What is an ISO score?

An ISO score is a score from 0-100% that classifies how ISO your music is. The higher your ISO score, the more likely it is that your frequently consumed music has idolizing, sexualizing, and/or objectifying characteristics. Examples of these characteristics include:

• words like “baby,” “sex,” “girl,” “love,” and words describing bodies and teenagers (think: Katy Perry’s “Teenage Dream” or ABBA’s “Dancing Queen.”)
• lyrics about sex (think: “Low” by Flo Rida, or “Whistle” by Flo Rida. Spoiler: “Whistle” is not about blowing an actual whistle)
• Male artists versus female artists (male artists are wayyyyy more likely to have ISO lyrics than female artists, according to the data)
• What genre you’re listening to (though this didn’t impact your overall score, this is something that can be a predictor for the amount of ISO music you’re consuming).

From my analysis of the Billboard Top 100 Hits over the last 50 years, 57% of that music contained explicit lyrics (as in, words that are saying exactly what you think they’re saying) to describe sex and/or girls.

The Data

This website is the extension of my undergraduate work into my master’s work, and below, I’ll lay out significant portions of my undergraduate work that influenced the data and decision making for this project.