For this project we analyzed the difference in word use between three albums written at different times by the same artist, with the intention of observing differences in language over time. We studied the frequency that positive, negative, romantic, and violent words were used. We also initially observed how often proper nouns or names as well as words that describe food were used, but later realized that the results did not contribute to our research and discarded the data. For the project we compared the word use between our two main study groups, The Normal Album, released in 2020, and “In Case I Make It”, released in 2022. We then added a control group for comparison and looked at the contrast between each of our first two albums and our third choice. The third album we chose to analyze was Self-ish, released in 2017.
Figure 1: Comparison of language between “In Case I make It” (left) and The Normal Album (right)
Figure 2: Comparison of language between Self-ish (left) and “In Case I Make It” (right)
Figure 3: Comparison of language between Self-ish (left) and The Normal Album (right)
Observations:
Figure 1: The chart shows that use of positive, negative, and romantic words are both relatively equal between “In Case I Make It” and The Normal Album. However, there is a noticeably larger amount of violent words in The Normal Album. this result is interesting because while The Normal Album is just as romantic and positive as its counterpart, it is also much more aggressive and violent.
Figure 2: This chart demonstrates that “In Case I Make It” has generally more of the words we looked for across the songs. Both songs, however, use more romantic words than anything else. This result is interesting because it shows a consistency in the music the artist has written, even though these two albums were released five years apart.
Figure 3: This graph looks strikingly similar to figure two, in terms of the general increase of use of the words we looked for. this result is interesting because it shows that Self-ish is not aligned more closely with either one of the other two subjects, and it stands nicely both outside and in between the two groups.
