Can the Key Signature, Mode, and the Beats per Minute of a Song Predict the Emotional Tone of Popular Music Lyrics?

The Dictionary of Affect (Whissell, 2009) was used to analyze the lyrics in popular music to determine if the emotional tone of the lyrics (pleasantness, activation, and imagery) was associated with various components of the popular music (key signature, mode, and beats per minute).The first analysis (N = 80 songs; 21,176 words) examined the relationship between the key signature (for example, the keys of A, B, C, D, E, F, or G; disregarding the major or minor mode) and the emotional tone of the lyrics, but no significant associations were noted.In the second investigation (N = 60 songs; 17,281 words), the song's mode (major or minor key signatures) was related to significant differences in the lyrics' pleasantness (p = .028).Song lyrics written in major modes (M = 55.5) were significantly more pleasant than those written in minor modes (M = 52.8);however, the mean pleasantness of the minor song lyrics was still in the pleasant range for the Dictionary of Affect.