I'm sorry” “Perfect” (2018) “Be my girl, I'll be your man. I see my future in your eyes” “Meant to be” (2018) “As long as you're right here next to me, everything's gonna be alright” / “I'm tired of the fake love, show me what you're made of, boy, make me believe” “Havana” (2018) “My heart is in Havana [...] I knew it when I met him, I loved him when I left him “Boo’d up” (2018) “I think I might die without you” “Sunflower” (2019) “Every time I'm walkin' out I can hear you tellin' me to turn around, fiightin' for my trust, and you won't back down, even if we gotta risk it all right now. Then you're left in the dust, unless I stuck by ya” “Talk” (2019) “I've never felt like this before […] I've been dreamin' 'bout it and it's you I'm on” Towards Selfishness and Materiality38

“Sucker” (2019) “We go together better than birds of a feather, you and me […] and, baby, you know it's obvious I'm a sucker for you. You say the word and I'll go anywhere blindly” “Blinding Lights” (2020) “I've been on my own for long enough. Maybe you can show me how to love […] I'm drowning in the night. When I'm like this, you're the one I trust” “Adore you” (2020) “I get so lost inside your eyes.You don't have to say you love me. You don't have to say nothing. You don't have to say you're mine” “The bones” (2020) “Life sure can try to put love through it, but We built this right, so nothing's ever gonna move it”

Songs database

Bridge over troubled water They long to be-Close to you American Woman Raindrops keep falling on my head War Ain’t no mountain high enough I’ll be there Get ready Let it be Band of Gold Mama told me (not to come) Everything is beautiful Make it with you Hitchin’ a ride ABC Joy to the world Maggie May Reason to believe It’s too late I feel the earth move One bad apple How can you mend a broken heart? Indian Reservation (The Lament of the Cherokee Reservation Indian) Go away little girl Take me home, country roads Just my imagination (running away with me) Knock three times Me and Bobby McGee Tired of being alone Want ads The first time ever that I saw your face Towards Selfishness and Materiality39

Alone again (naturally) American Pie Without you The candy man I gotcha Lean on me Baby, don’t get hooked on me Brand new key Daddy, don’ t you walk so fast Let’s stay together Brandy (you’re a fine girl) Oh girl Nice to be with you My ding-a-ling Tie a yellow ribbon ‘round the ole oak tree Bad, bad Leroy Brown Killing me softly with his song Let’s get it on My love Why me Crocodile rock Will it go ‘round in circles? You’re so vain Touch me in the morning The night the lights went out in Georgia Playground in my mind Brother Louie Delta Dawn Me and Mrs. Jones The way we were Seasons in the sun Love’s theme Come and get your love Dancing machine The loco-motion TSOP The streak Bennie and the Jets One hell of a woman Until you come back to me (that’s what I’m gonna do) Jungle boogie Midnight at the oasis You make me feel brand new Show and tell Love yourself Sorry Towards Selfishness and Materiality40

One dance Work Stressed out Panda Hello Don’t let me down Can’t stop the feeling! Closer Cheap thrills Seven Years Needed me My house I took a pill in Ibizia Shape of you Despacito (Remix) That’s what I like Humble Something just like this Bad and boujee Body like a back road Believer Congratulations Say you won’t let go I’m the one XO TOUR Llif3 Mask off Unforgettable 24k magic God’s plan Perfect Meant to be Havana Rockstar Psycho I like it The middle In my feelings Girls like you Nice for what Lucid dreams Better now Finesse Boo’d up Old town road Sunflower Without me Towards Selfishness and Materiality41

Bad guy Wow Happier 7 rings Talk Sicko mode Sucker High hopes Thank you, next! Truth hurts Dancing with a stranger Senorita Blinding lights Circles The box Don’t start now Rockstar Adore you Life is good Memories The bones Someone you loved Say so I hope What’s poppin’? Dance monkey Savage