“Approximately 92% of the 174 songs that made it into the [Billboard] Top 10 in 2009 contained reproductive messages,” says SUNY Albany psychology professor Dawn R. Hobbs in Evolutionary Psychology. That’s right—“reproductive messages,” our newest favorite euphemism.Those 174 top-selling songs were analyzed in order to determine how many sexy messages they contained in any of 18 sexy categories, including “arousal,” “sexual prowess,” and “genitalia.” There was an average of 10.49 sex-related phrases per song, with R&B being head-and-shoulders(-and-maybe-some-other-body-parts) above the two other musical genres analyzed, country and pop. “Sexual appeal” was the most popular theme among both R&B and pop songs, while “commitment” (yawn) was most prevalent in country music.
See also: Finding God in the Gaps of Country Music
