Viz roundup: Songs, spells, and electoral college votes

From the US presidential election to Harry Potter spells, to the lives of taxi drivers, you, our brilliant community, have created many great vizzes exploring a variety of topics in recent months. Here are just five standouts from our Viz of the Day feed.

Chris Love’s viz colorfully breaks down the song lyrics to the top 100 songs of all time. Each treemap represents a different word and shows how many times that word is used in the top 100 songs. How many times do you think “be” is repeated in “Let It Be” by the Beatles? Hover over the “be” treemap, and you’ll find it’s sung 41 times! Try clicking on the word to highlight all the lyrics in the Beatles hit song.

How closely do the number of electoral college votes for each US state match the state’s population? Jon Walker visualized the difference by state. If you live in Wyoming, which has three electoral votes, your vote is worth 3.1 persons. But if you live in California, your vote is worth 0.8 person. Hover over each state for full details.

When did your favorite Harry Potter spell first appear? Use Skyler Johnson’s magical viz to impress your friends with HP knowledge. Click on a spell name for its frequency or highlight a specific occurrence to read the spell description and exact book excerpt. Fan-favorites "accio" (which summons an object) and "expecto patronum" (which creates a Patronus, an animal guardian) top the list with 34 occurrences in the Harry Potter series.

The new Iron Viz champion Curtis Harris created this impressive viz in 20 minutes flat under the bright lights (and the intense pressure!) of Viz Stadium at TC16. Curtis focused on the perspective of the cab drivers, showing how competition from services like Uber and Lyft influence the drivers’ families and livelihoods. “The insights are a reminder of how hard cab drivers work for us,” Curtis said. (Check out his 10 tips for winning the Iron Viz Championship.)

For all our music lovers, Rody Zakovich's viz creatively shows the lyrics of Queen’s 10 albums. You may be surprised to find “Bohemian Rhapsody” isn’t Queen’s wordiest song. In fact, it comes in second to "The Prophet’s Song” on the same album, A Night at the Opera. Check out his use of colors to categorize information from each album. Well done!

There were so many great vizzes to choose from in this viz roundup.Subscribe to our Viz of the Day feed for a never-ending parade of notable vizzes.