SEE ANIMATED VISUALIZATION HERE: http://money.cnn.com/interactive/markets/market-music/

READ AN ARTICLE ABOUT IT: http://www.fastcodesign.com/3024268/infographic-of-the-day/a-reggae-song-that-explains-the-2013-stock-market

This song is composed from data. It translates the ups and downs of the 2013 stock market into musical notes. For every day, a piano, an organ, and a guitar come together to form reggae-like chords on the off beat of the song. There are only two chords -- a higher-pitched one for days that ended with market gains, and a lower-pitched one for days that ended in a loss. Weekends and holidays "carry the chord" from the last trading day, so if a Friday was up, the weekend gets the high pitch as well.

On top of this chord framework is a melody line played by a pure keyboard sound that starts out as a bass instrument, and ends up as a bright digital tone. The pitch for each note is determined by the daily closing numbers of the S&P 500. Each note covers 10 points on the index, so if there was very little movement from one day to the next, the same note is played twice. And the drums? Well, they're just there to help make it a song.

This visualization was selected to be part of the "Dataism" Design Column exhibit at Droog Gallery in Amsterdam, February 2014.

EDLUNDART for CNNMoney - Market Music

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