Curious about this framing: why position the tension with time as the 'real' one versus the tension with mainstream pop? Couldn't both be equally central to the album? I'd love to see Lana Del Rey's sentiment analysis, but I guess all of her songs carry the same sentiment.
That's a great observation, and I agree the tension with mainstream pop is a huge part of the conversation! For this article on Lorde, the goal was a comparative study of her internal evolution—how she's shifted tonally and lyrically across her own discography.
And yes, Lana Del Rey is definitely next for a deeper dive into "The Algorithm Listens."
Computational text analysis was a brilliant lens. Truely insightful.
Glad you liked there, I'm doing an analysis of more artists soon!
Curious about this framing: why position the tension with time as the 'real' one versus the tension with mainstream pop? Couldn't both be equally central to the album? I'd love to see Lana Del Rey's sentiment analysis, but I guess all of her songs carry the same sentiment.
That's a great observation, and I agree the tension with mainstream pop is a huge part of the conversation! For this article on Lorde, the goal was a comparative study of her internal evolution—how she's shifted tonally and lyrically across her own discography.
And yes, Lana Del Rey is definitely next for a deeper dive into "The Algorithm Listens."
Quantifying the we-to-I shift makes it unavoidable. This feels more like documentation than criticism
Here's the TL;DR version of this:
• Lorde’s lyrics shift from collective identity to isolation.
• Pronoun usage tracks emotional distance over time.
• Sentiment volatility increases as proximity to power grows.
• The albums form a single continuous narrative.
• Computational analysis validates the emotional arc.