Is there a Rhythm Of The Rain? An analysis of weather in popular music

Sally Brown; Karen L. Aplin; Katie Jenkins; Sarah Mander; Claire Walsh; Paul D. Williams

doi:10.1002/wea.2464

Is there a Rhythm Of The Rain? An analysis of weather in popular music

Sally Brown, Karen L. Aplin, Katie Jenkins, Sarah Mander, Claire Walsh, Paul D. Williams

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

6 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Weather is frequently used in music to frame events and emotions, yet quantitative analyses are rare. From a collated base set of 759 weather-related songs, 419 were analysed based on listings from a karaoke database. This article analyses the 20 weather types described, frequency of occurrence, genre, keys, mimicry, lyrics and songwriters. Vocals were the principal means of communicating weather: sunshine was the most common, followed by rain, with weather depictions linked to the emotions of the song. Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the most weather-related songs, partly following their experiences at the time of writing.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	198-204
Number of pages	22
Journal	Weather
Volume	70
Issue number	7
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1002/wea.2464
Publication status	Published - 1 Jul 2015

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10.1002/wea.2464

http://doi.wiley.com/10.1002/wea.2464

Cite this

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title = "Is there a Rhythm Of The Rain? An analysis of weather in popular music",

abstract = "Weather is frequently used in music to frame events and emotions, yet quantitative analyses are rare. From a collated base set of 759 weather-related songs, 419 were analysed based on listings from a karaoke database. This article analyses the 20 weather types described, frequency of occurrence, genre, keys, mimicry, lyrics and songwriters. Vocals were the principal means of communicating weather: sunshine was the most common, followed by rain, with weather depictions linked to the emotions of the song. Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the most weather-related songs, partly following their experiences at the time of writing.",

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AB - Weather is frequently used in music to frame events and emotions, yet quantitative analyses are rare. From a collated base set of 759 weather-related songs, 419 were analysed based on listings from a karaoke database. This article analyses the 20 weather types described, frequency of occurrence, genre, keys, mimicry, lyrics and songwriters. Vocals were the principal means of communicating weather: sunshine was the most common, followed by rain, with weather depictions linked to the emotions of the song. Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the most weather-related songs, partly following their experiences at the time of writing.

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