ROHNERT PARK, CA (CelebrityAccess) – A study of data collected from Spotify, Genius, and other online music sources has revealed that the amount of references to “student loans” in popular music today has dramatically increased since 2001. Ameritech Financial, a document preparation company that assists those with student loans apply for federal repayment plans, has witnessed the transition leading to a situation in which student loans are claiming an increasingly large space in the anxieties of a generation.
“The amount of stress that young people are feeling over their student loans seems to have definitely increased generationally,” said Tom Knickerbocker, Executive Vice President of Ameritech Financial. “Young people today just have more of a burden of student debt than past generations have had.”
The stats, collected by Medium.com for their Clarify Data Stories, indicate that Knickerbocker is correct. As the average student debt in America has risen, so have references in music to “student loans” and “student debt.” The study found 87 songs published since 1994 that reference these terms, with the majority of the most popular songs of the group having been released since 2014.
Further demonstrating the increasing stress levels regarding student loans in popular music, a sentiment analysis tool determined that 56 of the 87 songs were negative in tone while only three songs were found to have a positive tone (the rest having been judged as neutral).
