Zoo York
Exploration of Beatles music through infographics (ongoing project)
These visualizations are part of an extensive study of the music of the Beatles. Many of the diagrams and charts are based on secondary sources, including but not limited to sales statistics, biographies, recording session notes, sheet music, and raw audio readings. Join this project here.
Self Reference
Song Keys
Working Schedule, 1963-1966
Authorship and Collaboration
This graph (based on authorial attributions quantified by William J. Dowlding in the book Beatlesongs
) traces songwriting contributions within the band.
) traces songwriting contributions within the band.NOTES: Color patterns offer clues about the band's gradual fracturing as each member becomes more independent. Red stalks (signifying jointly written songs) decrease in the second half of the timeline; the split-color bars give way to solid bars of a single color. George Harrison also began to compose more music as he matured as a songwriter, signified by the increase in green bars (Lennon and McCartney's lack of support through Harrison's development is widely cited as a factor contributing to the band's eventual breakup).
Self Reference
The lyrics of the Beatles include a number of references to their own previous songs. This diagram explores these connections, noting the exact referencing lyrics and at what point in each song they can be found.
Song Keys
The shape of these pictographs is defined by what keys the songs were recorded in for each album. The relative distribution of keys (with mid-song key changes considered) have been mapped over a graph framework based on the Circle of Fifths. The pictographs are in order of album recording.
NOTES: The differences between each pictograph reflect the different relationships between songs within each album. For example, the pictograph for Abbey Road hints at the tonal architecture of the Abbey Road Medley, as the pictograph's shape has a more narrow pull towards A-major/minor and the home key of C-major.
Earlier pictographs gravitate towards the upper right, the keys where the standard pop/rock blues I-IV-V chord structure is easier to finger on a guitar. Later pictographs fan out as the band's use of song keys became more varied, and as more songs were composed on the piano.
The data are based on the song key appendix in Ian McDonald's book, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties
.
Earlier pictographs gravitate towards the upper right, the keys where the standard pop/rock blues I-IV-V chord structure is easier to finger on a guitar. Later pictographs fan out as the band's use of song keys became more varied, and as more songs were composed on the piano.
The data are based on the song key appendix in Ian McDonald's book, Revolution in the Head: The Beatles' Records and the Sixties
.
Working Schedule, 1963-1966
This graphic (the "Tufte Gently Weeps" edition) compares the Beatles main activities from the years of 1963 to 1964. There are parallels in timing between each year, but the similarities between '64 and '65 are particularly notable.
-from Mark Lewisohn's book, The Complete Beatles Chronicle
"[1965] was a curious year for the Beatles, one in which they consolidated all the successes and excesses of 1964 by virtually repeating everything already achieved. They made a second feature-film, Help!, they toured North America...and Britain again...John even had a second book published."
-from Mark Lewisohn's book, The Complete Beatles Chronicle
Join this project
These pieces are just four examples of a larger open collaborative project currently in the works for chartingthebeatles.com. If you are interested in contributing Beatles infographics (anything is fair game) or being involved in this project in any other way, please contact me at info@chartingthebeatles.com. Visit the Charting the Beatles flickr group for more info.