Scientific Love
Interpreting positive hormonal affect through factorial descriptors applied within the context of themes identified through qualitative analysis of popular song lyrics.
Introduction
They say the world has had enough of silly love songs. This posited truth is rebuffed by Heizmann CPA (2023) who cites studies indicating up to 67% of songs reflect “love themes”.
Pleasurable emotional experiences, such as love, trigger our brain’s mesolimbic system to release hormonal rewards including dopamine, serotonin and oxytocin (Science Direct, 2013). This neurotransmitted activation leads the subject to pursue that reward again, again, again and again as observed in laboratory conditions where small placental mammals solve complex pathway problems to satiate pre-trained stimuli.
Such experiments confirm continued exposure to positive emotions can establish long-term alterations to the brain’s mesolimbic dopamine pathway creating a ‘reward circuit’ which begins in ventral termental area above the brain stem (Powledge, 1999). Put simply love is an addiction and there is social and scientific benefit in understanding this emotional crutch.
This paper also considers the vexed question of “who gets to experience love”. Literature typically describes romantic heroes as a force of nature, physical and untamed with good hair and 20-20 eyesight. This skewed sampling of the general population could negatively impact genetic diversity and again, there is significant social benefit to explore pathways for alternative amorous archetypes into popular culture.
Method
Lapping-Carr (2024) describes love as a series of overlapping components:
Infatuation/ desire
Sexual desire
Attachment
This paper considers the top 100 love songs listed by Dave Tompkins at the University of Waterloo (Canada). In the interests of efficiency this researcher invites you to access the full list via the link below.
https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~dtompkin/music/list/Best13.html
Firstly, these songs were categorised according to eleven types of observed love and then compared to Lapping-Carr’s research outcomes.
| Observed song categories | Comparison to Lapping-Carr |
|---|---|
| Unrequited love |
Infatuation |
| Wooing (I want to love you) |
Sexual desire |
|
New love |
Attachment |
|
Love with conditions |
Infatuation |
|
In love |
Attachment |
|
Don’t leave me |
Desire |
|
It’s complicated |
Oh no!!! |
|
On-again, off-again love |
Infatuation |
|
Separated |
Infatuation |
|
Break-up |
She didn’t get this far (probably still in love) |
|
Religious love |
Attachment |
The researcher notes the strong correlation between this categorisation and observed social media status updates.
Where the primary categorisation appeared insufficient a second sub-category was applied.
For example, wooing can be described according to the following emotional statements:
I’m a good alternative to nothing
I really want to hang onto you
I’m feeling horny
Please be in love with me
I’m feeling insecure, you do like me don’t you?
Results
Graph 1: Categorisation of top 100 love songs
Most songs described people in love (34%) or wanting to be in love (27%). Unfortunately, 61% of love songs described a state of “non-love”. There are two potential implications for this finding.
Most people are romantically unhappy
Only romantically unhappy people write love songs
The category “wooing" was further analysed to gain insight to this paper’s second challenge “how we do broaden romantic opportunities for alternative amorous archetypes?”.
Graph 2: Wooing and it’s subcategories
Half of all songs categorised as “wooing” were seeking love, 27% were just seeking a good time.
It is likely this latter category of songs were written:
While drunk
By people with active Tinder profiles
These songs included:
Whole lotta love (Def Leppard)
I’ll make love to you (Boyz II Men)
This researcher is reassured that 8% of songs classified as “wooing” were written from the perspective of people in love and wanting to commit to that love more deeply.
These songs included:
Islands in the stream (The Beach Boys)
Love me tender (Elvis Presley)
Conclusions and application
This researcher must declare a conflict of interest. Since commencing this study lightning has struck and I have found love. Yes a nice lady with her own lab and protractor set is now willing to hold this individual’s hand on pre-identified occasions.
In response to this situation I have applied these learnings to write lyrics and an accompanying melody according to the following categorisation “wooing-I really want to hang on to you”.
The lyrics of this song factorially lists a series of statistically significant situations where other intrepid investigators might further pursue this research. To aid this and to present the outcomes of this project please use the link below to access a lyric video.
https://youtu.be/zWEW83TV5M8
Special notes
This person notes that Diane Warren deserves particular recognition for her contribution to the love song genre.
A full version of this paper is available that includes tables detailing the analysis of all 100 songs. Please fill out the contact form below to receive a free copy.
References
Heizmann, S. (2023). https://www.linkedin.com/posts/stevenheizmanncpa_the-percentage-of-songs-about-love-is-notably-activity-7127690724464103424-UviJ/
Lapping-Carr, L. R. (2024, February). The Science Of Love: What’s Happening in Your Body. Northwestern Medicine. https://www.nm.org/healthbeat/healthy-tips/emotional-health/the-science-of-love
Powledge, T. M. (1999). Addiction and the brain. BioScience, 49(7), 513–519. https://doi.org/10.2307/1313471
Science Direct. (2013). Mesolimbic Pathway - an overview | ScienceDirect Topics. Sciencedirect.com. https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/neuroscience/mesolimbic-pathway
Tompkins, D. (2024). VH1 - 100 Greatest Love Songs (Music Database :: Dave Tompkins). Uwaterloo.ca. https://cs.uwaterloo.ca/~dtompkin/music/list/Best13.html