#Pop songs are ‘the happiest and most upbeat’ they’ve been in years

By Daniel Hammond, The Sun

POP songs are the happiest and most upbeat in years, data shows.

The tempo of the top 20 is at an 11-year high.

Dua Lipa, The Weeknd and Lady Gaga have released faster tracks despite Covid-19.

Pop had been getting slower in the past few years, with the likes of Ariana Grande using hip-hop influences in songs.

Lyrics also took a darker turn, with themes of loneliness, fear and anxiety.

By 2017, the average tempo of a hit single in Britain was 104 beats per minute, down from 124 bpm in 2009.

But just three years later, the trend is now in reverse with an average bpm in 2020 of 122.

The BBC analyzed info from AcousticBrainz, which has data on 50 million songs, with ratings for danceability, energy and positivity.

Music expert Charlie Harding said: “An upbeat shift happened in the Great Depression and the Second World War.

“We need sounds that help us forge a path to the world we want to live in, not the one we are inhabiting.”