Bob Dylan Analysis

Welcome to my Bob Dylan Analysis! On this site we will explore various aspects of Bob Dylan's career. This is primarily a data analysis and visualization project. The methods page will focus on how and where I retrieved data from and the visualization page will focus on the results and findings of my data analysis. If you would like to know more about me,check out my about me page. The project primarily focuses on Dylan's original albums. For this project,I categorize an original album as an album that consists primarily of songs that were written by Dylan himself.Primarily we will be discussing his original albums. Overall,there are 33 original albums and a total of 48 live or compilation albums. I consider albums that are covers such as Shadows of the Night as compilation albums. Additionally,I also make a distinction from his early years and late years. I define his early years from 1962-1980 and his late years from 1980-2020. Although this may seem uneven,there are 17 original albums from his early years and 16 from his late years.

My Questions

There are a few questions that I plan on answering:

My Findings

After analyzing my data,I've learned a lot about Bob Dylan and his career. I analyzed data about instruments played,tracks,verses,genres and album types.Over the year, he his top three most frequently used instruments were the same across both periods.The most suprising thing I learned about his instrumentation was that he does not use a harmonica in all of his albums.Dylan gets more experimental over the years and explores more genres in the later part of his career. He also uses less instruments in his late years.Over the years,he is consistent in number of verses but has a increases his average song length over time.However,he dereases his average track count per album. In terms of album types,he releases more compilation and live albums. This explains why he has a lower amount of original content produced.Lastly,he increases the amount of format types he releases his albums on.

Pictures

a portrait of Bob Dylan
A portrait of Bob Dylan at the Smithsonian in DC.
picture of Bob Dylan wearing sunglasses from 1966
Bob Dylan,1966.
picture of Bob Dylan receiving medal of freedom
Bob Dylan receiving the Medal of Freedom,2012
movie poster for A Complete Unknown
A Complete Unknown,2024.