EGU 2015: were Dylan and the Beatles obsessed by the weather? Apr 17, 2015 By Liz Kalaugher at the European Geosciences Union General Assembly in Vienna Bob Dylan is the pop artist most preoccupied by the weather, with one-quarter of his songs mentioning the phenomenon. That's according to Karen Aplin from the University of Oxford, UK, who will report her findings at the European Geosciences Union (EGU) General Assembly in Vienna on Friday. Weather pop runners-up were the Beatles, whose "Here comes the Sun" in April 1969 was linked to the sunniest April for many years. Aplin and UK colleagues carried out the study as a follow-up to her analysis of weather and classical music with Paul Williams from the University of Reading, UK. A grand total of more than 900 pop singers and songwriters have issued weather-related songs. Meanwhile 30 artists have weather-related names, with sun and warmth the most popular theme (KC and the Sunshine Band, Empire of the Sun...) although cold also gets a mention via the Arctic Monkeys, Vanilla Ice and Coldplay, to name just a few. One third of the weather references in pop were to sun and rain, often to illustrate emotions. Aplin says that this depiction is more sophisticated than that of classical orchestral music, which tends to mimic weather - frequently storms and wind - through the sounds of the music. Whilst pop music generally alludes to specific weather events, classical composers are regularly influenced by the general climate of their home country, the researchers found. The pop research, in which scientists from Newcastle University, the University of Southampton and the University of Manchester also participated, will appear, appropriately enough, in Weather in May.