The conversation connects to my research, where I examine how collective stress and societal shifts are reflected in pop lyrics over time.

Nothing gives me more pleasure than talking about music I love on the radio (including Hoagy Carmichael’s “Stardust,” which we touched on in the interview). 😉

FM4 Interview Podcast - FM4 Interview mit Psychologen Markus Foramitti zu Stress und Musik Poptrends kommen und gehen. In Zeiten von TikTok und Co. immer schneller. War noch vor einem Jahr ein Revival des sogenannten „Recession Pop“ angesagt, hat man vor ein paar Wochen mit „2026 is the new...

I was recently invited to speak on FM4 about stress, societal mood, and pop music.

We discussed what trends like “Recession Pop,” “2026 is the new 2016,” and “Tradpop” might reveal about the cultural zeitgeist.

You can listen to the full interview here:
lnkd.in/dazrB4nJ

Had a fantastic time presenting my research at the Nature of Music conference in Vienna 🤓

Inspiring to see so much thoughtful interdisciplinary work at the intersection of music, psychology, and science. Grateful for the engaging discussions and new ideas

Nice to see the media echo of our recent paper on how stress, sentiment, and lyrical complexity in popular music have changed from 1973–2023 - and what this says about collective mood regulation through music 🎵
Summary by the University of Vienna:
psychologie.univie.ac.at/news-medienb...

Societal crises disrupt long-term increases in stress, negativity, and simplicity in US Billboard song lyrics from 1973 to 2023 - Scientific Reports This study examines diachronic trends in stress-related language, sentiment, and lyrical complexity in popular music’s lyrics from 1973 to 2023, exploring how major societal shocks influenced people’s music preferences and offering insights into collective mood management through music. Over 20,000 lyrics of songs in the US Top 100 charts during this period were analyzed using Natural Language Processing techniques, with stress-related language assessed using a dictionary-based approach (LIWC), sentiment estimated via a rule-based sentiment analysis tool (VADER), and complexity via the LZ77 compression algorithm. Our analysis reveals a significant increase in stress-related language, alongside declines in positive sentiment and lyrical complexity over five decades. Surprisingly, societal shocks like COVID-19 coincided with attenuations rather than amplifications of these trends, indicating a preference for emotion-incongruent music, which may serve as a form of emotion regulation, such as escapism. When controlling for long-term trends, we found no significant relationship between income growth and stress or sentiment in lyrics. In contrast, periods of high-stress language corresponded with increased lyrical complexity. These results support the notion that music plays a dual role in collective mood management, functioning as mood management and regulation, depending on the context and intensity of societal emotions.

Over the past 50 years the lyrics of popular songs in the US have become simpler, more negative, and contain more stress-related words, according to an analysis in Scientific Reports. The authors suggest that their findings reflect the complex ways people use music to navigate stress. 🧪

PULS 4 Doku: Stress: Freund oder Feind? Stress, Stress und noch mal Stress – niemand mag ihn. Alle wollen ihn loswerden. Jeder 2. Österreicher meint: Stress ist schädlich. Stress nimmt zu, u

@adreisoerner.bsky.social and @markusforamitti.bsky.social appeared on camera for a PULS 4 documentary on the topic of stress — with an expert interview, a guided meditation and insights into a stresstest. 🔬🎊

👉 Check it out:
www.joyn.at/filme/puls-4...

Thanks so much to the collaborators working with me on this project: @mauriciojdmartins.bsky.social @clauslamm.bsky.social & Urs Markus Nater

Great joint effort by the @stresslabvienna.bsky.social and @scanunit.bsky.social 🧠🫀🎵

Societal crises disrupt long-term increases in stress, negativity, and simplicity in US Billboard song lyrics from 1973 to 2023 - Scientific Reports Scientific Reports - Societal crises disrupt long-term increases in stress, negativity, and simplicity in US Billboard song lyrics from 1973 to 2023

New paper out! 🥸
Over the last 50 years, people have gravitated toward music with increasingly negative, stressful, and simpler lyrics. Societal crises like COVID-19 disrupted these long-term trends, suggesting escapist music preferences at a societal level. 🎶🧠

www.nature.com/articles/s41...

Had a great talk today at the ISGMA conference about our project combining musicological and psychological approaches to understand how sound artifacts are perceived and experienced. 🔔🧠

Thanks to everyone who stopped by and engaged with the ideas! Great event hosted by @fwf-at.bsky.social

🔔 Part 7 in our #WASAD2025, @wasadorg.bsky.social, series:

@markusforamitti.bsky.social presented his poster: “Modulating Stress through Sound: The Effects of Historical Metallic Idiophones on Human Responses.”

