Be A Data Maestro, Part III
By: Marmi Maramot Le
Tags: The Beatles, Data Science, Music, Pizza, Coldplay

Be A Data Maestro, Part III

I must be a Pointer Sister, because I’m So Excited to show you my project results

Photo credit: SoundCloud

We have now arrived at the final movement (or is it?) of my Be A Data Maestro series here on Medium discussing my fun data analysis on music preferences. In this installment, I present the fruits of my research. For those late to the party — I had compiled a database with info on respondents’ demographic characteristics and favorite music artists, bands, singers, musicals, and composers. In Part II, I expounded on two novel metrics I came up with — namely, the Come Together Score (CTS) and the Bridge Over Troubled Water Score (BOTWS).

I am now pleased to share with you the winners of 6 awards (half good, half Razzie-like in nature):

The ‘No Blank Spaces Here’ Award

This highly prestigious award for the artist who is favorited or liked by every single one of the five generations represented in my database (Baby Boomer, Gen X, Millennial, Gen Z, and Gen Alpha) — a feat accomplished by none of the other 189 artists represented in my database — goes to the one, the only, Miss TAYLOR SWIFT!! Congrats Tay-Tay!

The ‘One Love’ Award

A very culturally important category, the One Love Award goes to the artist(s) who is/are favorited by the most colors of people. Sadly, while no one achieved a perfect score, we DO have a five-way tie among the following artists (listed alphabetically) who are each favorited/liked by people of 3 different races:

ABBA, BOB MARLEY, ELTON JOHN, NIRVANA, and U2

Accepting the award on behalf of U2 is Bono: “We’re one, but we’re not the same, we’ve got to carry each other, carry each other, ONE!”

The ‘Beyond The Barricade’ Award

In my data, I found that members of a household not surprisingly tend to have similar musical interests. So, I wanted to see which artists are most effective at striking a chord with listeners across multiple households, not just one’s own. Without further ado, here they are:

LES MISERABLES, NAT KING COLE, and SIMON AND GARFUNKEL

SPOILER ALERT!! Please skip to the next section if you haven’t seen the musical or read the book.

Unfortunately, no one is able to accept the award on Les Miz’s behalf, because (1) fictional, and (2) almost everyone dies anyway.

Now for the awards of dubious distinction…

The ‘Nothing Else Matters’ Award

If I was a musician, I actually wouldn’t mind winning this award. That’s because it is going to the artist who elicited the widest range of reactions from respondents. That means people care about you one way or another! There was only one artist who managed to have people either (1) say they’re their FAVORITE BAND, or (2) HATE or dislike them. And that band is…drumroll please Lars Ulrich: METALLICA!

Accepting the award on behalf of Metallica is lead singer James Hetfield: “Life is ours, we live it our way. Never cared for what they do. Never cared for what they know.” Um…congrats?

The ‘Viva La Pizza' Award

Speaking of artists who are polarizing — I did collect data on a seemingly trivial and irrelevant preference other than music. I asked respondents “Do you like Hawaiian pizza?” I had noticed anecdotally in my Facebook feed that this was a rather hot topic, and both sides were equally as forceful and passionate in their opinions. For example:

Pro Pineapple Pizza : “Of course I like Hawaiian pizza. I’m not a monster” and “It’s my favorite topping”

: “Of course I like Hawaiian pizza. I’m not a monster” and “It’s my favorite topping” Hawaiian Haters: It is “nasty,” “gross,” and “an abomination”

Accordingly, we have two winners: COLDPLAY and MISS SAIGON! People who favorited/liked Chris Martin and company would toss that Hawaiian pizza straight into the trash, while fans of the Tony award-winning musical Miss Saigon would relish the opportunity to polish off a slice or two. Interestingly enough, Miss Saigon is an East Meets West story, not unlike Hawaiian pizza itself.

When I dive deeper into this, I can see that the Pineapple Pizza Preference is definitely split along racial/generational lines. A takeaway (see what I did there? Get it — pizza, takeaway? Oh nevermind) is that in the absence of self-reported demographic data, the PPP can be used as a reasonable proxy if available.

The ‘We Are The Champions’ Award

If the Be A Data Maestro Awards were a real awards show, then this would be the final statuette given before James Corden or Neil Patrick Harris ends the telecast (I love you both, in case either/both of you are reading). Technically there is one undisputed king, but I am making the executive producer decision to have a runner-up. And that would be…drumroll please Roger Taylor: QUEEN!

Now at long last, the ultimate winner is…THE BEATLES!! You love them, yeah, yeah, yeah!

I know what you guys are thinking — “You really needed to do a data analysis project to come to the conclusion that the Beatles are the best band ever in the history of the world and always will be, Einstein??”

To that I say, yes I know it was a long and winding road. But I still think my analysis can serve as a breeding ground ripe for further exploration…

The ‘Last Night I Dreamt That Somebody Loved Me’ Award

Let’s say you are the manager or promoter of one of these artists who won this award for (1) only having one person who favorited you and (2) no one else likes/has heard of you.

Who can name all five of these artists?* Ironically, The Smiths were not eligible for this award due to they were favorited/liked by more than one respondent. *Answers at the end of this section.

Someone obviously felt strongly enough about them to list them as one of their favorites, when given free reign to name as many artists as you want. Find out who these die-hard fans are, and learn all about them! Really get to know them, then go out and try to recruit more fans by marketing to people who are similar, no?

*TAME IMPALA, DERRICK MORGAN, WU TANG CLAN, BRENTON WOOD, and ALEXZ JOHNSON

Listen/Ooh whaa ooh/Do You Want To Know A Secret?

Curious about how I went about executing my project from start to finish? Happy to discuss with fellow data enthusiasts and Alexz Johnson fans (this artist was courtesy of moi. Anyone else out there used to religiously watch Instant Star?)! As a sampler, below is a screenshot of the 19 artists who won an award of some sort tonight. You’ll notice that the six artists who have an overall top 2 rank in terms of BOTWS form the acronym BANQET. Cool!

Now let’s have the night’s big winners The Beatles bring a close to these awards: