A Study of Meaning and Usage of English Slangs in Western Song Lyrics

Abstract

The purposes of this research were 1) to study the meaning of slang words found in western songs and 2) to study the use of slang words found in western songs. The sample used in this study was 100 songs selected from Billboard Year-End Hot 100 Songs Chart during the years 2016-2020. Only the top twenty of 100 songs of each year ranked by the Billboard were chosen while the song lyrics were collected through the website, lyricsondemand.com. The data were analyzed by using frequency and percentage. This research framework was done in accordance with Luh Putu Karina Febriyanti (2017) to analyze the semantic aspects of slangs. The results of this study showed that a total of 47 slang words were discovered. Among them, three of the most frequently used slangs were the word ‘bitch’ with a maximum of 154 times, representing 17.36 percent, ‘yeah’ of 118 times, representing 13.30 percent, and ‘ain't’ of 92 times, representing 10.37 percent.