Last train to Clarkesville

Could a map of London's underground tube stations be used as the basis for charting 100 years of music? Other mapping attempts can be found at Gnoosic and Liveplasma.

Now comes a music map based on a public transit map that might well be called the Rock Island Line.

Dorian Lynskey, the UK newspaper Guardian's music writer, got out some sheets of paper and a box of crayons and transposed the history of both rock and roll onto a schematic diagram of the world's most extensive underground rail line.

Using particular routes for particular music roots, Lynskey's diagram neatly maps many of music's intersecting points (for all the details firsthand, visit her Guardian Unlimited blog entry here).

Lynskey's efforts are based on the London Underground map designed by Harry Beck in 1933. Beck moved away from the strict geographical design of previous maps and based his simple layout on an electrical circuit diagram. The format has been copied by transport systems around the world.

Lynskey's full map can be found here as a .pdf, and can be purchased here for only £7.95.