Justin Bieber and the Beatles: They both liked to rhyme the same words.

A good example of a computer-native, data-driven news feature, which Slate calls an “interactive.” Apparently using the adjective “interactive” as a noun is now a thing, according to Slate.

While most artists draw from a common bank of rhymes and use the same rhymes frequently, there are some artists who appear to go out of the way to avoid common couplets or rhyming in general. Queen only used do/you as an end rhyme once in its 15 albums, and there is no single rhyme that Queen used in more than five different songs. By contrast, in seven albums and roughly 40 singles, there are seven rhymes (do/you, be/me, baby/me, go/know, enough/love, above/love, fear/here) that Justin Bieber has used in at least five songs.

Below is an interactive that allows you to pick an artist and reveal that artist’s favorite and most distinctive rhymes. Only artists whose all-time total record sales have surpassed 75 million or have had one of the 10 best-selling albums of the year within the past 10 years were included. Artists who otherwise fit the criteria for inclusion but didn’t have enough songs with lyrics were excluded. Sorry, Kenny G. —Justin Bieber and the Beatles: They both liked to rhyme the same words..

Post was last modified on 21 Feb 2014 10:43 am

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Dennis G. Jerz

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