A Music Time Machine
I recently created nearly 80 Spotify playlists containing the top USA hits from 1941 to the present. The idea is to listen to them in order and get a feel for how popular music evolved over 80 years.
The lists are titled “USA Top Hits XXXX Time Machine,” where XXXX is the year. Most of the playlists contain between 30 to 40 songs.
I got the lists from the website http://billboardtop100of.com/.
Rather than add the songs manually, I used the Spotify developers’ API. This didn’t go perfectly — the search function returns what it returns, and I ended up developing my own heuristics for ranking the results. Some songs may be from the wrong year altogether, or may not be the best version of the song. If so, please let me know and I’ll fix. Also some searches didn’t return anything, so each list doesn’t have exactly the top 40. But the selected songs are within the top 50 at least.
My goal is to try to immerse myself in the music of each year, and to avoid listening to anything else. Ideally I’d like to experience what it was like to hear certain things for the first time: the Beatles or Elvis or whatever. We’ll see how it goes.
I hope others enjoy the music time machine, and perhaps get inspired to make their own from other genres.
Following are the playlist URLs:
1941: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3yZOrRH1c2P7adcb2jB21C
1942: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4biZ7igepHpvqatschrU2b
1943: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7i3Y1tsLdahQDEgTyZlLK1
1944: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6sFWwvbZbAU4EyT8E49lVj
1945: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1yrxxOr3s4yvXkc2FaemY3
1946: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/75FckQeKWJzlG19rl27fgB
1947: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/20ftEqCvWE52kRW2wWNZxr
1948: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5KwAIwn3NzVSZKsKwntw9A
1949: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1mrpuKAcmqiSRNptV9Fh80
1950: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/05yXcyvio8Ybzc85PrWDxx
1951: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/76VHaiDWomKakSTSWIBH6A
1952: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5JV71EePyTToRxWNqTFPIs
1953: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2mRaGjQQsEBJz7zgpdlF3F
1954: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3nxygUQREmhoorAbRdXTV6
1955: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3FcAggRobwtI6TlRDnQEJf
1956: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7hHoEuo5DLATmfGDJD7gaT
1957: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0CiKreNiQBPr9hF2ymmq7Z
1958: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6AkdEXBjbX3YMhSA3VRAe8
1959: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5fZtaBPJB8W0USbaPJsbPz
1960: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3jHeqb7243lkKROsKMPCp3
1961: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5qGsHRE6R1gSuzGIlEdcen
1962: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6AtzSLyDICqPf2vfaH3jd2
1963: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0VMWubYVsNojmzbP8awrcd
1964: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0qlSrZZ8hiqUQJviVgEG0R
1965: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7tQ9PfIwY9FJPOqQ53vNkM
1966: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2x10O66mb3H0UdVgVDNTcR
1967: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0GR9pcCuOgAPI6ZpLdpWkw
1968: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4MBUkxuw05BahJMnznEzWU
1969: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5C6Q9Klg2f9Dr803PKxKec
1970: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1E3spKbvstJrpzekqNzHVT
1971: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0XnKy8B3Z5kUXuKn6kef8X
1972: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5eDztIe1edgctWZTUAit8n
1973: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0wbBFLzRfkT17MBSVvqwXH
1974: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1wOpxTEkexdJFCb0Xi3Ab4
1975: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4youPlDNazNVOH4hu1z68y
1976: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2fnr7OAG3czF6RW32kjuiP
1977: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4ly0vQmCX2XsGe9rPLgOH1
1978: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0T88CzYUvgIaIGEOgZUCOr
1979: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/24A50Y7HBiF3JIFDgG94tL
1980: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/70JwmzdGcGVTf7Wjork63L
1981: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/59hfqSgu08VlqkycPhIjZr
1982: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1rIXzskJjbwSeUznKhMXmc
1983: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7jADfqUUrL54LkeSET14An
1984: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/15UlxiU6JD2Jkzfj81G9JE
1985: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4SafMyxOiTnxqBMyOXOnEa
1986: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4LzKObWYc15EihLyjq2vCW
1987: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0vkgZyforp5Y6Xmsr5O7WP
1988: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/75wEpz3nCwsTXRVTZ2qdb4
1989: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3L8VKNZbNQsB3T2nRXpOCh
1990: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4RvfKu5eO6mU5xGfL9qypR
1991: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3OF0Fv1nMfjIZ6XoerYG7O
1992: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3v1A5jsJK55Eiz2PB58d6x
1993: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3adZwAHsrbd54qLz3ZiUsX
1994: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/60GDl2I2hb3jWbCGfgKofQ
1995: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2oGKgvtJzsQzhVfBgVI2zt
1996: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0TeSnNnYVEkWT2aMOxKKOC
1997: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5bM1d1UMZZLeRYzwQC3V4f
1998: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6LLQ0GVREqxSxZhyBJysCb
1999: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0LPKkp5bNe51KVZgBnbtKg
2000: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5qhAVqBacIMO3ZmaStwUPc
2001: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/715HKjPagmFl6mKX6AMpLE
2002: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2Qf16JTSak6O1INGnzFIsp
2003: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/5xxpmhoJpp9ZS7f2sexrHU
2004: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6J3K2bKMlalYTG5zIdQkoZ
2005: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/7twZXGzEWaxt7qpvpzzZK4
2006: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/42NKXNNOpbijo0Gek1SOVJ
2007: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/728b2BoLQ7eQ731AlF9vSL
2008: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3aIEKQauDYOZWxHSLZUKgt
2009: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0kUMuuZCKBSLYaSwWLvaml
2010: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/4Wj3Fh5RXM4gmLFlssNhWz
2011: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2szvPjfoxLw7tJuax5wfOa
2012: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/09b440fA4e8D67U8L09Uvo
2013: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/04rZePshXx8mXSxq0Q3hj5
2014: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/3kNdSWqdtPTwDQiqfaJEAu
2015: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0QmG9xT7tcavGHqtU3xLPp
2016: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0HeJK57LHHFQxZ6NBjLuWI
2017: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6mbb17P7Qqdbiu9yGqXQTV
2018: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/6Lb45XoPs9oy8CAdZDzx92
2019: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/2oQsEqt2BZuTay2OtoRuB5
