Parents who say their children's music is dumb might have a point. A new study finds that the average hit song has lyrics at a third grader's reading level.
The research took lyrics from 225 songs that topped US charts since 2005 and used standard tests that determine the reading difficulty.
The study, completed for ticket seller SeatSmart, found that the average reading level was third grade - roughly eight years old in the US educational system - and that it has gone down over the decade.
Country music was the most advanced, with an average of 3.3, with R&B and hip-hop last at 2.6.
Case in point - the song that scored as the smartest, with a reading level of 5.8, was country singer Blake Shelton's "All About Tonight."
Pop star Katy Perry also had songs on both extremes. "Wide Awake" ranked among the most simple, while "E.T." was among the smartest.
Among genres, Mariah Carey's songs were the smartest among pop artists, while Eminem ranked on the top of the hip-hop chart.
