Declining songwriter ratings with age
Do singer-songwriters age well like a fine wine, or does quality decline with age? Kyle Biehle analyzed fan ratings by age.
I understand all of the reasons for not comparing artists in this way. Despite twenty-one Academy Award nominations, Woody Allen never attends the Oscars. His reason is that art isn't competition — judging art is so subjective who's to say who or what is best? After all one man's Poison is another man's Cream. Similarly, Elvis Costello (featured in the viz) is famously credited with saying: "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture - It's a really stupid thing to want to do." I agree that using ratings - whether from fans or critics — to judge artistic merit is at best flawed and at worst a fool's exercise.
But I wanted to do it anyway.
Most peak in their 20s and either stabilize later on or continue to decline. Occasionally, as in the case with Bob Dylan, there's some see-sawing. Take a look at the Tableau interactive for a closer look. [via Waxy]
Interactive: Common chord progressions in 1,300 songs
If you listen to the radio long enough, you've probably noticed that many songs sound similar or remind of you of a song you've heard before. Hooktheory shows you just how similar some songs are via chord progressions in over 1,300 songs. The small group analyzed the data last year and presented some static charts, but this interactive version takes it a step further.
Simply start by selecting a chord in the network diagram. Songs that use that chord appear on the right. Then select another chord in the network diagram to find songs that use the chord progression from the original to the new. Keep selecting chords to filter further.
So in the end, there are two main things you can do: (1) Find songs that use the same chord progression and (2) see the most likely chord given the current selection.
My musical knowledge from middle school jazz band is long gone, but it's fun to explore, and you'll likely find relationships to songs that you didn't expect. [Thanks, Dave]
A new brand of cartographer
Emily Underwood on new cartographers and the growing field:
Geographers have traditionally studied how the natural environment contributes to human society and vice versa, whereas cartographers have focused more explicitly on the art and science of mapmaking. Over the past couple of decades, a new field has emerged: geographical information systems (GIS), blending the study and expression of geographic information. Cartography and geography have overlapped and spawned innumerable subspecialties and applications. Modern geographers and cartographers are involved in diverse projects: tracking fleets of vehicles or products, helping customers locate a Dunkin' Donuts, modeling environmental scenarios such as oil spills, and studying the spread of disease.
You could substitute visualization and statistics for cartography throughout, and it'd almost all still be valid. The reoccurring theme is that although academic programs can be fine resources, most of your success has to do with what you can learn on your own, as data-related fields are changing fast.
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