Semantic Homogenization in Italian Popular Music: A Diachronic Analysis
Abstract
In recent years, studies have revealed a decline in semantic variety across popular music lyrics, particularly in English-language songs on streaming platforms like Spotify. This research examines whether a similar trend can be observed in a different linguistic and cultural context: the lyrics of all finalist songs from the 75 editions of the Sanremo Music Festival, Italy's most renowned music competition. What sets this work apart is the development of a flexible and efficient methodology for tracking changes in semantic similarity over time, which can be applied to different datasets to study similar phenomena. Drawing on a combination of full-text, segment-based, topic-based, and word-level analyses, the approach leverages both embedding techniques and large language models. When applied to the Sanremo corpus, this framework reveals a gradual move toward increasing semantic uniformity, echoing the global patterns identified in previous studies. These findings underscore the value of natural language processing tools in uncovering long-term shifts in musical language and cultural expression.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2607.04832,
title = {Semantic Homogenization in Italian Popular Music: A Diachronic Analysis},
author = {Lorenzo Canale and Stefano Scotta and Alberto Messina},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2607.04832},
year = {2026}
}