Who is the father of rock? A few names probably came to mind – Chuck Berry, Jerry Lee Lewis, Elvis Presley, Johnny Cash... All men. But the father of rock is actually a mother: Sister Rosetta Tharpe. Years before them, Rosetta was already cranking up the distortion on her guitar, shredding solos, and presenting her rock’n’roll on stage. Though she was recognized as a major influence on many of the men said to be the inventors of rock, including Johnny Cash himself, who name-checked her in his induction speech at the Hall of Fame, Rosetta Tharpe never received the recognition she deserved. Her story was practically erased, and is virtually unknown to the general public. This injustice must be corrected. Our goal is to set the record straight and show the world the story and importance of this incredible woman in the history of rock and music.

There’s no better way to prove that rock has a mother than to look at its DNA. That's why we created the first musical DNA test. A new, interactive way to tell a story to your audience through data.

We created an algorithm that analyzes songs and cross-references the data with elements that became hallmarks of Rosetta Tharpe’s work throughout her career. The result shows the Mother of Rock’s influence on each song, expressed as a percentage. The algorithm can be consulted through a web app, available for desktop and mobile devices.

To create the DNA test, we needed to gather as much data as possible about Sister Rosetta Tharpe. First, we got help from Gayle Wald, the author of Rosetta's biography, for an in-depth look at her trajectory and its unique characteristics. Then a team of producers and musical experts dissected all of Rosetta's work, defining the technical elements that represent the artist, such as guitar timbre, solo licks, picking style, and musical genre, among others. All this data became the parameters to define Rosetta's DNA.

We collected the parameters and created an algorithm that listens to and analyzes music, cross-referencing its data with Rosetta's DNA. The result is a calculation that shows the percentage of the Mother of Rock’s influence on the song.

With the campaign, we’re able to reach not only rock fans, but also fans of other musical styles, showing Rosetta’s true importance in the history of music.

We analyzed Rosetta Tharpe's recordings throughout her career and dissected all her songs, gathering data to create parameters that represented her innovations and unique hallmarks. Those parameters were the starting point for the creation of our web app.

Then we took that data and created an algorithm that identifies songs, analyzes them, and cross-references their data against Rosetta's. That allowed us to identify the degree of influence the Mother of Rock had on a given song. And voilà: we had a DNA test for music.

We wanted to find the most affordable way to deliver this experience to music fans. So we put it in your hands. Literally. We put our algorithm into a user-friendly web app, available for mobile, desktop and other digital devices.

When building the web app, we favored visual elements that evoked the full immersion of a real DNA test. And with the best user experience in mind, we allowed the analysis to be carried out with just one click.

We had a 91.86% engagement rate on the web app, showing that we delivered Sister Rosetta Tharpe's story in an interactive way that captured people's attention. Test results were shared on users' social media, including by major Brazilian artists, making searches for Sister Rosetta Tharpe shoot up 93x during the week of the launch. But our web app went beyond borders, recording musical DNA tests taken in 23 countries, generating a result of 181% more interactions than Billboard’s benchmark.