Music affects and in some cases reflects one's emotional state. Key to this influence is lyrics and their meaning in conjunction with the acoustic properties of the track. Recent work has focused on analysing these acoustic properties and showing that individuals prone to depression primarily consume low valence and low energy music. However, no studies yet have explored lyrical content preferences in relation to online music consumption of such individuals. In the current study, we examine lyrical simplicity, measured as the Compressibility and Absolute Information Content of the text, associated with preferences of individuals at risk for depression. Using the six-month listening history of 541 Last.fm users, we compare lyrical simplicity trends for users grouped as being at risk (At-Risk) of depression from those that are not (No-Risk). Our findings reveal that At-Risk individuals prefer songs with greater information content (lower Compressibility) on average, especially for songs characterised as Sad. Furthermore, we found that At-Risk individuals also have greater variability of Absolute Information Content across their listening history. We discuss the results in light of existing socio-psychological lab-based research on music habits associated with depression and their relevance to naturally occurring online music listening behaviour.
翻译:这种影响的关键在于歌词及其含义,以及音轨的声学特性。最近的工作重点是分析这些声学特性,并表明容易抑郁的人主要消费低价和低能音乐。然而,还没有研究到与这类个人在线音乐消费有关的病态内容偏好。在本研究中,我们研究了语言简单性,以文字的压缩和绝对信息内容来衡量,这与有抑郁风险的个人的偏好相关。我们利用541 Last.fm用户的六个月监听史,我们比较了被归为处于低价和低能音乐风险(At-Risk)的抑郁症患者的简单性趋势。我们的调查结果显示,At-Risk人喜欢普通的、特别是以萨德为特征的歌曲为衡量的更多信息内容(低调)的歌曲。此外,我们发现At-Risk人在其监听历史史上也具有更大的可变性。我们从现有社会心理-心理-风险与不测的实验室行为研究中,从当前社会-心理-精神-感应得的音乐习惯的角度,讨论其与自然-感官的实验室行为的相关性。