Melody and Mood:
How Social Mood Trends Define Popular Culture
GAINESVILLE, Ga. / October 14, 2009 – Want to know why Showtime's Dexter, a show about a “good” serial killer who kills “bad” serial killers, is more popular than HBO's short-lived The Comeback? Or why noise artists have a better chance of breaking into the big time in a bear market than do bubblegum boy bands? Look to the financial markets, which reflect negative and positive social moods.
"By studying popular music and TV shows over the past six decades, we found that happy, poppy music tops the charts when a bull market is in sway," says Matt Lampert, who wrote Melody and Mood in the October Socionomist. "Conversely, grunge music made it big during the bear market of the 1990s."
Euan Wilson writes about television programming in his article, titled,
Television and the Dark Side: How Social Mood Affects Programming. Lampert
and Wilson make the case that social mood influences the success of popular
music and TV shows. Their latest analysis builds on work done by Robert
Prechter in the 1970s and '80s and is published by the Socionomics Institute,
a research think tank and educational center that studies social behavior
as it relates to the financial markets.
Socionomics is a new science of social prediction based on social mood,
naturally occurring waves of optimism and pessimism. Financial markets are
the most sensitive indicator of the ever-changing social mood. For instance,
an increasingly positive social mood generates bull markets, whereas an
increasingly negative social mood generates bear markets.
Wilson says, “TV programs that were happy, fun and simple, like Leave It
to Beaver, defined the prosperous mood of the 1950s and early 1960s. But
during bear markets, controversial and ground-breaking shows tend to rise
to the top, as ‘All in the Family’ did in the 1970s."
Wilson and Lampert analyze the worldwide social-mood collapse of 2008 and
the rebound of 2009, and offer a succinct forecast on what kinds of music
and TV programming should be successful in the coming waves of social mood.
As Lampert says, "If you enjoy discordant and experimental styles of
music, you can look forward to what you will hear during the next leg down
in the financial markets. If not, enjoy the melodic pop and upbeat hip hop
songs now while they last."
About The Socionomics Institute
The Socionomics Institute, based in Gainesville, Ga., studies social mood
and its role in driving cultural trends. The Institute’s analysis is published
in the monthly research review, The Socionomist. Learn more at
www.socionomics.net.
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Note to Media: For a copy of the study or to arrange an interview
with Euan [pronounced 'you-un'] Wilson or Matt Lampert, contact Alexandra Lienhard at (770) 536-0309, alexandral@socionomics.net.