Been making some good headway on my presentation. The more I’ve been working on it the more I realize that there isn’t much to it. Pretty straight forward. I’ve spent a lot of time with the content that I should be somewhat of an expert in what I’m doing. I like the idea of the infinite white as the background so that will be sort of the constant visual throughout the whole project. Here is what I have drafted up so far:
I know images are missing (photographing those in a little bit actually) but I definitely want to have the infinite white background thing going. The small text on the bottom are my notes for now. Those will make their way to note cards.
As for the project itself I made a lot of good progress today. After emailing other music professors, Bob was the one to respond rather quickly. Getting a musician’s input into the project is exactly the sort of thing I needed. Not only was it good to get his input on the project; it was cool to see how excited he was about the data.
Unfortunately, there really is no database that can give information regarding the key signature. It really is one of those things that I’ll just have to do by looking at sheet music or guitar tabs/by ear. Time consuming but worth it. The key signature is a very important part of this.
To expand, Bob gave me some VERY good ideas. Here’s what I added to the spreadsheet now:
- Sub Genre – Although these songs are popular music, a lot of them fall into sub genres. Good idea to look at what they fall into
- Solo or group – Self explanatory. Whether or not the song was done by a band or solo musician.
- Overall theme of song – Early songs are about love and hope. More recent songs aren’t about the same thing anymore.
- Country of origin – for the group/musician
- Ethnicity – again, for the group/musician
- # of Albums sold that the song was on
- How long the song was on the billboard chart
- How long did it stay at number 1
I’ve spent so much time just looking at the song itself rather than the statistics that come along with it. Information like this will give a much clearer sense of what could qualify a song as a popular song. Actual statistics is what is key to this project.
An interesting thing that Bob brought up was the use of pronouns in songs. Lately, songs have transitioned from using you, we, us to just me and I. Been trying to find the article he was talking about.
Another thing he suggested I take a look at is the Music Genome Project (what Pandora uses to determine what musical tastes people have). In addition to that, another music professor, Michael Viega, has a friend that worked on an algorithm for all music, similar to the Music Genome Project. I should hear back from him in about a week or so about that.
Lots to do!