According to an analysis of 174 chart-topping songs of 2009, ninety-two percent contain "reproductive messages." That's a classy way of saying they're about sex. SUNY Albany professor, Dawn R. Hobbs parsed the songs by genre and theme, and boy are the results unsurprising. R&B songs had the most explicit sex-related phrases, while country songs skewed towards themes of commitment, fidelity, and rejection. (Taylor Swift, we're looking at you.) But of course, the overriding theme was all the same: let's get it on.
The study went on to compare today's music to that of the past, dating back to the time when opera was all the rage. And guess what? Nothing's really changed. Is there anything other than love, sex, and heartbreak to sing about? I think the kids from Glee would say no (though your favorite politically relevant indie band would probably disagree).
It'd be interesting to see what effect (if any) pop music has on our own sex lives. Everybody does what Katy Perry and Justin Timberlake tells them to, right?