Does Sex Sell In Music?
By: Riccardo Bresaola
Tags: University Of Kent, Sex, Writing In The Media, Music, Love

Or is it in fact love that really sells?

It has been argued that “sex sells”, and many have complained or celebrated the fact that modern pop music has become more sexualised, but to what extent would it be true to say that “sex sells in music”?

Hey wait a minute that’s not the right phrase you don’t fool me (Image by Nick Fewings on unsplash)

A study was undertaken by Superdrug on the prevalence of sex and love in pop music from 1960 to 2015 (specifically in lyrics, which is what this article will focus on).

11 year old me would be so stoked that I could say “sex” in my homework in ten years time

As you can see sex in popular music has had a huge spike since the 90s, while love has declined since the early 90s. Some may suggest that this means that sex really does sell, but it is worth noting that sex mentions peak at a little over 1,500, while love mentions peak at approximately 25,000. Okay cool, article over, sex doesn’t sell, it’s all about love dude… right?

Well no, but you’re free to leave if you want I guess. Please don’t though I swear things will stay/finally become interesting. While sex appears significantly less than love, the fact that such a significant increase has occurred is still not something that should be ignored, especially when looked at through the context of 21st century society and media. Occurrences of sexual content on television almost doubled between 1997 and 2001. It is therefore clear that the rise of sex in popular music is still significant enough to look into.

You may find yourself wondering why this increase in sexual music has happened. Either way, I’m going to tell you why and hope you read it. This increase is overall due to more ability to do so and more of a receptive audience to sex in pop music. The 80s were to some degree characterised by social conservatism hitting back against media overstepping boundaries that these conservatives had decided were too far. This led to a kickback culture of “sticking it to the man”, and the increase of drugs and partying as subjects of music in the 90s, largely thanks to gangster rap and R&B, and thanks to MTV as a new more free platform.

If you’re still reading this and you’re wondering why love is so prominent then I’ve completed the hat-trick of predicting what you’re wondering so give me claps please. Love has been the subject of pieces of music for a rather long time, to the point where it’s honestly surprising we haven’t gotten bored of it (unless you’re Ne-Yo in 2005, then you wrote an entire song about being fed up with them. PS Ne-Yo if you’re reading this, where did you go mate? You were great. Also how long are brackets allowed to go on for before it’s obnoxious?). Love in music dates back as long ago as the 8th century BC, with Homer’s poems the Iliad and Odyssey set to musical accompaniment (absolute banger by the way). As pop music continued evolving from Homer’s club classics, love didn’t go anywhere, it carried on being a dominant theme in many chart-topping hits. In the 2000s specifically, this can be partially attributed to country artists continued songs about love taking over the US charts.

Rascal Flatts, Toby Keith, Brooks & Dunn, and Kenny Chesney were four of the top five artists in the 2000s, and let’s be real Nickelback are country’s butt rock cousin so they may as well be included. Then between 2010 and 2015, Taylor Swift was at the top for more than 227 weeks (why? I’ll never know). Tay Tay has spent almost as much time on the charts in five years with songs about love as Journey did in an entire decade. Now you may be saying “Hey, Taylor Swift isn’t country, even that weird start bit wasn’t really country”. To that I say “yeah, you right. But if she is then it fits my narrative way better” so like there were acoustic guitars and a Southern accent on her old songs so she may as well have been country.

Okay, so I know I’ve really been riding my luck with guessing what you’re thinking, but how else do I link my points? Here’s to hoping you’re thinking DOES SEX REALLY “SELL” THEN?!?!?!? Interestingly, sex mentions follow a consistent up and down cycle, peaking for a year or two before falling dramatically, suggesting that sex sells until people get fed up with over-saturation. Additionally, artists who largely mentioned sex but did not mention love would have maximum 50 weeks on the charts, yet artists mentioning sex spent much longer on the charts if they also mentioned love. Also, many artists did well on the charts with many mentions of love with few or no mentions of sex. This once again reinforces the idea that sex itself doesn’t sell, but love definitely sells. One of the most telling examples from this study shows that the leader of sex use James Brown (nice title dude), tops the list with over 40 occurrences of sex in songs on the Hot 100. The leader for love (the Glee cast, remember them? If I had to remember their campaign to butcher as many songs as possible then so will you) has a ridiculous 500 mentions of love. What is worth asking is whether sex sells within specific genres however, since soul, R&B, and hip-hop artists are way ahead on the lists of overall “sex” mentions since 1960.

This would suggest that sex does sell in these areas, although love still does too. So yeah, nice counter point writer of this article, but love is still number one.

Sometimes you don’t need neither sex nor drugs to sell though, for example Michael Jackson isn’t in the top 10 of any of the lists in the study, and I heard he was a pretty big deal. Perhaps there’s more to music than just two words, and actual sonic output is pretty important. Those damn millennials not caring about the lyrics anymore making my article’s points weaker. This article would have banged in the 90s I swear…