Analyzing Similarities in Song Lyrics by Decades

Analyzing the lyrics of most popular songs over the span of four decades.

We will analyze the similarities between songs that came out in a span of four decades. This will be done by collecting the lyrics of top five songs from each decade using the Genius api and applying topic modeling on them to see if we are able to categorize them by their genres.

The list of songs were taken from the Billboard Top Charts (by decade):

Most Popular Songs in the 1980's

1. Physical by Olivia Newton John
2. Bette Davis Eyes by Kim Carnes
3. Endless Love by Lionel Richie
4. Eye of the Tiger by Survivor
5. Every Breathe you Take by The Police

Most Popular Songs in the 1900's

1. How Do I Live by LeAnn Rimes
2. Too Close by Next
3. Un-Break MY Heart by Toni Braxton
4. Floolish Games / You Were Meant For Me by Jewel
5. Everything I Do I Do It for You by Bryan Adams

Most Popular Songs in 2000's

1. No One by Alicia Keys
2. Yeah by Usher ft Lil Jon and Ludacris
3. Low by Flo Rida ft T-Pain
4. I Gotta Feeling by The Black Eyed Peas
5. How You Remind Me by Nickelblack

Most Popular Songs in 2010's

1. Uptown Funk by Mark Ronson ft Bruno Mars
2. Party Rock Anthem by LMFAO
3. Shape of You by Ed Sheeran
4. Closer by Chain Smokers ft Halsey
5. Girls Like You Maroon 5 ft Cardi B

Topic 1

1. I Gotta Feeling
2. Shape Of You
3. Every Breath You Take
4. Endless Love
5. How Do I Live
6. Party Rock Anthem

Topic 2

1. Low
2. Too Close
3. Un-Break My Heart
4. Physical
5. Closer
6. Bette Davis Eyes

Topic 3

1. No One
2. (Everything I Do) I Do It for You
3. Foolish Games
4. Eyes of a Tiger
5. How You Remind Me
6. Girls Like You

Topic 4

1. Yeah
2. Uptown Funk

The chart below represents how all the songs were divided unde the four topics.