Titles:
- Journey to #1
- Sounds familiar…
- Smash hits
- Society’s soundtracks /Our nation’s soundtracks/ History’s soundtracks
Subtitles:
- The societal and compositional contributors that make songs rise to #1
- The happenings in U.S culture that contributed to the rise of certain songs to #1
- Exploring the relationships between #1 songs and the political and social climate of the U.S
List of Article Contents
Opening Spread
- Smaller title, hero image of one singular song chart, smaller ones run up the sides like chapters
or
- Larger title with all the charts of songs included in the articles scattered throughout
Main articles
- The main articles will be excerpts from a Stereogum writer who wrote reviews for every #1 song since 1958. Some of these are really extensive- and I would most likely cut out his personal takes and include what he wrote about the historical background of the song, and societal factors going on at the time. He has some good takes on certain cultural aspects of the U.S in years before I was born- so I found that perspective helpful.
- As kind of a sidebar within the larger articles, I want to include a short blurb as to why I included the specific #1 song in the magazine. This would be for anything that I felt wasn’t’t covered in the Stereogum review- like historical context, artist background, etc. For example, “this song was chosen because it was the #1 song in 2020, worldwide pandemic, etc.”
Side articles
- I’m thinking of including one interlude article in the middle of the spreads, which will most likely be the Penn State article, “What makes a Song Catchy?” Along with this article, I want to include some of the song “formulas” I created in my infographic as another layer and a visual.
Single-spread layouts
- I want to include a gallery spread of the number one song charts with a small key
Sidebars/other info to include
- sales/streaming stats
- quick facts (that appear on infographic)
