Lyrics do matter: how “coping songs” relate to well-being goals. The COVID pandemic case

Introduction: In stressful times, people often listen to “coping songs” that help them reach emotional well-being goals. This paper is a first attempt to map the connection between an individual’s well-being goals and their chosen coping song. Methods: We assembled a large-scale dataset of 2,804 coping songs chosen by individuals from 11 countries during COVID-19 lockdown. Individuals reported their well-being goals and also named their coping song. We applied an unsupervised topic-modeling approach to identify 15 self-emerging topics from the song lyrics, and connected them to well-being goals. Results: We found significant association between certain lyrics’ topics and specific well-being goals. This association weakened for participants for which music is highly important. No significant patterns were found for the songs’ acoustic features. Discussion: This paper posits that song lyrics, despite their brevity and presumed simplicity, can be meaningful for self-regulation of emotional states, and should receive more attention by researchers and streaming services alike.