Project Overview

Every year many songs claim the #1 spot on Billboard’s Hot 100. Some songs stay on the charts for a few weeks, other for most of the year. The purpose of this visualization is to highlight the songs that claimed the top spot on the Hot 100 in 2017, as well as their ranks throughout the year.

To kick off the new year, I wanted to create a recap of the great music that was released in the previous year. Focusing on songs that topped the Hot 100, I wanted to show how they moved on the charts. After scraping and analyzing the data, I found that each song had its own path on the charts. I sketched some sample graphs of movement on the charts and decided a column chart would work well to show each songs weekly ranks. In the spirit of music, I reflected these charts to create the appearance of a sound wave. I then used annotations to add clarity and detail to the infographic. This left me with the question, “What was the top song of 2017?” I created a formula to rank the songs and included a visualization at the bottom which shows these ranks.