5 ms·

Show HN: ABC Classic 100 Rankings visualised

37 points by gotski 4mo ago

This weekend is the ABC Classic FM countdown, which prompted me to dust off an old un-published data visualisation of rankings from previous years. I've considered adding a search function, but I also kind of like that it requires a bit of exploration in the current form. Some of the code is a bit clunky and I wouldn't mind refactoring it. I'm also not sure about browser compatibility - I've only got access to a couple of devices to test it on.

nomilk 4mo ago
Very cool. Small (almost so small as to be silly) suggestion. But my first instinct as a non-classical music listener was to copy the names of songs into youtube so I could see if I recognised them. But for whatever reason I can't select the text (on desktop, not sure if different elsewhere). Could be cool to allow the text to be selectable, or even better link directly to it if it's on yt or other platforms/places.
- gotski 4mo ago
  Good point, thanks for the suggestion - I made the svg non-selectable because of some quirks when tapping the dots on mobile, but I might see if I can override that for the text elements. The YouTube link is a great idea too, might see if I can find some good recordings, although will probably take a little while
- apimade 4mo ago
  There's already a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mUvvqf3A2l68yAzu0_n7wOOJvfM0cSV7U https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mUvvqf3A2l68yA...
  - porjo 4mo ago
    And one for Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1KIn8OI51LuyXvDmNL9FxQ?si=UqWp1CEvQWKC0-PAM-Sewg&pi=UMulKpTKRiOGk https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1KIn8OI51LuyXvDmNL9FxQ?si=...
rdimartino 4mo ago
What happened in 2001 that Marriage of Figaro was listed twice? This was really neat to explore! Thanks!
- gotski 4mo ago
  I wondered about that as well! I suspect it might have been different songs or movements from the opera, but it didn't specify on the ABC site so I thought it would be a fun Easter egg to include. Glad you found it!
  - rdimartino 4mo ago
    I wonder if that was supposed to be the Goldberg Variations (currently listed as unranked in 2001). That’s what Wikipedia has, but I don’t see a good source for it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_100_Original_(ABC) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_100_Original_(ABC)
    - gotski 4mo ago
      Ooh nice pickup, might have to track down the original playlists on Archive.org and see if I can verify if it was indeed Goldberg. I did think it was odd that Goldberg didn't show up in 2001.
diego_moita 4mo ago
Some observations: 1) It is a weird comparison. Some works (e.g: Brandenburg Concertos) can take hours to listen. Most take minutes. 2) Lord of the Rings, Out of Africa and Star War series? Seriously? Oh, I see: it is a list made by Australians. 3) I suspect that even Ennio Morricone wouldn't say that "The Mission" soundtrack is classical, although he made some classical music too. 4) I'd recommend some Latin American composers: Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri (Brazil), Ginastera (Argentina), Carlos Chavez and Arturo Marquéz (Mexico).
- defrost 4mo ago
  Beat me to it - but that's the voting public for you, Howard Shore – The Lord Of The Rings (The Motion Picture Trilogy Soundtrack) was 2003. We (Australians) have heard of Villa-Lobos et al. if that soothes your soul, but hey, again, it's the ABC (national radio) regular listeners voting,. so <shrug> it is what it is. If you're curious about the penetration of classical music in Australia . . . the opening remarks by Kev Carmody here are worth a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw-AgvUEVm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw-AgvUEVm4
- gotski 4mo ago
  Interesting points around what can be categorised as classical music. I took the data as a given from ABC Classic FM, and as you mentioned it's voted on by listeners in Australia so that might affect what shows up. I'm listening to the 2026 countdown right now, and it does seem like there's a broader range of less traditional pieces appearing this year. Partly this might be because ABC Classic has expanded into a broader range of genres (e.g. There's a whole program dedicated to video game music) to increase their accessibility to a wider audience. I personally don't mind this, as there are many pieces from screen music that I love and that I think hold up as great orchestral music (Lord of the Rings has wonderful music). I also love some of the newer music they play - e.g. I strongly suspect Joseph Tawardros will be highly ranked this year, as they have been (rightfully) playing his pieces a lot over the last few years. I'm not the biggest fan of video game music though, unless it's in the original context. Would love it if some Latin American composers made it in this year! Will have to wait and see...
ddxv 4mo ago
What did you use to make the bump chart? I've used eCharts https://echarts.apache.org/examples/en/editor.html?c=bump-chart https://echarts.apache.org/examples/en/editor.html?c=bump-ch... Yours looks cleaner and I love the way you handled the off chart samples with dashed lines, that's a great idea. Also, using a central area below the chart to show which is highlighted is also great for those that in the past fell off and are no longer on the chart, but naturally people are curious and want to click to see what their names are. Here's the eCharts BumpChart on AppGoblin, showing the latest Google Play Store rankings: https://appgoblin.info/rankings/store/1/collection/1/category/1/US https://appgoblin.info/rankings/store/1/collection/1/categor... But you can see that doing it that way there it's not really clear where / to the apps that just popped into the top 10 came or went. I'll try adding the selection area like you have, eg: Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11 (Fauré, Gabriel) 2001: Ranked 100th 2010: No Rank 2021: No Rank Great little chart, thanks!
- gotski 4mo ago
  Thank you! I really appreciate it. The eCharts bump charts look great. I kind of rolled my own generated SVG paths. I wanted to learn a bit more about how Bezier curves worked, and this seemed like a good opportunity to figure it out. Not 100% happy with my implementation, but I learned a lot from tinkering with it.
eff-nix 4mo ago
[dead]
phita 4mo ago
This years theme 'Greatest of all time' is counting down live on ABC Classic FM if anyone is curious to tune in and get a sample of what the Australian ABC Classic FM audience considers to be 'greatest of all time'. Thanks for the great chart! It's fascinating seeing what's fallen out of favour since I started listening to Classic FM - there's a few there I'll go listen to when they finish the countdown for today. Will you update it after this year's count? Works fine on the Firefox derivative I'm using.
- gotski 4mo ago
  Yes, I'm definitely thinking I'll update it with the 2026 - seems like there's quite a few pieces so far this year that didn't appear in the 3 years I chose. I also thought I might be interesting to do a version with the film/screen specific years
jkmcf 4mo ago
Apple Playlists - [Classic 100 The Music You Can't Live Without](https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-the-music-you-cant-live-without/pl.u-GgA5xZafdlEWop https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-the-music-yo...) - [The Best Classical of All Time](https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/the-best-classical-music-of-all-time/pl.482e9a59e4c845878b2bbbc23491479e https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/the-best-classical-music...) - [Classic 100 Music in the Movies](https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-music-in-the-movies/pl.6233e31e836a4616b54215320f1cf1f7 https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-music-in-the...)
- jkmcf 4mo ago
  And a bonus: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-the-original-countdown/pl.4e0ba05b858b4745897bdbc235d03303 https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-the-original...

