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........

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