Is there a Rhythm Of The Rain? An analysis of weather in popular music

Brown, S., Aplin, K. L., Jenkins, K., Mander, S., Walsh, C. and Williams, P. D. ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-9713-9820 (2015) Is there a Rhythm Of The Rain? An analysis of weather in popular music. Weather, 70 (7). pp. 198-204. ISSN 0043-1656 doi: 10.1002/wea.2464

Abstract/Summary

Weather is frequently used in music to frame events and emotions, yet quantitative analyses are rare. From a collated base set of 759 weather-related songs, 419 were analysed based on listings from a karaoke database. This article analyses the 20 weather types described, frequency of occurrence, genre, keys, mimicry, lyrics and songwriters. Vocals were the principal means of communicating weather: sunshine was the most common, followed by rain, with weather depictions linked to the emotions of the song. Bob Dylan, John Lennon and Paul McCartney wrote the most weather-related songs, partly following their experiences at the time of writing.

Item Type	Article
URI	https://reading-clone.eprints-hosting.org/id/eprint/40739
Identification Number/DOI	10.1002/wea.2464
Refereed	Yes
Divisions	Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > NCAS Science > School of Mathematical, Physical and Computational Sciences > Department of Meteorology
Uncontrolled Keywords	Music;songs;lyrics;keys;weather;sun;rain
Publisher	Wiley
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