A Festive Analysis
It’s the holiday season and catchy tunes are in the air! Vince Guaraldi’s score to A Charlie Brown Christmas stands out even among the many, many traditional favorites that appear on the radio these months.
Offered here is an analysis of the tracks from this album using the data provided by Spotify and the R package “spotifyR”. The variables that are involved in the analyses are labeled and described as follows (more info can be found by clicking here: Spotify Developer Page
- “danceability”
- How suitable the track is for dancing, based on tempo, rhythmic stability, beat strength, and regularity
- “track popularity”
- An accounting of how often the tracks are played (updated relatively often)
- “tempo”
- Estimated tempo in beats per minute (BPM)
- “energy”
- Perceptual measure of intensity and activity
- “valence”
- Degree of musical “positiveness” conveyed by a track
But Can You Dance To It?
The Peanuts kids dance a bit in the show, but what does spotify think about it?
Are the Tunes You Can Dance To More Popular?
Do people listen to the songs that are easier to dance to more than they do those that are harder to dance to?
What are the Emotional Signatures of the Tunes?
How do these tunes match up with common indicators of musical affect, valence (e.g., the degree of positiveness or negativeness present) and arousal (e.g., the amount of energy present)?
Pete Miksza 