Weather Songs on Spotify

This post is as much something to do on a rainy day as it is an exercise in data visualization. I found a dataset of over 6,000 songs on Spotify that were tagged according to their weather connection. Per the author, “The data set was obtained as a result of scraping studies on Spotify with the weather information coming from Open-Weather API.” At first I misinterpreted the set to mean that the lyrics of the songs mentioned said meteorological conditions but I soon determined that that was not the case. These are weather pairings akin to wine pairings: flavors, notes, moods. Nevertheless, this was a fun project that could become a mega playlist. (As an aside, a weather-themed playlist would be a fun “rainy day” project. Start with “I Love a Rainy Night” by Eddie Rabbitt. Add on some “Set Fire to the Rain” by Adele. Fold in some “Misty Mountain Hop” by Led Zeppelin. “It’s Raining Men” by the Pointer Sisters. “I’ve Seen Fire and I’ve Seen Rain” by James Taylor.)

The “forecast” below represents the percentage of the playlist for any of the sic categories. I combined “Mist,” “Fog” and “Drizzle” into one single category even through they were three separate ones on the data table. The songs on the graphic are my selections.

The distribution of the songs on this playlist is pretty moody, pretty atmospheric. This works for the stated purpose of this Spotify playlist: to enhance and/or complement scenes in movies or videos. This means that while there are some popular songs from artists like Taylor Swift, Bad Bunny and The Weeknd, there are many less popular artists and songs. If we were to make this a pop chart, that is sort by category and popularity rating, we get a different forecast: 52% clear, 12.5% clouds, 8% rain, 8% fog, 6% snow, 6% mist, 2% drizzle, 2% thunderstorms. Pop seems to make the sun peak through.

Future studies could look at the following: the combination of lyrics and weather tag, the connection between genre and weather tag, the related connection of language and weather tag.

Weather	Track Name	Artist	Popularity
Clear	La Bebe – Remix	Yng Lvcas	99
Clear	un x100to	Grupo Frontera	99
Clear	Boy’s a liar Pt. 2	PinkPantheress	96
Clear	TQG	KAROL G	96
Clear	BESO	ROSALÍA	96
Clear	Calm Down (with Selena Gomez)	Rema	95
Clear	Shakira: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 53	Bizarrap	95
Clear	I’m Good (Blue)	David Guetta	94
Clear	I Ain’t Worried	OneRepublic	93
Clear	Starboy	The Weeknd	93
Clear	Quevedo: Bzrp Music Sessions, Vol. 52	Bizarrap	93
Clear	Die For You – Remix	The Weeknd	93
Clear	Players	Coi Leray	92
Clear	Me Porto Bonito	Bad Bunny	92
Clear	Miracle (with Ellie Goulding)	Calvin Harris	91
Clear	Cruel Summer	Taylor Swift	91
Clear	Escapism.	RAYE	91
Clear	Sure Thing	Miguel	91
Clear	El Merengue	Marshmello	91
Clear	Watermelon Sugar	Harry Styles	90
Clear	Nonsense	Sabrina Carpenter	90
Clear	La Bachata	Manuel Turizo	90
Clear	Titi­ Me Preguntó	Bad Bunny	90
Clear	Last Night	Morgan Wallen	90
Clear	Chemical	Post Malone	90
Clouds	Anti-Hero	Taylor Swift	94
Clouds	Kill Bill	SZA	94
Clouds	Blinding Lights	The Weeknd	92
Clouds	Angels Like You	Miley Cyrus	91
Clouds	Don’t Blame Me	Taylor Swift	90
Clouds	All Of The Girls You Loved Before	Taylor Swift	90
Drizzle	Dandelions	Ruth B.	90
Fog	Another Love	Tom Odell	92
Fog	Sweater Weather	The Neighbourhood	91
Fog	ceilings	Lizzy McAlpine	91
Fog	Yellow	Coldplay	90
Mist	Daylight	David Kushner	96
Mist	Creepin’ (with The Weeknd & 21 Savage)	Metro Boomin	96
Mist	Until I Found You (with Em Beihold) – Em Beihold Version	Stephen Sanchez	93
Rain	I Wanna Be Yours	Arctic Monkeys	94
Rain	Romantic Homicide	d4vd	91
Rain	lovely (with Khalid)	Billie Eilish	90
Rain	Perfect	Ed Sheeran	90
Snow	Cupid – Twin Ver.	FIFTY FIFTY	97
Snow	See You Again (feat. Kali Uchis)	Tyler, The Creator	94
Snow	Here With Me	d4vd	94
Snow	SNAP	Rosa Linn	90
Thunderstorm	Unholy (feat. Kim Petras)	Sam Smith	91

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For more on ways to use Spotify songs and data in class, check out this post from the archives: “Seven Ways To Use Spotify In School.” For bonus words on “wind,” check out this offering from Merriam-Webster.