Frequency of Queer Language in American Popular Music

This research was based on exploring group-specific communication within the United States’ LGBTQ+ community—this was specified to language, then further specified to inter-community slang. The subject of popular music was chosen because it is influenced by language and widely known, and music was related to communication by choosing to analyze song lyrics. Music from the year 1970 (subsequently using slang identified as from the 1960s) was chosen because of the sexual revolution and increasing protests carried out by LGBTQ+ people during this time, and the year 2020 (using slang from the 2010s), as this is the cap year of the most recent decade. To analyze both quantitatively and qualitatively, methods included statistical tests of frequency and categorization of associated emotional terms. Two 2-sample z-tests were performed: the number of queer slang terms used in lyrics (against the number of queer slang terms not used in lyrics) between 1970 and 2020 were tested, and the number of words within lyrics that could also be identified as queer slang terms (against the number of words within lyrics that could not also be identified as queer slang terms) between 1970 and 2020 were tested. The lyric lines within which queer slang terms were identified were analyzed using the emotions from Dr. Gloria Willcox’s Feelings Wheel, categorized into the sections ‘angry,’ bad,’ ‘disgusted,’ fearful,’ happy,’ sad,’ or ‘surprised.’ It was concluded that no true difference could be identified in the frequency and influence between American popular music from the years 1970 or 2020.