Death as portrayed to adolescents through top 40 rock and roll music

Adolescence, Winter, 1993 by Bruce L. Plopper, M. Ernest Ness

Song titles and lyrics also were analyzed to identify attitudes toward death, responses to death, and references to the tangible realities of death. Subcategories within each of these topic areas were developed during this analysis.

Inevitably, a number of songs containing death-related elements were excluded because they clearly did not meet the operational definition used in this study (e.g., "And When I Die" by Blood, Sweat and Tears). Also, several songs were excluded because listeners would require information in addition to the lyrics to know that they were death songs (e.g., "Everything I Own" by Bread and "Knockin' on Heaven's Door" by Bob Dylan).

RESULTS

A total of 90 different death-related songs was identified. There were 69 songs dealing with the deaths of common people, 13 songs about the deaths of celebrities or public figures, and eight novelty songs containing death-related themes. In addition to the 90 songs used for the majority of the analyses, 12 other versions of these songs, recorded by other than the original artists, were included only in the calculations relating to song popularity. All songs used in this study are listed in the Appendix.

The analysis of chart history showed that death-related songs were substantially more popular than other songs reaching the Top 40. While 25.5% of death-related songs reached the No. 1 spot, only 8.6% of other songs reached that position. Additionally, while 57.8% of death-related songs reached the Top 10, only 36.2% of other songs made it that high on the charts.

Death songs about common people

This type of song was introduced late in the 1950s (seven songs), peaked in the 1960s (35 songs), declined slightly in the 1970s (26 songs), and experienced a precipitous drop-off in the 1980s and early 1990s (eight songs). Chronologically, 96% of the songs reaching the No. 1 position and 81% of the songs reaching the Top 10 did so prior to 1975.

Various causes of death were noted. Murder accounted for 24% of the deaths identified, other violent ends such as executions and shooting of criminals accounted for 24%, accidents caused 16%, and suicides caused 9%. War, illness, and disasters were infrequently cited, but natural causes were mentioned the least. Cause of death was unspecified in 23% of the songs, but in many of these songs, natural causes were implied.

Violence of one kind or another was the leading cause of death in each decade through the 1980s. The only other dominant cause of death/decade was accidents, which accounted for 29% of the deaths in songs from the 1960s. Where gender of the deceased could be determined, 70% were males, a percentage that was fairly consistent over time.

Analysis of the relationships described by the lyrics indicated that peer-romance was present in 30% of the songs, although nearly one-third of these songs were about individuals murdering their lovers. Family relationships were described in 22% of the songs, with husband-wife ties present one-third of the time and parent-child ties present two-thirds of the time.