creates a histogram of the years of your media (assumes filename in the format of "Title (YYYY)")

media-histogram.sh

#! /usr/bin/env bash

IFS=$'\n'
media_directory=$1

if [[ -z "$media_directory" ]]; then
  echo "Usage: $0 <media-directory>"
  exit 1
fi

ls "$media_directory" \
  | grep -o -E '\([[:digit:]]{4}\)$' \
  | sort \
  | uniq -c \
  | while read line; do 
      count=$( awk '{ print $1 }' <<< "$line" )
      year=$( echo "$line" | awk '{ print $2 }' | grep -o -E '[[:digit:]]+')
      printf "$year  "
      printf "*%.0s" $( seq 1 "$count" )
      printf "\n"
    done

z-example-output.txt

1922  **
1924  *
1926  *
1927  *
1928  **
1931  ***
1932  ***
1934  *
1935  *
1936  **
1937  **
1939  ***
1940  **
1941  ***
1942  ***
1944  *
1945  *
1946  ***
1947  *
1948  **
1949  *
1950  **
1951  *****
1953  ****
1954  ****
1955  **
1956  ****
1957  *****
1958  *******
1959  *****
1960  ******
1961  ******
1962  ****
1963  *********
1964  ************
1965  ******
1966  ********
1967  *********
1968  ******
1969  **
1970  ******
1971  *****************
1972  **************
1973  ***********
1974  *****************
1975  *********
1976  ******************
1977  ****************
1978  ****************
1979  *****************
1980  **********************
1981  ****************************
1982  **********************************
1983  **************************
1984  *******************************************
1985  ********************************************
1986  ****************************************
1987  ****************************************
1988  **********************************************************
1989  ***************************************************
1990  ************************************
1991  *********************************
1992  **************************************
1993  *****************************
1994  ****************************************
1995  ***************************
1996  *******************************
1997  *****************************
1998  ****************************
1999  **********************************
2000  *************************
2001  **********************************
2002  **********************************
2003  *******************
2004  ******************************
2005  *********************************
2006  ******************************
2007  ************************************
2008  ****************************
2009  *****************************
2010  *******************************
2011  ***************************
2012  *************************
2013  ****************************************************
2014  ****************************************
2015  ******************************************************
2016  ************************************