Some musical characteristics are cues to happiness (fast tempo, major mode) whereas others are cues to sadness (slow tempo, minor mode). Listening to music with inconsistent cues (fast/minor, slow/major) leads to mixed feelings and perceptions, or to simultaneous happy and sad responding. Mixed responding is also evident when listeners feel positive about a piece that expresses negative affect, such as when they enjoy sad-sounding music.

Our goal is to examine Americans’ consumption of popular music over the past 50 years in order to identify: (1) emotional cues that music listeners prefer, (2) how these preferences have changed over time, and (3) ways in which preferences associated with emotions co-vary with other socio-cultural phenomena. The sample will comprise the “Top 40” songs from 25 different years spanning five consecutive decades. Each of 1000 songs will be analyzed according to its tempo (in beats per minute) and mode (major or minor). Subsequent analyses will examine if the use of minor mode in popular music has increased over time, if musical tempo has changed over time, and if increases in the use of minor mode have been particularly notable for fast-tempo music (e.g., dance music).