The Whitburn Project: 120 Years of Music Chart History

May 15, 2008 9:06 AM

120 years of Billboard data.Eternally curious blogger Andy Baio starts a three-day analysis of the data in the Whitburn Project, "a huge undertaking to preserve and share high-quality recordings of every popular song since the 1890s. To assist their efforts, they've created a spreadsheet of 37,000 songs and 112 columns of raw data, including each song's duration, beats-per-minute, songwriters, label, and week-by-week chart position." It all happens on good ol' Usenet--here's a FAQ.
posted by dbarefoot (19 comments total)

I've been wanting to do this chart analysis with JPOP for several years. Chart popularity is an interesting phenomenon, (to me) especially so given the immense amount of income that the movements are associated with.
posted by tachikaze at 9:21 AM on May 15, 2008

I love stuff like this! Looking forward to delving into all the cool data.
posted by amyms at 9:28 AM on May 15, 2008

You left out the "MeFi's own" part.

I rather assume that deep inside The Music Industry, this kind of analysis has been run for decades, secretly generating the formulas that fuel a neverending quest for the Perfect Pop Song. I'm excited for some freaky truths to be revealed.
posted by mumkin at 9:38 AM on May 15, 2008

Holy moley! I had missed the site redesign. Waxy did a great job.
posted by frecklefaerie at 10:23 AM on May 15, 2008

All you need is Timbaland, this data and the manual and you're all set to be a superstar.
posted by Gucky at 10:45 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

Whoa. Wow.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 10:55 AM on May 15, 2008

What's great is the data is freely available. Previously shorter studies (50-year spans) have been available but at a price.

Labor of love inded.
posted by msaleem at 11:01 AM on May 15, 2008

I don't know jack about Usenet so I guess I'll just take ya'lls word for it that it's a cool spreadsheet and all.
posted by tinkertown at 11:16 AM on May 15, 2008

This is really cool; I'll have to give the data a spin later on. I am a little shocked, though, at the average length of a modern pop hit. Four minutes is just way too long.
posted by uncleozzy at 11:17 AM on May 15, 2008

I want that spreadsheet really bad but not bad enough to sign up for a month Giganews, which is apparently the only way to obtain it if I understand the news posts correctly. If anyone has or is planning to grab a copy, I'll paypal you a few bucks towards your monthly fee...
posted by fusinski at 11:44 AM on May 15, 2008

I am a little shocked at the average length of a modern pop hit. Four minutes is just way too long.

Uh! Uh! Uh!
Come on!
Yeah!
Come on over baby, that's right
Uh! Uh! Uh!
Everybody in da house, come on!
Yeah! Uh! Uh!
Throw yo hands up! come on!
Come on!
Yeah!
Uh huh uh huh, Uh huh uh huh, Uh huh uh
All my bitches, yeah!

Well, I think four minutes is about right to get all that in, including the chorus and all.
posted by tinkertown at 11:58 AM on May 15, 2008 [1 favorite]

The spreadsheet is there as a link on one of the commenters on waxy's site.
posted by neustile at 12:38 PM on May 15, 2008

Awesome! Thank you, neustile... this is amazing.
posted by fusinski at 1:21 PM on May 15, 2008

Holy cats, I just went light headed with glee for a moment. I love this and I love dbarefoot for linking it and I love everyone whose commented and I love everyone whose reading this. This may be the best day of my music geek life.
posted by Joey Michaels at 2:33 PM on May 15, 2008

WTF? The Wallflowers One Headlight is not anywhere on this list of 39,000 songs? The Top 40 stations in TX and Oklahoma were playing that one to death back in 1997. How did that not chart?
posted by tinkertown at 10:12 PM on May 15, 2008

Before December 1998, songs that weren't commercially released as singles were ineligible for the Billboard Top 100. The Wallflowers' "One Headlight" hit #1 on the Hot Modern Rock charts in March 1997, but wasn't a real single.
posted by waxpancake at 12:04 AM on May 16, 2008

Nobody ever believes me when I tell them that "One Headlight" is one of my favorite songs. That Hammond is a thing of beauty.
posted by uncleozzy at 5:38 AM on May 16, 2008

Ah, that explains it, thank you.
posted by tinkertown at 6:51 AM on May 16, 2008

It's overwhelming. I already own some of Whitburn's books. But having all of this together... I don't know where to begin.
posted by evilcolonel at 6:30 PM on May 16, 2008