Hatfield boffin records "ideal Bowie song" (From St Albans & Harpenden Review)

Hatfield boffin records "ideal Bowie song"

4:14pm Tuesday 25th August 2009 in News By Alex Lewis

A PSYCHOLOGIST at Hatfield's University of Hertfordshire has written and recorded “the ideal David Bowie song”, based on theoretical analysis of the star's work.

Nick Troop, principal lecturer in health psychology, who is a musician and a keen Bowie fan, analysed the singer’s 26 albums and 266 recorded songs for links between the language used and success in the charts .

Using the Linguistic Inquiry and Word Count software, developed by a Texan psycholgist to analyse creative text, he then wrote what he considered to be the ideal song.

He said: “Although my interest in Bowie started as a hobby, I was motivated by studies which I and others have carried out that prove that writing about trauma and life goals have long-term benefits to health.

“The software provides a quantitative analysis of psychological processes reflected in the words Bowie uses rather than a qualitative interpretation of the meaning of his songs.

 “I looked at the link between the language used and how long Bowie’s albums had spent in the charts.

“I found that the songs with positive emotion and social processes were more successful than the songs that talked about mortality.”

Nick,who calls his song, Team, Meet Girls; Girls, Meet Team, plans to use some of the theories to work with his students on how different kinds of word usage can affect mood and health.

He can be seen performing the song at http://www.4shared.com/file/126514561/2732fcbb/.