How Music Has Changed

Each point on the timeline is a release year, showing the average audio profile — danceability, energy, mood and more — of the songs released that year. Toggle features, narrow the years, or focus on specific stations to see how the sound of music has shifted over time.

Audio features

Radio stations

Audio features (0.0 – 1.0)

Averages cover distinct songs released between 1900 and 2026, counting each song once regardless of how often it was played. Years with fewer than 5 songs are hidden.

What the features mean

Danceability

0.0 - 1.0

How suitable the track is for dancing based on tempo, rhythm stability, beat strength, and overall regularity. Higher values indicate more danceable music.

Energy

0.0 - 1.0

Intensity and activity level. Energetic tracks feel fast, loud, and noisy (like death metal), while low energy tracks are calmer (like a Bach prelude).

Valence (Mood)

0.0 - 1.0

Musical positiveness of the track. High valence sounds happy, cheerful, and euphoric. Low valence sounds sad, depressed, or angry.

Acousticness

0.0 - 1.0

Confidence that the track is acoustic. A value near 1.0 indicates high confidence that the track uses acoustic instruments.

Speechiness

0.0 - 1.0

Presence of spoken words in the track. Values above 0.66 indicate tracks made entirely of spoken words. Values between 0.33-0.66 indicate mixed content (rap, spoken intros).

Instrumentalness

0.0 - 1.0

Prediction of whether the track contains no vocals. Higher values indicate more instrumental music without vocals.

Liveness

0.0 - 1.0

Probability that the track was performed live with an audience. Values above 0.8 strongly suggest live recordings.

Tempo

0 - 250 BPM

The tempo of the track in beats per minute (BPM). Typical ranges: slow ballads (60-80 BPM), pop music (100-130 BPM), dance music (120-150 BPM).

Loudness

-60.0 - 0.0 dB

The overall loudness of the track in decibels (dB). Loudness values are averaged across the entire track. Values typically range between -60 and 0 dB.