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Study: Lyrics of No. 1 Hit Songs Average a Third-Grade Reading Level
breitbart.com ^ | May 19, 2015 | Daniel Nussbaum

Posted on 05/19/2015 8:46:45 PM PDT by PROCON


Have you ever been driving along, listening to the latest hit song on a Top 20 radio station, and thought, “Man, these lyrics are really dumb?”

Well, you’re not alone.

According to a new study conducted by data wiz Andrew Powell-Morse, the lyrics for the last decade’s No. 1 hit songs average a third-grade reading level. Powell-Morse analyzed 225 songs that had spent three or more weeks atop the Billboard charts in four different genres (R&B/Hip-Hop, Country, Pop, and Rock) and found that a second-grader with slightly higher-than-average reading comprehension skills would have no problem grasping the lyrics.

While the study’s findings seem obvious to anyone who has flipped on a radio in the last few years, there are a number of surprising points in the data.

According to the study, country music is the “smartest” genre lyrically, with an average grade-level of 3.3. Pop and rock tie at 2.9, while today’s hip-hop could be fairly well-understood by a second-grader in the latter half of the school year.

(Excerpt) Read more at breitbart.com ...


TOPICS: Chit/Chat
KEYWORDS: 2016election; 3rdgrade; berniesanders; election2016; freecollegetuition; lowinfovoters; morons; popmusic; racism; reparations; vermont; whiteprivilege
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Interesting, but not surprising study.

And these fine folks vote too.

I just can't figure out who they vote for.</sarc>

Several other graphs at linky.

1 posted on 05/19/2015 8:46:45 PM PDT by PROCON
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To: PROCON

“Why don’t we do it in the road?”

LOL


2 posted on 05/19/2015 8:50:29 PM PDT by rockrr (Everything is different now...)
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To: PROCON

Where there ain’t no one for to give you no pain...

Baby, I’m-a want you / Baby, I’m-a need you


3 posted on 05/19/2015 8:50:40 PM PDT by Beowulf9
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To: rockrr

Number nine, number nine......


4 posted on 05/19/2015 8:54:32 PM PDT by BBell (Cult of the Sacred Drunken Wookiee)
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To: rockrr

“Imagine...”


5 posted on 05/19/2015 8:55:17 PM PDT by Norm Lenhart
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To: PROCON

Lyrics have to be simple. Not possible to blend long words and sentences with a tune anyone would choose to listen to.


6 posted on 05/19/2015 8:55:54 PM PDT by Will88
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To: PROCON

They can sound more sophisticated, however, when translated into Latin:

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/1001719/posts


7 posted on 05/19/2015 8:56:00 PM PDT by ClearCase_guy ("It's not easy being drunk all the time; everyone would do it, if it were easy.")
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To: PROCON

That high a level?


8 posted on 05/19/2015 8:56:14 PM PDT by TBP (Obama lies, Granny dies.)
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To: PROCON

I see a little silhouetto of a man,
Scaramouche, Scaramouche, will you do the Fandango?
Thunderbolt and lightning,
Very, very frightening me.
(Galileo) Galileo.
(Galileo) Galileo,
Galileo Figaro
Magnifico.


9 posted on 05/19/2015 8:56:27 PM PDT by Rebel_Ace (HITLER! There, Zero to Godwin in 5.2 seconds.)
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To: PROCON

In the desert, you can’t remember your name
‘Cause there ain’t no one for to give you no pain.

I’ve heard New Mexico desert lizards humming that one.


10 posted on 05/19/2015 8:57:53 PM PDT by tumblindice (America's founding fathers: all armed conservatives.)
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To: ClearCase_guy
Holy Mackerel, taking it back 12 years!

Wow, there are posters there that don't post anymore or who are RIP.

11 posted on 05/19/2015 8:59:54 PM PDT by PROCON (CRUZing into 2016 with Ted.)
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To: PROCON

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mmX6NhyHtTk


12 posted on 05/19/2015 9:00:05 PM PDT by Kirkwood (Zombie Hunter)
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To: PROCON

Ebony and ivory live together in perfect harmony
Side by side on my piano keyboard, oh Lord, why don’t we?


13 posted on 05/19/2015 9:00:52 PM PDT by ConservativeStatement ("World Peace 1.20.09.")
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To: Will88

I wonder what the reading level for my favorite band (RUSH) is. Although agreed - the thoughts might be lofty but the words aren’t exactly rocket science.

excerpts from “Natural Science”

When the ebbing tide retreats
Along the rocky shoreline
It leaves a trail of tidal pools
In a short-lived galaxy
Each microcosmic planet
A complete society...

A quantum leap forward
In time and in space
The universe learned to expand
The mess and the magic
Triumphant and tragic
A mechanized world out of hand

Computerized clinic
For superior cynics
Who dance to a synthetic band

In their own image
Their world is fashioned-
No wonder they don’t understand.....


14 posted on 05/19/2015 9:02:18 PM PDT by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
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To: PROCON

The old Bobby Darin song - Roses are red, my love, Violets are blue, Sugar is sweet, But not as sweet as you.


15 posted on 05/19/2015 9:02:18 PM PDT by Ciexyz
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To: PROCON
Seems we've come a long way from the fall of 1933, when the number-one smash hit Smoke Gets In Your Eyes included the verbs "to chaff" and "to deride" in its lyrics.
16 posted on 05/19/2015 9:02:22 PM PDT by Fiji Hill
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To: PROCON

They say this like it’s a bad thing.


17 posted on 05/19/2015 9:02:55 PM PDT by dr_lew
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To: Ciexyz

Yeah, but those were great old love songs, which didn’t include any perversions like we have today.


18 posted on 05/19/2015 9:04:03 PM PDT by PROCON (CRUZing into 2016 with Ted.)
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To: PROCON

Remember when the days were long
And rolled beneath a deep blue sky
Didn’t have a care in the world
With mommy and daddy standin’ by
But “happily ever after” fails
And we’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers dwell on small details
Since daddy had to fly

But I know a place where we can go
That’s still untouched by men
We’ll sit and watch the clouds roll by
And the tall grass wave in the wind
You can lay your head back on the ground
And let your hair fall all around me
Offer up your best defense
But this is the end
This is the end of the innocence

O’ beautiful, for spacious skies
But now those skies are threatening
They’re beating plowshares into swords
For this tired old man that we elected king
Armchair warriors often fail
And we’ve been poisoned by these fairy tales
The lawyers clean up all details
Since daddy had to lie


19 posted on 05/19/2015 9:06:24 PM PDT by Rebel_Ace (HITLER! There, Zero to Godwin in 5.2 seconds.)
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To: Fiji Hill

I think that got made into a rap song.

Dat weed be fine
Makes me blind
the smoke gets in my eyes.

On the other side
Her knees be chaffed
as I gave her deride.


20 posted on 05/19/2015 9:06:35 PM PDT by 21twelve (http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2185147/posts It is happening again.)
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