Pop/country

In sort-of recent political news, Ted Cruz announced that he was running for president. I didn’t listen to or read his speech, but I gather that all the right-thinking people hated it, which is generally a good sign. Shortly afterwards he was quoted as having said that after 9/11 the pop music he used to love didn’t quite resonate for him, but country music did. The right-thinking reporter suggested that he was probably pandering to his crowd, and that wouldn’t be unexpected for a politician. But the notion that pop was more vapid matched my prejudices, and I decided to try to compare the genres.

I don’t listen to either much, and both genres cover a lot of territory. Rather than try an in-depth survey of both (months of work), I decided to scan through the lyrics of the top 20 in pop and country, as defined by Billboard. That’s not fair at all, since the tail of the distribution could be much vaster than the peak. One sub-genre could be small with a few performers and another have much larger total sales spread among an even larger number of singers. Result—the first winds up in the top list and the second is nowhere, even if the second provides the bulk of industry sales. But I really don’t have the time to do a thorough survey.

A cursory review says the subject matter differs quite a bit. There’s overlap in what you might term “Short-term” relationship, but... I did some relatively arbitrary categorization (some fit it a couple of categories). And by arbitrary I mean that when I went over a second time I got slightly different counts, so the error bars on these are ± 1.

Short answer: I can see why someone would, in time of stress, find country resonating with them better than pop. I’d rather listen to Johnny Cash than Britney Spears myself.

Type	Pop	Country
Sorrow: she left or I screwed up	2	5
Tribal and other	0	6
Long term relationship	2	2
Get to know me	0	2
Short term relations	9	3
Crass (sometimes tribal)	3	2
I’m/We’re crazy	2	0
Second chance please	2	0

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Billboard top 20 pop (10-Apr-2015)

Song	Performer	What is it about?
Sugar	Maroon 5	lovesick for you, heavy sexual theme
Style	Taylor Swift	You’re not good or faithful but let’s be wild together again anyway
Love Me Like You Do	Ellie Goulding	I’m crazy in love with you, love me back again
Uptown Funk!	Mark Ronson Featuring Bruno Mars	I’m sexy, come and get me girls
Thinking Out Loud	Ed Sheeran	Kiss me now, I’ll still love you when we’re old
Somebody	Natalie La Rose Featuring Jeremih	I want to party, I want to have sex
One Last Time	Ariana Grande	I screwed up with you, please give me another chance
Time Of Our Lives	Pitbull & Ne-Yo	I’d rather spend the rent on a party and chance of sex
Earned It (Fifty Shades Of Grey)	The Weeknd	Our relationship won’t turn out well but I don’t care
FourFiveSeconds	Rihanna & Kanye West & Paul McCartney	I’m going to go berserk
Want To Want Me	Jason Derulo	I want you to want to have sex with me
I Want You To Know	Zedd Featuring Selena Gomez	It’s time for us together
Chains	Nick Jonas	I love you, why do you do me wrong?
G.D.F.R.	Flo Rida Featuring Sage The Gemini & Lookas	I’m rich and sexy and if you are sex kinky enough I want you
Outside	Calvin Harris Featuring Ellie Goulding	We’re breaking up. Why?
Night Changes	One Direction	He: don’t worry, let’s do it. She: maybe
Nobody Love	Tori Kelly	We’re in love and I don’t want to be cynical about it like everybody else
Riptide	Vance Joy	I want to marry you, why won’t you come back
Shut Up And Dance	WALK THE MOON	We are bound to be together (but she’s holding something back)
Talking Body	Tove Lo	Sex with you is so great, let’s keep it up

Billboard Country Top 20 (10-Apr-2015)

Take Your Time	Sam Hunt	I want to get to know you
Homegrown	Zac Brown Band	I like my home, my wife, my friends
Ain't Worth The Whiskey	Cole Swindell	I don’t want you to think I’m sad about you breaking up with me
Lonely Eyes	Chris Young	If you’re lonely spend the night with me
Girl Crush	Little Big Town	I want to be like her, then maybe you’d want me back
Drinking Class	Lee Brice	I’m a hard worker, hard drinker, hard player
Say You Do	Dierks Bentley	Pretend you want me like you used to
Homegrown Honey	Darius Rucker	You’re exciting and familiar (first meeting)
A Guy Walks Into A Bar	Tyler Farr	I met her and loved her and she left. It’s a pattern. Everybody else knows it.
Raise 'Em Up	Keith Urban Featuring Eric Church	Live your life fully, family, home, marriage, children
This Is How We Roll	Florida Georgia Line Featuring Luke Bryan	Our tribe has fun our way
Don't It	Billy Currington	Give me a chance
Smoke	A Thousand Horses	I’m infatuated and she permeates my life
Sippin' On Fire	Florida Georgia Line	Ditch him and pick me instead of sneaking off with me
Little Red Wagon	Miranda Lambert	You may like me but I’m a rambler and won’t stick with you
Little Toy Guns	Carrie Underwood	I wish my parents wouldn’t fight, or people speak so cruelly
She Don't Love You	Eric Paslay	My ex doesn’t love you, or trust anybody anymore
Diamond Rings And Old Barstools	Tim McGraw With Catherine Dunn	I wrecked us with my drinking
Wild Child	Kenny Chesney With Grace Potter	I’m in love with her but she can’t commit
Love You Like That	Canaan Smith	Take a chance on me, I’ll be solid
Like A Wrecking Ball	Eric Church	I can’t wait to get home to make love to you