A limited amount of previous research suggests that deteriorating socioeconomic conditions may be associated with greater popularity of music lyrics featuring negative emotional content and references to relationships. The present research considered this in charting popular music before and during the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic. A dataset based on the song lyrics of the top-5 charting weekly songs in the United Kingdom and the United States from January 1999 to August 2020 was computer-analyzed for interpersonal variables, such as satisfaction and human interest, and positive and negative emotional valence. Results indicated lower satisfaction and human interest in lyrics in the United States and United Kingdom in the first 6 months of the COVID-19 pandemic compared to the lyrics in charting songs in 2015–2019. The US charting songs in 2020 also saw higher leveling and negative emotional content, and, when considering monthly data from 1999 to 2020, there was a positive association between economic misery and the number of negatively valenced words. The findings broaden our understanding of the relationship between significant global events and trends in popular music.

之前有限的研究表明，不断恶化的社会经济条件可能与带有负面情绪内容和人际关系参考的音乐歌词更受欢迎有关。本研究在 COVID-19 大流行之前和前 6 个月的流行音乐图表中考虑了这一点。基于 1999 年 1 月至 2020 年 8 月英国和美国排名前 5 位的每周排行榜歌曲歌词的数据集对人际关系变量进行了计算机分析，例如满意度和人类兴趣，以及积极和消极的情绪效价. 结果表明，与 2015-2019 年排行榜歌曲中的歌词相比，在 COVID-19 大流行的前 6 个月，美国和英国对歌词的满意度和人类兴趣较低。2020 年的美国排行榜歌曲也出现了更高的层次和负面情绪内容，在考虑 1999 年至 2020 年的月度数据时，经济苦难与负面价值词的数量之间存在正相关关系。这些发现拓宽了我们对重大全球事件与流行音乐趋势之间关系的理解。