If you’ve ever had the thought that the world seems crankier now than it was when you were 12, or that something about the post- pandemic world seems more chaotic and darker than it did before—well, researchers have turned up some data that suggests it’s even worse than you think.
The researchers in question analyzed the last 60 years of pop song lyrics – something like 400,000 songs– to track the worldview indicated by the language in them. And the results are disturbing: we’re singing about cheating, harm, degradation, anger, and disgust way more often, and decency, care, and other virtues way less (Preniqi et al., Scientific Reports, 2026).
I’m sorry to report, gentlemen, that male pop singers are more likely to embrace the dark side than women. The point is that pop music reflects society, how it feels about itself and what it thinks about the world, and that visage in the mirror has been getting nastier and nastier over the 60 years tested.
Other researchers have confirmed these sad findings in various ways. The top hits have become more about negative emotions. Pop music has become more about “me” than anyone else. Words like “serenity” and “joy” are gradually disappearing, to be replaced by their negative counterparts.
What pop tunes tell us probably matters not just because of how it reflects social trends, but also in how it shapes them. A pop hit can become an anthem and teach millions of impressionable kids how to give voice to their emotions – and pull them toward the dark side by making it OK to identify with those feelings.
A few years ago, in 2021, I wrote about the 20th anniversary of 9/11 and found myself thinking along similar lines. Reflecting on how the communications world had changed, I noted five trends: gatekeepers giving way to do-it-yourself social media, a thirst for more authentic voices, executives having to become vulnerable storytellers, some progress on inclusivity, and mostly, speed. As we’ve all experienced, the world keeps hurtling faster toward the future, every moment. Mostly, and tragically, the world forever lost some of its joy on 9/11. This 60-year study of pop tunes suggests that it hasn’t been a blip caused by a world-shaking event, but rather a gradual, and measurable, slide into the dark.
Let’s take a moment to mourn the loss of joy in the world. We’re no longer capable of the innocent joys that once made our eyes light up. Similarly, the mechanized slaughter of WWI killed a generation’s ideas about honor and chivalry in war – for better and for worse, but mostly for worse.
If we pull in other suggestive research about the hybrid world – HBR’s study about how hybrid workplaces have weaker cultural connections – and the alarming finding that Americans are scoring lower on IQ tests across the board – and we have reason to be alarmed about the state of so-called Western Civ. Put these things together and
they paint an alarming picture of our state of mind here in the U.S. and Europe.
What can leaders do about this? Should they preach to the choir, and talk more doom and gloom? I don’t think that’s the answer, and I don’t think it’s helpful to ignore these trends either. I think that rather leaders need to reflect honestly what they are seeing and still hold out a vision of a more positive future that we might all work toward.
Let’s step up to the difficult moment we find ourselves in, and point to solutions that give us something beneficial to work toward. This is not the darkest era humanity has ever faced, nor is it a simple matter of hoping for the best. We need leaders who fully embrace both what’s in front of us and what the hard work is we need to undertake
collectively to make it better.
