Why are there so many love songs?

Question

If we take a look at lists of the top songs (e.g. Billboard Hot 100), they're likely to be dominated by love songs.

Why? Sure, it's a powerful emotion, but there're other powerful emotions out there (e.g. hope) or concepts that induce strong emotional responses (e.g. revenge, justice). Yet most if not all the leading singers seem to write love song after love song as though there's an insatiable demand for them.

Is there something about love that makes it a source of inspiration for writing songs, or that makes it popular? Why is writing (and evidently listening to) them so popular anyway?

Answer 1

A lot of the subjects you listed tend to be related to love in some way, as love as a subject spans a large range of emotions. If you want to write an angry song, you can write about love. Sad? Yup, love. Happy? Yep. Almost any emotion that music can express can be related to love.

Another possible reason is that there are a few very specific songwriters that write the lyrics and melody to most current pop music, and also the pop music industry has taught its workers to go with what is successful rather than experimentation. What is successful, throughout history, is generally love songs, so no need to vary the formula. Note that certain genres of music almost never sing about love, like certain religious styles or certain metal genres.