#Pitchfork 808s and heartbreak cracked

This is exacerbated by the step in my formula in which everything is divided by the number of days since an album’s release: if an artist were to hypothetically release two albums a year apart that both sold a consistent number of copies every day since their release dates, the division by number of days since the album’s release would result in the data indicating that the first album is considerably less popular.

The formula I used was moderately effective, but it did not take into account an album’s popularity over time.Īlbums generally tend to sell the most copies in their first month or so, and as my formula measured an album’s popularity from the time it was released to the time the data was collected, trends over time were not taken into account (e.g., MGMT, whose album Congratulations topped the charts upon its release but saw a subsequent plummet in popularity due to severe fan and critical backlash).

#Pitchfork 808s and heartbreak cracked

While it would be ideal to use the number of copies of an album sold, or even the album’s peak Billboard chart position, many of the artists I examined are relatively obscure, making it difficult if not impossible to find the number of copies sold (I also doubt many of these albums cracked the charts). It was extremely difficult for me to find a formula that would serve as an effective numerical proxy for an album’s popularity.

It produced two of West’s best known singles, Love Lockdown ( which debuted at number one three on the Billboard 100 ) and Heartless ( which reached number two ). A number of factors may have affected the validity of my results. 808s and Heartbreak was a hit in 2008, debuting at number one on the Billboard 200.