🫠Part 5 in our #WASAD2025, @wasadorg.bsky.social, series:

@markusforamitti.bsky.social presented his talk “Regulating Collective Emotion Through Music: Diachronic Analysis of Stress, Sentiment, and Complexity in Lyrics (1973–2023)” in the Everyday life stress session.🙃

Great experience presenting at the WASAD Congress! I discussed how Natural Language Processing can advance stress research and how music functions as a cognitive artifact. @wasadorg.bsky.social

Grateful to collaborate with @mauriciojdmartins.bsky.social @clauslamm.bsky.social & Urs Nater

#WASAD

🌍 We are excited for the 5th International World Association for Stress Related and Anxiety Disorders (WASAD) Congress in Munich! 🎉
@wasadorg.bsky.social

Check out our oral presentations below and don’t miss us at the poster session! 📊
@celinebencker.bsky.social
@markusforamitti.bsky.social

Then, @markusforamitti.bsky.social will follow up with a fascinating exploration of how music helps regulate collective emotion in his talk: "Regulating Collective Emotion Through Music: Diachronic Analysis of Stress, Sentiment, and Complexity in Lyrics (1973–2023)" 📝🎶

🎵 Part 7 in our #ICBM2025 series!

Markus Foramitti @markusforamitti.bsky.social presented his poster, "Sounds of the past – Effects of historical idiophones on psychological and physiological stress".

🎶 Part 3 in our #ICBM2025 series!

Markus Foramitti @markusforamitti.bsky.social‬ presented his poster, "Insights into Societal Mood Regulation Through Music - Diachronic Analysis of Stress, Sentiment, and Complexity in Popular Music Lyrics."

At the recent Kinderuni Day @univie.ac.at young explorers discovered what stress is, how it affects us, and how to fight it—with music and mindfulness!

Huge thanks to Dr. Stefanie Hirsch, @markusforamitti.bsky.social, and Rojan Amini-Nejad for leading this hands-on workshop in our stresslab!

We found:

- Long-term rise in stress-related language & negativity
- Decline in lyrical complexity
- But trends reversed or attenuated after 9/11 & COVID, hinting at escapist music choices in times major societal stress

Check out our new preprint with @mauriciojdmartins.bsky.social @clauslamm.bsky.social & Urs Markus Nater

We analyzed over 20,000 US Top 100 song lyrics (1973–2023) to trace how stress, sentiment, and lyrical complexity reflect changing psychological states over time.

Link to preprint: osf.io/c7a8r

Our Music & Health members, Anna Fekete and Markus Foramitti @markusforamitti.bsky.social presented at 2nd Meeting of the Vienna Network of Music and Cognition Research (ViNoMaRe). We enjoyed connecting with Vienna's vibrant interdisciplinary research community and engaging in inspiring exchanges!🎶

Beate-Maria Pomberger (@nhmwien.bsky.social) & Jörg Mühlhans, @markusforamitti.bsky.social explored how we perceive historical auditory stimuli. The sounds of excavated and replicated historical idiophones revealed differences in psychoacoustic properties.👂🔍 tinyurl.com/3twr3495
@fwf-at.bsky.social

Recently,a TV crew from Puls 4/JOYN visited our lab and shot scenes for a documentary about stress featuring our team members (@adreisoerner.bsky.social and @markusforamitti.bsky.social).The documentary is set to air next year, stay tuned! For now, here are some behind-the-scenes photos as a teaser.

Komplex Einfach Podcast · Franca · Einfache Lösungsansätze für komplexe Probleme: Musik bei Stress, Atemübungen bei Schlafstörungen oder eine Gesichtsmassage bei Kopfschmerzen? Unsere heutige Leistungsgesellschaft br...

🎙️ New Podcast!

@MarkusForamitti joined Franca Schönenberger on Komplex Einfach to explore how music can reduce stress. 🎶✨

🎧 Listen now:
Spotify: open.spotify.com/show/3kJlPhd...
Apple: podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/k...
Share your thoughts! 💬 #Podcast #StressRelief #MusicTherapy

Excited to welcome Markus Foramitti, our newest PhD student, to the team!
Markus brings a blend of psychology, musicology, and biophysiology to his work on the fascinating interactions between stress and music.
#PhD #Research #MusicAndStress

Unser Teamkollege Markus Foramitti gab in "Aktuell nach 1" auf ORF 2 Einblicke in die positiven Auswirkungen von Musik auf die Gesundheit und innovative Methoden, diese zu erforschen. Hier geht's zur Sendung in der TVThek: tvthek.orf.at/profile/Aktu...