A Different Look at Billboard's Hot 100 Top Songs

This project explores data of every #1 song that hit the Billboard Hot 100 list between August 4, 1958 and January 11, 2025.

What percentage of total songs included at least one female songwriter?


Actually, it is 27%, as can be seen below.


Try exploring the data to see what other trends you can identify. Hover over a circle to learn more about each song.


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Data Dictionary

Artist(s)

Artist Name

Songwriter(s)

Songwriters from BMI/ASCAP Songview database. If they do not have the information, it comes from The Billboard Book of Number One Hits by Fred Bronson. If Bronson does not have the information, it comes from Spotify song credits.

Race

Determines if artist/songwriter is white or non-white. "Mixed" refers to artists/songwriters with more than one person, where the group had a white and non-white member.

Gender

Determines gender identity of artist/songwriter. "All Male" and "All Female" refers to gender of entire individual or group. "Female-Male Mixed" means group had both males and females. "At Least One Non-Binary" refers to including at least one non-binary person.

Happiness

Happiness measure from 0 to 100 provided by Spotify. Spotify quantifies "happiness" using a valence score, which is calculated by analyzing various audio features such as tempo, key, and energy. A model is trained with songs that exhibit these features that calculates a happiness score.

Danceability

Danceability measure from 0 to 100 provided by Spotify. Very similar to how happiness is calculated, Spotify uses machine learning to analyze acoustic features of a song such as tempo, beat strength, and rhythm stability.

Time

Date included is the first week the song hit number one in the Billboard Hot 100 list.

Summary

Data from Chris Dalla Riva's Public Spreadsheet.