The concept is to analyze the impact of specific music festivals in Seattle (such as Capitol Hill Block Party, Bumbershoot, Belltown Bloom Festival, Beyond Wonderland Seattle and Northwest Folklife), on the popularity of various music genres in the Seattle Public Library's collection. While acknowledging the shift in music consumption to digital platforms, this project aims to examine how checkouts of CDs, DVDs, and books across different music genres have fluctuated over the years from 2015 to 2023.

The project will query data trends in the number of checkouts for genres like pop, rock, jazz, electronica, country, folk, soul, blues, hip-hop, and funk. The focus on a range of years will help in understanding how physical media usage has changed in the context of evolving digital consumption habits. While I plan to visualize these trends on a monthly basis for a broader overview, a key focus will be on analyzing data around the specific dates of different music festivals. This approach aims to pinpoint any impacts these events may have on borrowing patterns. By observing checkout fluctuations during and around music festivals, I intend to analyze whether there is a direct correlation between these cultural events and shifts in genre popularity at SPL.

The data will reveal broader trends in music consumption and genre popularity over the years, offering a historical perspective on how music interests have evolved in the era of digital transformation.

This query provides a detailed view of the checkouts of different music genres for each day from 2015 to 2023, as a source of data for viewing specific festival dates.

SELECT 
    YEAR(cout) AS year,
    MONTH(cout) AS month,
    DAY(cout) AS day,
    COUNT(IF(spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%jazz%',
        1,
        NULL)) AS 'jazz',
    COUNT(IF(spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%rock%',
        1,
        NULL)) AS 'rock',
    COUNT(IF(spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%electronic%'
            OR spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%electronica%',
        1,
        NULL)) AS 'electronic',
    COUNT(IF(spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%pop%',
        1,
        NULL)) AS 'pop',
    COUNT(IF(spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%country%',
        1,
        NULL)) AS 'country',
    COUNT(IF(spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%folk%',
        1,
        NULL)) AS 'folk',
    COUNT(IF(spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%soul%',
        1,
        NULL)) AS 'soul',
    COUNT(IF(spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%blues%',
        1,
        NULL)) AS 'blues',
    COUNT(IF(spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%funk%',
        1,
        NULL)) AS 'funk',
    COUNT(IF(spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%rap music%'
            OR spl_2016.subject.subject LIKE '%hip hop%',
        1,
        NULL)) AS 'hip hop'
FROM
    spl_2016.subject
        JOIN
    spl_2016.outraw ON spl_2016.outraw.bibNumber = spl_2016.subject.bibNumber
WHERE
    (itemtype LIKE '%cd%'
        OR itemtype LIKE '%dvd%'
        OR itemtype LIKE '%bk%')
        AND deweyClass LIKE '78%'
        AND YEAR(cout) BETWEEN 2015 AND 2023
GROUP BY year , month , day
ORDER BY year , month , day;

In the yearly overview, rock and pop music dominate the checkout counts, being the most popular genres in every year. 2015 was the year with the highest combined checkout for all genres of music CDs, DVDs, and books, and then declined year after year, hitting a low in 2020 (during the pandemic), confirming the fact that music consumption is shifting to digital platforms year after year.

In the monthly surveys, checkouts for rock and pop music always reach a small peak around September, the time of year when the annual bumbershoot festival takes place in Seattle after Labor Day.



Specifically, in the analysis of the change in the number of music checkouts per day in a month, I used Capitol Hill Block Party as an example and inquired in detail about the number of checkouts of rock and pop music before and after the time of the festival, and found that the number of checkouts of rock and pop music reaches a peak before the festival is held and gradually declines (people are going to the festival) and reaches a trough on the last day of the festival, and then begins to gradually rise again after the festival is over.



Using Northwest Foklife again as an example, the number of checkouts for folk and country music before and after the time the festival was held was queried and similar dynamics were found. Therefore, it can be inferred and concluded that the various music festivals held in Seattle do have an impact on the popularity of the particular music category of that festival, usually before the festival, people will borrow CDs/DVDs/Books of that category of music, and the number of check-outs starts to decline during the festival, proving that most people will choose to go to the festival to listen to the live version of the music, and after the festival is over After the festival is over, there is a peak in checkouts for that genre of music, proving that people will be influenced by a festival to try a certain genre of music.

Rock and pop music consistently lead in yearly music checkouts in SPL, with a peak in 2015 and a decline thereafter, reflecting the music consumption is shifting to digital formats. Monthly data shows a surge in these genres around September, aligning with Seattle's Bumbershoot festival. Additionally, daily checkouts peak before and after major festivals like Capitol Hill Block Party and Northwest Folklife, particularly in their respective genres. This pattern suggests that music festivals influence public interest in specific music genres, with increased borrowing of related CDs, DVDs, and books around these events.

All work is developed within Processing
Source Code + Data