One thing that I like to do every now and then is check in on my last.fm profile and look at some of the statistics they’ve accumulated about my music listening habits. One stat I find particularly interesting is seeing how many artists I’ve listened to over 100 times — something that, on average, amounts to about 6 hours of continuous music. Well this time when I checked in it just so happened that an even 100 artists had at least 100 plays, so I thought I would share the results with you guys. The following is the cream of the crop Top 10 with the entire list plus analysis after the jump (included as well are the number of plays):
1. Ryan Adams // 609
2. Bright Eyes // 576
3. Lil’ Wayne // 542
4. The Mountain Goats // 503
5. Sunset Rubdown // 443
6. Wilco // 438
7. Radiohead // 408
8. Stars // 406
9. of Montreal // 368
10. Kanye West // 350
11. Death Cab for Cutie // 345
12. NPR // 341
13. Arcade Fire // 336
14. Modest Mouse // 335
15. Wolf Parade // 330
16. Neko Case // 327
17. Matt & Kim // 317
18.Lucero // 316
19. Dr Drama & Lil’ Wayne // 308
20. The National // 300
21. Thrift Store Cowboys // 300
22. Eels // 299
23. The Decemberists // 285
24. Bon Iver // 277
25. Johnny Cash // 272
26. The Knife // 270
27. Jens Lekman // 263
28. Sufjan Stevens // 259
29. Beach House // 240
30. Crystal Castles // 240
31. Tegan and Sara // 231
32. Yeah Yeah Yeahs // 217
33. The Raveonettes // 216
34. The White Stripes // 208
35. Jay Reatard // 204
36. Animal Collective // 203
37. M. Ward // 201
38. Nick Drake // 200
39. The Killers // 189
40. Weezer // 189
41. Silver Jews // 185
42. Ratatat // 184
43. Bob Dylan // 182
44. Dashboard Confessional // 175
45. jj // 174
46. Against Me! // 172
47. Band of Horses // 167
48. Hot Chip // 162
49. Handsome Furs // 159
50. Jay-Z // 159
51. Townes Van Zandt // 157
52. Andrew Bird // 154
53. The Flaming Lips // 150
54. Mates of State // 150
55. Electrelane // 148
56. Franz Ferdinand // 147
57. Love Is All // 147
58. The Strokes // 147
59. Lupe Fiasco // 147
60. Arctic Monkeys // 146
61. Bonnie ‘Prince’ Billy // 145
62. Fever Ray // 141
63. No Age // 141
64. Pearl Jam // 138
65. Nouvelle Vague // 137
66. Jose Gonzalez // 137
67. Rilo Kiley // 136
68. Wavves // 133
69. Clipse // 133
70. Regina Spektor // 133
71. M.I.A. // 131
72. Daft Punk // 130
73. El Perro del Mar // 130
74. Miles Benjamin Anthony Robinson // 126
75. Elliott Smith // 124
76. Bloc Party // 122
77. Serge Gainsbourg // 122
78. Tilly and the Wall // 121
79. The Magic Numbers // 121
80. Conor Oberst // 120
81. Damien Rice // 120
82. Beastie Boys // 118
83. Real Estate // 117
84. Fiona Apple // 116
85. Girls // 115
86. U2 // 115
87. Red Hot Chili Peppers // 113
88. Architecture in Helsinki // 111
89. The Hold Steady // 109
90. Man Man // 109
91. Beirut // 108
92. Grizzly Bear // 105
93. The New Yorker // 105
94. Cat Power // 104
95. The Tough Alliance // 103
96. Beck // 103
97. Shearwater // 103
98. HEALTH // 102
99. Deer Tick // 101
100. AA Bondy // 100
I began using last.fm back late in my undergraduate years around the time I started to get “serious” about music, so it’s interesting to see some of the remnants of my Top-40 radio listening years — some of which I haven’t listened to in ages — creep into the Top Artists list. Obviously the embarrassing entries are there (*cough cough* #44 *cough cough*), but even more telling is how low some of my all-time favorite acts rank. Although Sunset Rubdown is present in the top 5, The Knife comes in at an unthinkably low #26 (considering how many records of theirs I have) and even more surprising is the fact that Electrelane — arguably my favorite band of all-time — is at a near bottom dwelling #55.
As the Top 10 goes, it’s tough for me to not exude my love affair with Ryan Adams and (early) Bright Eyes. Both artists had a handful of factors contributing to their ridiculous amount of plays: 1) They were both mildly responsible for my shift to listening to “better” music, 2) Early on, I had them on constant rotation, and 3) Some of their albums have remarkable staying power. The rest of the top ten list is, in my opinion, pretty straightforward composing of a lot of music-lover favorites from the 1990s and 2000s.
To give you some mp3s, here are a handful of my most played tracks from over the years:
Tags: Bright Eyes, Kanye West, last.fm, Lil' Wayne, mp3, of Montreal, Radiohead, Ryan Adams, Stars, Sunset Rubdown, The Mountain Goats, Wilco