“If music be the food of love, then crank it up to eleven and rock on” Shakespeare’s Duke Orsino might have said, had he been headbanging to Led Zeppelin in Twelfth Night.
While it’s unlikely the Duke was tuned into The Rock 2000 countdown, his sentiment hits the same note.
Here at the Locus office in the Paradise City of Auckland, Spotify is our Stairway to Heaven. Despite our mixed bag of musical tastes, we come together like a classic rock supergroup, harmonizing over a great tune.
Whether it’s John’s deep cuts that would make even the most dedicated vinyl collector nod in approval, Angie’s Pink-inspired pop grooves, Shilpa’s Weekend jams, or my obsession with Brit Pop (Blur vs. Oasis, anyone?), we all find a way to riff off each other.
Last week, the office struck a major chord as The Rock radio station wrapped up its top 2000 countdown. Pip and Hamish were Thunderstruck by the top 10, sparking heated debates over who truly deserved the top spot.
Being the data geek that I am, I couldn’t help but dive headfirst into the heavy world of rock to understand what made these tracks hit all the right notes.
The Spotify API became my axe of choice, slicing through the numbers to extract details like genre, tempo, and mood. Using FME, I compiled a chart-worthy Excel spreadsheet that enabled me to analyse track length, tempo, acousticness, danceability, and energy – dissecting each song like a power chord ringing out from a Les Paul.
Meanwhile, Pip dug up a killer setlist of the top 2000 tracks from the last five years. With FME as her roadie, she mashed this data into a spreadsheet and tracked the rise and fall of rock legends over time.
To visualise the data, I built a dashboard using Locus’s Power BI license—a true arena for showcasing rock’s best performances. Though I hoped to find the secret sauce to a chart-topping track, I learned that human taste is more unpredictable than a free-form Hendrix solo. There’s no one-size-fits-all hit.
Degradation Rules by Ozzy Osbourne, the Prince of Darkness himself, took a nosedive, plummeting from position 500 in 2023 to a staggering 1973 in 2024. Looks like the Prince hit a low note! Meanwhile, Journey took their own advice and Don’t Stop Believin’, climbed from spot 1874 to 402.
Then there’s Foo Fighters’ Everlong, which riffed its way from #2 in 2023 to the number one spot in 2024. Proof that in rock, the only thing more consistent than change is a killer guitar solo.
At Locus, we don’t just roll with it—we rock with it!
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The Rock 2000 Live