37 points by gotski 4mo ago

nomilk 4mo ago

Very cool. Small (almost so small as to be silly) suggestion. But my first instinct as a non-classical music listener was to copy the names of songs into youtube so I could see if I recognised them. But for whatever reason I can't select the text (on desktop, not sure if different elsewhere). Could be cool to allow the text to be selectable, or even better link directly to it if it's on yt or other platforms/places.

gotski 4mo ago
Good point, thanks for the suggestion - I made the svg non-selectable because of some quirks when tapping the dots on mobile, but I might see if I can override that for the text elements. The YouTube link is a great idea too, might see if I can find some good recordings, although will probably take a little while
apimade 4mo ago
There's already a playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mUvvqf3A2l68yAzu0_n7wOOJvfM0cSV7U https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mUvvqf3A2l68yA...
- porjo 4mo ago
  And one for Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1KIn8OI51LuyXvDmNL9FxQ?si=UqWp1CEvQWKC0-PAM-Sewg&pi=UMulKpTKRiOGk https://open.spotify.com/playlist/1KIn8OI51LuyXvDmNL9FxQ?si=...

rdimartino 4mo ago

What happened in 2001 that Marriage of Figaro was listed twice? This was really neat to explore! Thanks!

gotski 4mo ago
I wondered about that as well! I suspect it might have been different songs or movements from the opera, but it didn't specify on the ABC site so I thought it would be a fun Easter egg to include. Glad you found it!
- rdimartino 4mo ago
  I wonder if that was supposed to be the Goldberg Variations (currently listed as unranked in 2001). That’s what Wikipedia has, but I don’t see a good source for it. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_100_Original_(ABC) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classic_100_Original_(ABC)
  - gotski 4mo ago
    Ooh nice pickup, might have to track down the original playlists on Archive.org and see if I can verify if it was indeed Goldberg. I did think it was odd that Goldberg didn't show up in 2001.

