When we take a look at the Top 10 songs on the Billboard charts, it's quite likely that we won't find many love songs. Instead, tracks centered around heartbreak, friendship, and self-empowerment are abundant. This leads to the question: Why are we not listening to more love songs? Music critics from various platforms like the Huffington Post, NPR, and The Pudding have all been on the hunt for an answer. Even our Baby Boomer relatives and coworkers, as they lament the current state of pop music, might be wondering the same thing.

Defining Love Songs

Jack Hamilton, an associate professor of media studies at the University of Virginia and a pop culture critic for Slate, believes that love songs encompass a wide range. They can be from the devotional "I love you, I love you, I love you" ballads to songs about heartache. Even songs about sex fall under the umbrella of love songs. Many of the most popular songs from previous generations actually deal with yearning for the object of one's affection or mourning its loss. Take, for example, the Supremes' "Where Did Our Love Go" and "Baby Love". These songs are all about beseeching. In a good narrative, there is always tension, and heartbreak songs tend to be more interesting because of this.

Love in Different Genres

Genres like hip-hop and grunge have made their mark on the pop music scene, and they don't typically focus on love as the primary theme. While there are love songs in rap, early rappers were more about bragging and storytelling. The biggest grunge songs, like "Smells Like Teen Spirit", were about angst and alienation. This has led to a reorientation of the concerns in popular music, opening up new lanes for what popular music can be.

Self-Love and Casual Relationships

Many pop records now deal with self-love, which Hamilton doesn't consider love songs. Instead, they focus on more casual and sexual relationships. But songs about sex are not new. If we dig deeper into many love songs from the 1960s and 70s, we'll find that they often have a sexual undertone. Take Aretha Franklin's "(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman". It's clear that there is more to these songs than meets the eye. Another example is The Shirelles' "Will You Love Me Tomorrow". This song is actually about someone who has decided to have a physical relationship and is worried about the consequences.

Female Songwriters and Sensitivity

Men and all-male bands like the Rolling Stones have always been able to write about sex more openly. However, for female songwriters, it was more difficult. They had to be more coy in expressing these themes. For instance, "Love to Love You Baby" by Donna Summers was considered controversial when it came out, but by current standards, it seems quite tame. This shows the different challenges faced by male and female songwriters when it comes to writing about love and sex.