We’re excited about two new additions to the GreenBookofSongs.com® songs-by-subject search tools. In response to popular demand, we’ve now made it possible to sort search results by one or more popular genres and/or by “hit” status as well.

Users can now choose to see all songs about a particular subject, or select Pop, Rock, Country, R&B or Hip Hop songs. Subscribers may also choose to see only songs that were hits, based on widely used standards of national popularity. 

For now, these tools are in ”beta” because tagging of the database is not yet complete. This means that filtered results will reflect only a portion of what’s available by searching the full category.

Still, Green Book users will now be able to get lists of songs matching specific needs even more quickly. For example, are you looking for songs for the Fourth of July? In addition to 109 songs in our category Holidays: Fourth Of July, you can instantly find 82 Country songs about America in Countries: America, or 60 Rock songs in the category Freedom.

We are continually tagging more data to improve filter search results, and we plan to feature filtering by more of the 31 genres included in the GreenBookofSongs.com® database. Stay tuned as we add new features and new categories to make searching for songs by subject even easier!

If you think Mother’s Day songs are only for the traditional, mom-and-apple pie kind of family, think again! According to a review of Mother’s Day songs done by GreenBookofSongs.com® for Katherine Lewis’ Working Moms Blog (WorkingMoms.About.com), there’s a selection of positive, loving songs for the mom in every kind of family.

Single moms are getting their due in songs like Fantasia’s “Baby Mama” and Clint Black’s “The Strong One”, which salute young mothers taking care of their children on their own. Songs like 2Pac’s “Dear Mama” and Jay-Z’s “Anything” express gratitude for moms who brought their sons through poverty and the challenges of the inner city, while O.C. Smith’s “Son Of Hickory Holler’s Tramp” - well, the title says it all.

These days, there’s financial stress in the suburbs too. Some dads are out of work and caring for the kids, while Mom is on the job. That’s the scenario of Lonestar’s “Mr. Mom”, who learns first-hand about the hard work stay-at-home moms do every day.

For adoptive moms (and dads too), there’s “I Am Your Mother Too”, by Keb’ Mo’ with Brenda Russell. For birth mothers who choose adoption, there’s Michelle Wright’s “He Would Be Sixteen”, in which a birth mom does what’s best for her baby, but never forgets him. And here’s one in praise of the step-mom: Sufjan Stevens’ self-explanatory “Decator, Or, Round Of Applause For Your Step Mother!”

There’s even a song for families dealing with illness. Craig Morgan’s “Tough” is an ode to a mother with cancer who continues to care for her husband and kids.

So whatever style of family you have, whatever role your mother fills, there’s a way to say thanks with a song. There’s no excuse not to follow Al Jolson’s timeless advice and “Remember Mother’s Day”!

Here’s the Top 10:

• Anything Jay-Z
• Baby Mama Fantasia
• Dear Mama 2Pac
• Decatur, Or, Round Of Applause For Your Step Mother! Sufjan Stevens
• He Would Be Sixteen Michelle Wright
• I Am Your Mother Too Keb’ Mo’ with Brenda Russell
• Mr. Mom Lonestar
• Son Of Hickory Holler’s Tramp O.C. Smith
• Strong One, The Clint Black
• Tough Craig Morgan

For the first time ever, the team at GreenBookofSongs.com® has released a study of the top categories of 2008. We looked at the top 100 hits for each of five popular radio formats - AAA (Adult Album Alternative), Alternative, Country, Top 40/CHR and Urban - to identify the main subjects  in popular music for the year, and the differences among radio formats. (Click here to see the full report on GreenBookofSongs.com®.)

Here are the Top 10 Subjects of 2008 across all five formats:

1.  Love: Choose Me
2.  Love: Making Love
3.  Love: Don’t Want To Break Up
4.  Love: Painful Break-up
5.  Money
6.  Love: Falling In Love
7.  Bars & Clubs
8.  Bragging & Swaggering
9.  Love: Devotion
10. Love: On The Ropes

Popular music is often about love, so it’s no surprise that love themes come out on top overall. The Green Book categorizes dozens of love themes — everything from ”Love: Advice” to “Love: Somebody Done Somebody Wrong” to “Love: Us Against The World” — but the ageless love themes still come out on top. 

We found significant distinctions among the formats. Compare the top five themes of each one:

AAA:  Love: Love On The Ropes, Losing & Loss, Love: Falling In Love, Motivation, Life
Alternative:  Death, Pain & Healing, Power & Control, Ego, Insults
Country:  God & Religion, Family & Friends, Love: Young Love, Love: Marry Me, Social Class: Rural
Top 40/CHR:  Love: Attracted To You, Love: Falling In Love, Dance, Love: Choose Me, Bars & Clubs
Urban:  Love: Making Love, Bragging & Swaggering, Bars & Clubs, Money, Love: Love & Money

The results may seem stereotypical,  but they hold up under scrutiny. Seven Country songs showed up in our category “Small Town Life”, but there was only one AAA song in that category, and there were no mentions in the Alternative, CHR/Top 40 or Urban charts. You can debate whether radio programming is leading listener taste or vice versa. Either way, the results of our study show real differences in the subjects being heard by each format’s audience.

When the 2009 charts are in, we’ll compare the two years to look for trends in the subject matter of these five popular formats. In the meantime, we’ll look more closely at the subjects of each genre in upcoming posts.

All of us at GreenBookofSongs.com® are pleased to announce this addition to our family: the Green Book Of Songs Blog. Whether you’re already or a subscriber or you’re new to the Green Book of Songs By Subject, we’ll have content you can use.

We’ll have  lists of songs about a wide variety of topics – for example, current events or holidays. We’ll also be talking about song topics generally — what’s being written about in popular music and how that’s changing over time.

For those of you not familiar with us, the Green Book of Songs By Subject is the world leader in classifying popular music by theme. We provide lists of songs about more than 2,000 topics and concepts — love, politics, nature, emotions, social problems…you name it, it’s in here! All genres and eras of popular music are included.

In book form for 30 years, the Green Book database is now also online as a subscription service. Click here to visit our website and find out more.

Check back frequently, sign up for automatic alerts, or follow us on Twitter at songsabout. We’ll let you know when a new list of songs is available.

Last but most important: We really want to hear from you, so please, leave us a comment!