Data analysis of Musical and Lyric Traits in the UK’s favourite Christmas songs

The analysis examined the UK Spotify Top 200 songs from Christmas week 2016, focusing on 78 holiday-related tracks. Streaming data was used to capture contemporary listening behavior rather than historical chart performance. Each song was analyzed by musical features (key, tempo, time signature), release year, vocal type, and dominant lyrical theme.

68% of the songs had a male vocal; 24% had a female vocal; the remainder were instrumentals or group vocals.

© Data analysis of Musical and Lyric Traits in the UK’s favourite Christmas songs

Musicologist’s analysis by Prof Joe Bennett

Berklee College of Music, USA

September 2017