Comparison of Lyrics in Popular Song<\/strong><\/p>\n

This small study compares common themes in two collections of popular songs chosen by two groups of participants in community music groups in Ireland. The two groups for the purpose of this comparison are :<\/p>\n

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• Group A: residents at a nursing home in Kerry aged 70 plus and all Irish by birth<\/li>\n
• Group B: A mixed age & ethnicity adult education group attending a community education course at a community centre in Cork city.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n

  Both groups worked over a period of weeks with a community music facilitator developing skills in singing together as a group. Over the duration of the course the groups selected favourite songs to sing as their repertoire. There was no pre-selection by the facilitator and the participants suggested ideas for songs from their own repertoires and backgrounds.<\/p>\n

  The purpose of the analysis in this blog is to examine these songs using a text analysis tool\u00a0Voyant<\/em><\/a> ,in order to see whether themes emerge from each song collection and to draw conclusions based on that information. Do the themes emerging from the two groups overlap or correlate? Does this give some insight into the commonest themes in popular song in Ireland or in popular song generally?<\/p>\n

  Each group came up with a \u2018songbook\u2019 of selected songs. In order to examine the findings it is useful to interrogate each separately and then to make comparisons. Group A\u2019s songbook was made up of the following songs, largely traditional ballads:<\/p>\n

  GALWAY BAY<\/p>\n

  MY LOVELY ROSE OF CLARE<\/p>\n

  RED IS THE ROSE<\/p>\n

  COUNTRY ROADS<\/p>\n

  WHEN YOU\u2019RE SMILING<\/p>\n

  KATE\u2019S SONG<\/p>\n

  THE HOUSE OF THE RISING SUN<\/p>\n

  WHISKY IN THE JAR<\/p>\n

  WILL YOU GO, LASSIE, GO<\/p>\n

  TOORA LOORA LOORA<\/p>\n

  SALLY GARDENS<\/p>\n

  BLUE MOON<\/p>\n

  ALWAYS ON MY MIND<\/p>\n

  YOU ARE MY SUNSHINE<\/p>\n

  OH SUSANNA<\/p>\n

  DIRTY OLD TOWN<\/p>\n

  THE MOUNTAINS OF MOURNE<\/p>\n

  THE CLIFFS OF DOONEEN<\/p>\n

  WHEN I\u2019M SIXTY FOUR<\/p>\n

  THE STAR OF THE COUNTY DOWN<\/p>\n

  THE SHORES OF AMERIKAY<\/p>\n

  SPANCIL HILL<\/p>\n

  CLARE TO HERE<\/p>\n

  NORA<\/p>\n

  COME FROM THE HEART<\/p>\n

  When the text from these songs was entered into Voyant the following word cloud result emerged:<\/p>\n