What is Valence?
Valence is how positive (happy, cheery, etc) a song sounds.
Every song on Spotify has a predicted valence value, which is presumably calculated using machine learning. Valence ranges from 0 to 1, where 0 is a very negative-sounding song and 1 is a very positive-sounding song.
Other Definitions
- Danceability: how suitable a song is for dancing. Based on tempo, rhythm regularity, and beat strength. 0 is least suitable, 1 is most suitable.
- Energy: the intensity, loudness, and activeness of a song. 0 is low energy, 1 is high energy.
Usage Tips
Activate keyboard navigation anywhere with the period key, and deactivated it with the comma key (clicking inside/outside the chart also works). The h key also shows/hides this help popup.
Controls For Keyboard Navigation:
- Left and right - move between songs
- Space - toggle sort
- Enter - focus on band of highlighted song, and show song info
- ESC or \ - de-focus band
Why Are Some Songs Missing?
Valence data doesn't exist for songs not released on Spotify. This includes all cover songs.
Furthermore, only songs from the 7 main bands are included, to keep the data more manageable and focused.
Further Reading
More details about measures and other audio features can be found on Spotify's API documentation. Source code for tool and data is available on Github. Bug reports are appreciated.