JAN 18 WHICH CITY APPEARS IN THE MOST SONG LYRICS?

JAN 18  WHICH CITY APPEARS IN THE MOST SONG LYRICS?

The Research and Development Team here at the DUNER BLOG spends countless hours scouring the Internet for life-changing studies. This week, they found a gem. It comes from an unlikely source, Celebrity Cruises. They analyzed each of the 200,000+ songs that made it onto either the US or UK pop charts. They counted each time a geographic location appears in the lyrics. Here's the results:

New York City is on the top, being mentioned in 161 songs. Frank Sinatra did it best in the 1950's...he included the state name as well. In the 1970's Billy Joel had a New York State of Mind, while twenty years later, Jay-Z had an Empire State of Mind. In second place is London. Since the British charts are included in the study, an iconic song like The Clash's 'London Calling' is included. It hit #11 in the UK, but never cracked the US Billboard charts. Wow...That's some stellar research!

The third, fourth and fifth place spots are all basically the same place: Los Angeles (88), California (68) and Hollywood (66). Singing about the Golden State got off to a roaring start in the sixties, with the Beach Boys leading the way. Interestingly, Randy Newman's anthem 'I Love L.A.' never charted, but Kool & the Gang's 'Hollywood Swinging' did. Go figure. Rounding out the top ten is Paris, Miami, New Orleans, Brooklyn and Rome.

An interesting finding in the study was the celebration of geography in the rap and hip-hop genre. See, rappers love to boast about the places they're from. Harlem came in at #15 and Compton is #19. Rappers also love to boast about the places they've been. Canadian singer Drake mentions 29 different places in his hits...which is tops of any artist. In second place in this category is Jay-Z. He references 26 locales...including Versailles and Rotterdam...in his tracks.

See? This study links two of your favorite things: Tunes and Travel. "Music can inspire where we travel and bring back emotive memories of the places where we've been," explains Jo Rzymowska, the person at Celebrity Cruises who headed the research. She's right: Once upon a time I was driving a minivan across the George Washington Bridge at midnight when 'Hold On' by Wilson Philips came on the radio. Every time I've heard that dreadful song since, I'm back on that spectacular bridge over the Hudson River.