The Most Common Lyrical Themes and Moods on the Billboard Charts: Love Songs in the Lead

What the songs sounded like, lyrically Advertising signthe 2023 charts?

AI-powered hit song analysis platform ChartCipher has launched its own last reportwhich includes three weekly Billboard Hot 100 component charts – Streaming Songs, Radio Songs and Digital Song Sales – and highlights key findings about song lyrical themes and moods in surveys from January 7 to December 30, 2023.

In October 2023, ChartCipher went public, as jointly announced by MyPart and Hit Songs Deconstructed. The platform uses analytics from 10 of Advertising signTop charts dating back to the early 2000s: Hot 100, Streaming Songs, Radio Songs, Digital Song Sales, Hot Country Songs, Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, Hot Dance/Electronic Songs, Hot Rock & Alternative Songs, Pop Airplay and Country Airplay.

Here are three takeaways from Chart Cipher's latest findings on the lyrical composition of chart hits, reflecting performance in Streaming Songs, Radio Songs and Digital Song Sales, through 2023.

Language of love

“In 2023, the theme of love was most prominent in all three charts,” ChartCipher's report notes. “The themes of lifestyle and partying/living were also relatively important, although less so than love. Connection, inspiration/empowerment, and introspection were the least prominent themes, with introspection appearing the least across all charts.”

Love was the top theme last year in each of the surveys that contribute to the Hot 100, playing 51% of radio song engagements, 48% of streaming songs and 44% of digital song sales.

Additionally, over the past five years, love has featured heavily in all three metrics, ranging between 48% and 53% of titles in Streaming Songs, 48% to 51% in Radio Songs and 44% to 47% in Digital Song Sales.

Notable hits with a theme centered around love (whether good or bad or in between) in 2023, ChartCipher reports, included Taylor Swift's “Cruel Summer,” Ariana Grande's “Die for You,” and Ariana Grande's “Last Night.” and Morgan Wallen.

The party didn't end on the radio

While common, as noted above, party hits on the Streaming Songs chart “have seen a significant decline since 2019, falling from 44% to 32% over the five-year period,” ChartCipher's research reveals. Titles in digital song sales “also experienced a decline in the theme, although to a much lesser extent, falling from 32% to 27%.

Conversely (and thankfully), radio played more party hits from 2022 to 2023, with such participations increasing from 30% to 35% on Radio Songs.

Among the 2023 party anthems were David Guetta and Bebe Rexha's “I'm Good (Blue)” and Jimin's “Like Crazy.”

We don't mean to be cynical, but…

While love (in its full range) represented the most common lyrical theme in 2023 on the three-component Hot 100 charts, “Cynicism emerged as the most prominent lyrical mood across all platforms, appearing in roughly half of all songs ,” ChartCipher reports. “This was followed by dramatic or detached moods, which varied according to the chart. Songs that evoked a happy mood accounted for just under a third of the songs across all formats.”

(ChartCipher differentiates between song themes and moods, with a theme defined as the general lyrical meaning of a song, such as love, lifestyle, or party, while mood reflects a range of emotions evoked by a song's lyrics, from sadness to happiness and more.)

Not to be further cynical, but Radio Songs hits increased on cynical lyrics from a 43% share in 2022 to 52% in 2023.

To end on a positive note, “Both streaming songs and digital song sales saw a peak in cynically-themed lyrics in 2021, followed by a subsequent decline in 2022,” notes ChartCipher. Cynicism in Streaming Songs continued its downward trajectory – such titles trended 63%, 59% and 52% in 2021, 2022 and 2023, respectively – while digital song sales entries essentially stabilized.