Billboard Hot 100 Analysis

September, 2016

Since 1958, Billboard magazine has been publishing its Hot 100 list of the 100 "hottest" songs every week (based on sales, radio play, streaming, etc.) Using data from the Billboard website, I was able to study the rise and fall of individual songs, albums, and artists, as well as the dynamics of the music industry as a whole.

For example, the plot below shows the number of distinct artists on the Hot 100 list over time:

When there are 100 distinct artists on the Hot 100 list, then there is considerable variety of "hot" artists. However, if there are fewer than 100 distinct artists, then there are some dominant artists who occupy multiple spots on the list. From the plot above, you can see that in the 70s there were a lot of distinct artists who made it to the charts. In the 80s and 90s, however, the industry was dominated by a smaller set of successful artists.

I also made a simple web app for viewing the "hotness" of a musical artist over time, which can be found here.

Working Notebook

Below was my working notebook for this project: