David Mora and Michelle Jia wondered if it’s true that they don’t make love songs like they used to:

The proportion of love songs in the 1960s was 23%. In the 2020s, it’s 12%. The proportion of love songs has almost halved! So, was Boomer Bob right? Are love songs, in fact, dying?

Not quite: we think Boomer Bob has too narrow a view of love. Sure, these lovey-dovey tunes have declined. But what about other songs? What about Adele’s Someone Like You? Or T-Pain’s Buy U a Drank? Or WAP? If we look more closely, we uncover a story that will change how you see love in pop music.

A thoroughly engaging visual and aural exploration of the evolution of the love song. Today’s “love songs” are much more… nuanced.

As with most pieces from The Pudding, the methodology is as interesting as the results, so be sure to read “Nerds: learn about our methods and data” at the end. Of particular interest to me: the use of ChatGPT 4o, with an extensive prompt, to help label songs. I may have more to say about this in the future.

Is the Love Song Dying?

We categorized songs in the Billboard Top 10 to see if love songs are on the decline.

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