diego_moita 4mo ago

Some observations: 1) It is a weird comparison. Some works (e.g: Brandenburg Concertos) can take hours to listen. Most take minutes. 2) Lord of the Rings, Out of Africa and Star War series? Seriously? Oh, I see: it is a list made by Australians. 3) I suspect that even Ennio Morricone wouldn't say that "The Mission" soundtrack is classical, although he made some classical music too. 4) I'd recommend some Latin American composers: Villa-Lobos and Camargo Guarnieri (Brazil), Ginastera (Argentina), Carlos Chavez and Arturo Marquéz (Mexico).

defrost 4mo ago
Beat me to it - but that's the voting public for you, Howard Shore – The Lord Of The Rings (The Motion Picture Trilogy Soundtrack) was 2003. We (Australians) have heard of Villa-Lobos et al. if that soothes your soul, but hey, again, it's the ABC (national radio) regular listeners voting,. so <shrug> it is what it is. If you're curious about the penetration of classical music in Australia . . . the opening remarks by Kev Carmody here are worth a listen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw-AgvUEVm4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gw-AgvUEVm4
gotski 4mo ago
Interesting points around what can be categorised as classical music. I took the data as a given from ABC Classic FM, and as you mentioned it's voted on by listeners in Australia so that might affect what shows up. I'm listening to the 2026 countdown right now, and it does seem like there's a broader range of less traditional pieces appearing this year. Partly this might be because ABC Classic has expanded into a broader range of genres (e.g. There's a whole program dedicated to video game music) to increase their accessibility to a wider audience. I personally don't mind this, as there are many pieces from screen music that I love and that I think hold up as great orchestral music (Lord of the Rings has wonderful music). I also love some of the newer music they play - e.g. I strongly suspect Joseph Tawardros will be highly ranked this year, as they have been (rightfully) playing his pieces a lot over the last few years. I'm not the biggest fan of video game music though, unless it's in the original context. Would love it if some Latin American composers made it in this year! Will have to wait and see...

ddxv 4mo ago

What did you use to make the bump chart? I've used eCharts https://echarts.apache.org/examples/en/editor.html?c=bump-chart https://echarts.apache.org/examples/en/editor.html?c=bump-ch... Yours looks cleaner and I love the way you handled the off chart samples with dashed lines, that's a great idea. Also, using a central area below the chart to show which is highlighted is also great for those that in the past fell off and are no longer on the chart, but naturally people are curious and want to click to see what their names are. Here's the eCharts BumpChart on AppGoblin, showing the latest Google Play Store rankings: https://appgoblin.info/rankings/store/1/collection/1/category/1/US https://appgoblin.info/rankings/store/1/collection/1/categor... But you can see that doing it that way there it's not really clear where / to the apps that just popped into the top 10 came or went. I'll try adding the selection area like you have, eg: Cantique de Jean Racine, Op. 11 (Fauré, Gabriel) 2001: Ranked 100th 2010: No Rank 2021: No Rank Great little chart, thanks!

gotski 4mo ago
Thank you! I really appreciate it. The eCharts bump charts look great. I kind of rolled my own generated SVG paths. I wanted to learn a bit more about how Bezier curves worked, and this seemed like a good opportunity to figure it out. Not 100% happy with my implementation, but I learned a lot from tinkering with it.

eff-nix 4mo ago

[dead]

phita 4mo ago

This years theme 'Greatest of all time' is counting down live on ABC Classic FM if anyone is curious to tune in and get a sample of what the Australian ABC Classic FM audience considers to be 'greatest of all time'. Thanks for the great chart! It's fascinating seeing what's fallen out of favour since I started listening to Classic FM - there's a few there I'll go listen to when they finish the countdown for today. Will you update it after this year's count? Works fine on the Firefox derivative I'm using.

gotski 4mo ago
Yes, I'm definitely thinking I'll update it with the 2026 - seems like there's quite a few pieces so far this year that didn't appear in the 3 years I chose. I also thought I might be interesting to do a version with the film/screen specific years

jkmcf 4mo ago

Apple Playlists - [Classic 100 The Music You Can't Live Without](https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-the-music-you-cant-live-without/pl.u-GgA5xZafdlEWop https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-the-music-yo...) - [The Best Classical of All Time](https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/the-best-classical-music-of-all-time/pl.482e9a59e4c845878b2bbbc23491479e https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/the-best-classical-music...) - [Classic 100 Music in the Movies](https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-music-in-the-movies/pl.6233e31e836a4616b54215320f1cf1f7 https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-music-in-the...)

jkmcf 4mo ago
And a bonus: https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-the-original-countdown/pl.4e0ba05b858b4745897bdbc235d03303 https://music.apple.com/us/playlist/classic-100-the-original...