Working Paper
Atypicality and Cultural Success
Jan 25, 2018
Uses natural language processing to examine the relationship between lyrical differentiation (i.e., atypicality) and song popularity. Using Billboard’s digital download rankings and Dirichlet allocation, calculates differentiation (atypicality) as the absolute value difference between a song’s lyrics and the genre mean. Uses OLS regression to examine the relationship between lyrical differentiation and song performance.