The link between weather and pop music

In 1969 the pop supergroup The Beatles were still producing magical music but were also suffering internal tension and the pain of having to be businessmen as well as musicians. To escape it all one early spring day George Harrison went to stay with his friend Eric Clapton in Ewhurst, Surrey. One morning Harrison went for a dawn walk with an acoustic guitar and inspired by a Spring sunrise wrote “Here Comes the Sun”, and enduring pop classic. Of course, Harrison is not on his own, pop music has drawn inspiration from the weather on many occasions and a new study has quantified this intimate weather/pop relationship.

For the study researchers from the Universities of Southampton, Oxford, Manchester, and Newcastle examined the frequency and form of weather references in pop music over the last decades. The results showed quite an intimate link between our popular music culture and the weather.

They found for instance, that of the “Rolling Stone” all-time top 500 list seven per cent mention the weather. This might be specific mention as in Bob Dylan’s “Blowin’ in the Wind” or incidental mention as in The Holly’s “Bus Stop”. Close analysis of weather related lyrics showed that sun and rain are the most popular references making up around 37 per cent of the instances while blizzards and frosts are the least referenced weather conditions.

Some artists seem to be fascinated with weather more than others; the Beatles quite liked it but Dylan is almost obsessed featuring weather references in 163 of his 542 songs. There have also been many artists who have incorporated weather into their name like; KC and the Sunshine Band, The Weather Girls, and Wet, Wet, Wet.

Interestingly, when things were bad in weather terms in the 1950s and 1960s with relatively more hurricanes and severe storms, there were also more bad weather references in pop music (like “Riders of the Storm”) compared to the more benign times of the 1970s and 1980s.

It seems like the climactic conditions are woven deeply into our psychology references to sun and rain are here to stay in pop music, weather you like it or not.