Ngram Research and Prog

Today I was watching some presentations on TED.com and I found this talk about the use of Google Ngram. With this method you can find how much specific words are mentioned in an immense collection of books throughout our history. As a result you get a nice graph. So I though.. let's do some research for our beloved progressive genre. I've made some graphs using ngrams, but I would like to invite every-one to make some of you own and post them here. Google Ngrams

1. Was the term 'progressive rock' really used in the seventies?
This graph shows conclusive evidence that such a thing as 'progressive rock' existed, though the term became more usual since the prog revival of the nineties.





What about psychedelic rock?
This graph shows nicely when the genre started and it's peak.





What about specific genres?
The possibilities are great, take for instance folk rock:




and Jazz Rock?






And what about Disco? (whahaha)







When did people began to use the term 'heavy metal'?







Does it also work with specific bands?
The problem with many band names is that the words are commenly used. For instance; the word 'Genesis' has been used since biblical times. But some bands give nice graphs. For instance: Hawkwind that was at it's peak in the mid seventies:






And what about our instruments? For instance, our beloved mellotrons?






Or the electric guitar?






Conclusion
Go to Google Ngrams and post your findings in this blog!

Edited by M@X - September 22 2011 at 13:58

Version of your Hawkwind graph showing they actually began to became most prominant in the late 90s/early2000s

Originally posted by Eärendil Interesting.  Well, I learned that in the early 1800's there was a habit of replacing S's with F's.  They even had this habit the "Spiritual Magazine" from 1802.  Even in passages that use the word "suck".  The URL is censored, however, as we do not have that habit today. http://books.google.com/books?id=Y0cEAAAAQAAJ&pg=RA2-PA334&dq=%22f**k%22&hl=en&ei=Cdd7Tt2xHaTG0AGb6r3PAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=4&ved=0CEcQ6AEwAzgK#v=onepage&q=%22f**k%22&f=false Science manuals describing how young animals are able to feed also practiced this habit. http://books.google.com/books?id=jlFhAAAAIAAJ&pg=PA152&dq=%22f**k%22&hl=en&ei=59h7Tu7ZK9PH0AGY-5HhAg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=5&ved=0CEsQ6AEwBA#v=onepage&q=%22f**k%22&f=false

I'm not doing uploads for this experiment, but do one for splunge.  I always thought it was just a Monty Python made up word. If you run progressive rock back to 1800, there's a slight plateau around 1900.  So I'd suggest to you that want to know what the first progressive rock album was, I suggest you do some research.


Edited by Slartibartfast - January 19 2012 at 20:45

Originally posted by Slartibartfast I'm not doing uploads for this experiment, but do one for splunge.  I always thought it was just a Monty Python made up word. If you run progressive rock back to 1800, there's a slight plateau around 1900.  So I'd suggest to you that want to know what the first progressive rock album was, I suggest you do some research.

 

Edited by moshkito - May 18 2012 at 10:28