The goal of this project is to question the top-down categorization and evaluation of music by the music industry and its sales charts by using Twitter as an alternative ranking system.Authors tracked the number of times a song was quoted in Twitter messages as an indicator of its 'ratings' in the world in order to create a parallel rating system. As the authors explain, these new 'music charts' could give us a more accurate insight into the perceived 'value' of the song. These 'grassroot' charts are based on the influence of songs on people?s everyday lives, on the real emotions they evoke, and on the associations they create in people?s minds, unlike official music industry charts that are primarily based on album sales and the commercial success of the artist.
This radial visualization (part of a larger set of visual components) shows Twitter user activity around popular song titles.
