7th & 8th Grade “Topping the Charts” Project

Due date: June 10, 2009

Each week the taste of what is popular in music changes, sometimes slightly and other times quite significantly.

1. Choose 5 or more new songs that have just been released and follow their chart progress over the next several weeks. (May 4, 2009 through June 10, 2009).

   You can find results at billboard.com.

2. Draw a graph of your choosing to illustrate the songs' chart histories.

3. Compare the graphs of the songs you have tracked. Which has been:

   1. most successful?
   2. least successful?
4. Find, for each song, the:
   1. mean
   2. median
   3. mode

   of its position on the charts. If it does not appear on your chart after several weeks, then enter the highest number you graphed plus one.

   Do the results in question 4 support your answers from question 3? If not, explain why not. What is the best method for comparing success of songs?

Your grade will be based on the following:

• Neatness of the graph you chose.
• Title and label of the graph.
• Accuracy of the graph compared to online results.
• Correctly finding the mean, median, and mode of numbers in the data. (40 pts.)
• Answering the results question clearly in a well-written paragraph. (10 pts.)
• Answering the comparing question clearly in a well-written paragraph. (10 pts.)