After taking a look at the dataset and seeing the number of streams for each genre over the years, I decided to ask which genre dominated the streaming era of 2010-2023. I also wanted to find out what year had the most streams, and come up with some reasoning. I noticed that there was no streaming of classical music in some years and I found that to be worth exploring. I wanted to use this data to think about what the shift in music genre trends have been over the years. After asking these questions I did think about how this data is represented and if the sample is biased.That is because Spotify’s user base could skew towards certain countries, ages and income levels so I have to consider how representative the sample is.

I used Flourish to visualize the data. I uploaded the dataset into the software and decided on a line graph because I felt it was better at projecting changes/ growth over time and then I adjusted the space on the x and y axis. I also changed the colors of the lines and the background to be visually appealing and easy to see. I gave the data a title that best explains the visuals and continued to play around with colors and spacing until I found the right features. What surprised me while constructing this was how much the Hip Hop curve changed over the years. I saw a drastic fall that I was not expecting because it dominated and fell drastically.

The graph shows Hip-Hop/ Rap going from about 23 billion streams in 2010 to 152 billion in 2018 and that dominates every other genre on the graph. Not long after, it crashes to 36 billion and ends up being lower in streaming count than traditional music. I think I did well to ensure that the graph really visualized the rise and fall of Hip-Hop streams by enhancing the curve with a gap and flattening all other genres at the bottom (even with adjustments you can see the difference). For limitations, I would say that I did experiment with Flourish to try to expand the gaps between the other genres but they ended up looking flattened near the bottom and in general, they are pretty close to each other, making it harder to trace.

I will say that the graph is very helpful at making numerical conclusion that I can give my own probable reasoning to with the help of additional research. I did not think there was much of an ethical concern that came with this particular data because I do not see any personal information or identity tied to the figures.

Making this chart taught me that visualizations are very important and require intentional detail because every point you place on the graph shares a piece of key information that can bring up questions and thoughtful conversation among the audience. The steep visualization of Hip-Hop streams tells us about its rise and fall, but because it doesn’t tell us why, we as the audience can use this visualization to come up with thoughtful reasons why the genre performed the way it did. If I were to do this again, I would represent the other genres more clearly (possibly creating wider gaps by using smaller units on the y axis).

Credit: Data from Intro to Digital Humanities course. Chart made with Flourish.

Line, bar and pie charts by Flourish team