Time Machine Dial
1930
Your Age in Songs
The Soundtrack of Your Lifetime
Find out how old you are in songs! Enter the year you were born below and get the 10 songs each year since you were born.
Scroll through time with the radio time machine.
Your 10
Community Sonic Archives
If you'd like to feature your sonic archive here, send me your top ten per year using the contact form at the bottom of this page. It doesn't need to be for 100 years! Any time period is fine. But 10 a year only!
Best Selling Singles
UK 1952-2025
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1990s Archive
1990s selections.
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Reset to Master
Return to the original 1000 Songs archive.
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100 years.
1000 songs.
10 songs a year.
An alternative, ear-crafted, sonic archive of 10 songs a year from 1930-2030.
A Reminder of time // self // sound.
Explore with the Radio Time Machine
Explore the Archive
Not your taste? Choose a band, artist or your songs to replace mine! Or explore others' curations and add your sonic archive!
The Soundtrack of your lifetime
Guess the Release Year
Name That Tune
Genres & Movements
The Journey of Change
About
The Journey of Sound: 1930 – 2030
What's it all about?
Do you really want to know? This 100-year music timeline is my curated ear-crafted sonic archive. It follows a strict 10 songs per year rule. You could say it's a digital data art project to map the story of sound from 1930 to 2030. Or you could not. But it's much more fun to measure time in songs than hours, minutes, seconds etc! It came about as a way of orientating myself in the present. I thought a good way of doing that was making lists while listening to Monkey Magic.
Features
This isn’t just my archive, it’s a template for yours. This site can be used completely offline. It's just a list manager and everything is based on looking up information. If you get your songs and then download the page this can be kept forever as a standalone file (obviously the song lookups don't work unless you are connected to the internet). I have also added in a few fun things where you can scroll through time using the radio or find songs from your lifetime. Also the community "Your 10" pages allow me to add your selections permanently as part of the main site.
Selection Logic
Songs are selected based on ones I like. If I hear a song I like more than another on the list. I'll take it out and add the new one. I am aiming for a release year. I don't mind what country the songs is released in. I have typed all the info manually. So there will be some mistakes (please let me know! I check stuff against Wikipedia and Discogs). I keep coming across Library of Congress, the Alan Lomax Archive, and historical catalogs from record labels including Vocolion, Decca, HMV, Columbia, Polydor,Blue Note and 4AD
Frequently Asked Questions
How was this music timeline created?
This project was built by listening to songs. It's just songs I like. 10 a year for 100 years. I can like things for a number of reasons, memories, the reaction I get to the songs, remembering how I first heard it. Each song I pick generally represents something bigger than just the song itself. Also I am deliberately not using the word playlist. For me this is more a break in case of emergency list. Playing songs too much can spoil them!
What are the most influential music genres featured?
Do you like the Beatles? Great. There will be something for your here. But basically this is my attempt at trying to work out my taste. And the story about how that came about through movements, including the birth of Rock & Roll, the evolution of Folk, and the global spread of Jazz. You can explore these specifically in my Genres Journey section. It's all about interconnected links and anchor points. Something like that.
Is this a complete history of recorded music?
No. It's songs I like ordered by year. But start at 1996. You'll find that from that point all of these songs interconnect forwards and backwards. They all interelate and hope to tell that story with this selection! This site is dedicated to human ways of discovering music, reading, friends, family and radio. Nick Grimshaw on BBC 6 Music kindly spoke to me about the initial incarnation of this idea. That conversation inspired me to further expand the idea. But also you'll find choices I discovered from John Peel, John Kennedy, Lauren Laverne, Steve Lamaq, Deb Grant, Mark Radcliffe and Marc Riley. Also from watching BBC shows in the past.
Why isn't there much pop, classical, or hip hop?
You won't find much classical, mainstream pop, or hip hop in my archive. This is just what I like 10 songs a year! I'd listen to these styles outside of this project. Same with bands. I am missing a lot of the greats. Sometimes you hear songs too many times! Also it is my taste so even when I thought new music had passed me by I scratched the surface and found stuff I liked. I am hoping others will add their sonic archives to the site which will explore the evolution of their taste and make the project richer.
How do I export my playlist to Spotify?
Once you've built a playlist, click the Export CSV button. To easily move these tracks to Spotify, I recommend using TuneMyMusic's CSV to Spotify tool. Just upload your downloaded CSV file, connect your streaming account, and it will generate the playlist for you automatically.
External Links
BBC Radio 6 Music
Good ol 6 Music.
Dave's Music Database
Dave makes lists.
The Alan Lomax Archive
A bespoke digital collection of field recordings that preserved the roots of the 20th century.
Artists
The Artists On The List
Your Playlist
Long-press (Mobile) or Double-click (Desktop) songs to add them. You can download the csv and use TuneMyMusic's CSV to Spotify tool
Choose Any Songs
Use all the features with any songs!
Paste in your songs as below, upload a file, check a song or use the artist generator:
1. Year, Artist, Track (Instant import, bypasses lookup)
2. Artist, Track (Slower, looks up the release year automatically at 20 tracks a minute)
You can then temporarily use all the features of the site with these songs! Scroll to the bottom of the page to download permanently.
Artist Archive Generator
Type an artist name to pull up to 10 songs a year from MusicBrainz into the site.
Quick Track Inspector
Type an artist and track to instantly get an audio preview and fetch official release details from Discogs.
Contact
Inquiries & Feedback