Content analysis of the lyrics of contemporary British pop music (based on the lyrics of popular British singer Ed Sheeran)

Abstract

Songs as a musical composition that combine melodic and verbal components may strongly affect the audience. Creative and engaging, the songs may also spread malevolent messages and debauched attitudes, which entails negative impact of musical idols upon the immature worldview of the youth. On the example of popular songs of the outstanding British singer, producer, musician and actor Ed Sheeran the author finds relevant to reveal the underlying concept of the lyrics and the image created by the performer. The research employs the method of continuous sampling method, online services Istio, Miratext. and software Tropes for carrying out content analysis. The article examines the singles Bad Habits, Perfect, Shape of You, Photograph, Thinking Out Loud, Afterglow, I Don’t Care (feat. Justin Bieber), Happier, Beautiful People (feat. Khalid), Galway Girl that are in the top ten chart. The total amount of words in the lyrics of the selected songs was 3724. The conducted analysis reveals that the underlying concept of the lyrics – "happy love"," close relationships"," philosophy of life", alongside personal traits of Ed Sheeran such as kindness, desire to help people in tough life situations, create the image of a person worthy of respect.